Hungry and Rational: Preference Shifts and Rationality under Food Deprivation – Jan Krause

Speaker

Jan Krause (Kiel Institute)

Abstract

Previous field studies suggested that scarcity could increase rationality in decision-making. We systematically investigate this hypothesis in a controlled lab experiment that manipulates short-term food scarcity. Our experiment examines multiple facets of rationality across the core domains of decision-making, i.e., risk, time, and social preferences. We find that food deprivation increases both goal rationality — by sharpening material outcome orientation — and normative rationality — by reducing probability weighting, loss aversion, and decision noise, thereby enhancing focus and decision consistency while leaving underlying attitudes, such as self-interest, largely unaffected.

Authors

Jan Krause (Kiel Institute) – Ulrich Schmidt (Kiel Institute, CAU Kiel) — Lukas Baumann (Kiel Institute, CAU Kiel)

Room

Media Room (A-211)