Cognition, optimism and the formation of age-dependent survival beliefs

Nils Grevenbrock, Max Groneck, Alexander Ludwig and Alexander Zimper

No 18-015, ZEW Discussion Papers from ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research

Abstract: This paper investigates the roles psychological biases play in empirically estimated deviations between subjective survival beliefs (SSBs) and objective survival probabilities (OSPs). We model deviations between SSBs and OSPs through age-dependent inverse S-shaped probability weighting functions (PWFs), as documented in experimental prospect theory. Our estimates suggest that the implied measures for cognitive weakness, likelihood insensitivity, and those for motivational biases, relative pessimism, increase with age. We document that direct measures of cognitive weakness and motivational attitudes share these trends. Our regression analyses confirm that these factors play strong quantitative roles in the formation of subjective survival beliefs. In particular, cognitive weakness is an increasingly important contributor to the overestimation of survival chances in old age.

Keywords: Subjective Survival Beliefs; Probability Weighting Function; Confirmatory Bias; Cognition; Optimism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D12 D83 I10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age, nep-neu and nep-upt
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/177285/1/1018509518.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: COGNITION, OPTIMISM, AND THE FORMATION OF AGE‐DEPENDENT SURVIVAL BELIEFS (2021)
Working Paper: Cognition, Optimism and the Formation of Age-Dependent Survival Beliefs (2020)
Working Paper: Cognition, Optimism and the Formation of Age-Dependent Survival Beliefs (2020)
Working Paper: Cognition, optimism and the formation of age-dependent survival beliefs (2020)
Working Paper: Cognition, Optimism and the Formation of Age-Dependent Survival Beliefs (2018)
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