`Let me dream on!' Anticipatory emotions and preference for timing in lotteries

Frans A.A.M. van Winden, Martin Kocher and Michal Krawczyk

No 7715, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: We analyze one of the explanations why people participate in lotteries. Our hypothesis stipulates that part of the value that a unit of money buys in lotteries is consumed before the actual resolution in the form of emotions such as hope. In other words, a person holding a lottery ticket may prefer a delayed resolution of risk due to positive anticipatory emotions. This conjecture is tested in an experiment with real lottery tickets. We show that our theoretical considerations may contribute to explaining empirical puzzles associated with lottery participation, timing of resolution and the spreading of drawings. More specifically, we find that a substantial number of participants prefer delayed resolution, that anticipated thrill is the main variable explaining this choice, that emotions actually experienced during the waiting period are indeed predominantly positive and correlated with predictions. Finally, we find that a great majority prefers to `spread' chances, that is, to obtain one ticket for each of two drawings rather than two for the same drawing.

Keywords: Lotteries; Anticipation; Experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 D81 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010-02
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://cepr.org/publications/DP7715 (application/pdf)
CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org

Related works:
Journal Article: ‘Let me dream on!’ Anticipatory emotions and preference for timing in lotteries (2014)
Working Paper: 'Let me dream on!' Anticipatory emotions and preference for timing in lotteries (2014)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:7715

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
https://cepr.org/publications/DP7715

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers Centre for Economic Policy Research, 33 Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DX.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().