The Risk Attitudes of Professional Athletes: Optimism and Success are Related

Han Bleichrodt, Olivier L’haridon () and David van Ass ()
Additional contact information
Olivier L’haridon: CREM - Centre de recherche en économie et management - UNICAEN - Université de Caen Normandie - NU - Normandie Université - UR - Université de Rennes - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
David van Ass: Department of Applied Economics - Erasmus University Rotterdam, Erasmus School of Economics - Erasmus University Rotterdam
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Olivier L'Haridon

Post-Print from HAL

Abstract: This paper studies whether measured risk attitudes and athletic success are related. We measured the risk preferences of the players of the Dutch men's field hockey team, the reigning European champions, and runners‐up in the 2012 Olympics and in the 2014 World Championships, andcompared those with a matched sample of recreational hockey players. We had the rare opportunity to interview each professional individually. Our measurements were based on prospect theory. We disentangled the various components of risk attitudes using a parameter‐free method that makes it possible to completely observe prospect theory without imposing simplifying assumptions and that captures individual heterogeneity. The professionals were more optimistic for gains than the nonprofessionals: they overweighted the probability of winning compared with the non‐professional group. Utility curvature (diminishing sensitivity) and loss aversion were very close in the two groups. As probabilities were given, the difference in optimism was not due to inaccurate beliefs. It was also unrelated to differences in overconfidence or in venturesomeness and impulsivity, two psychological traits associated with risk taking. Our findings indicate that success in sports may be related to differences in optimism. They are consistent with previous findings that optimistic people are more successful and that optimism may be associated with better outcomes.

Keywords: Risk; optimism; prospect theory; sport psychology (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Published in Decision, 2018, 5 (2), pp.95-118. ⟨10.1037/dec0000067⟩

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
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:hal:journl:halshs-01354816

DOI: 10.1037/dec0000067

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Post-Print from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD ().