Hot Hand Belief and Gambler’s Fallacy in Teams: Evidence from Investment Experiments

Stöckl, Thomas; Huber, Jürgen; Kirchler, Michael; Lindner, Florian (2013): Hot Hand Belief and Gambler’s Fallacy in Teams: Evidence from Investment Experiments. Working Papers in Economics and Statistics,

Abstract

In laboratory experiments we explore the effects of communication and group decision making on investment behavior and on subjects� proneness to behavioral biases. Most importantly, we show that communication and group decision making does not impact subjects� overall proneness to biases like gambler�s fallacy and hot hand belief. However, groups decide differently than individuals as they rely significantly less on useless outside advice from �experts� and choose the risk-free option less frequently. Finally, we document gender differences in investment behavior: groups of two female subjects choose the risk-free investment more often and are slightly more prone to the hot hand belief than groups of two male subjects.

• Item Type: Paper (Discussion Paper)
• Faculties: Economics; Economics > Chairs > Chair of Empirical Economics
• Subjects: 300 Social sciences > 330 Economics
• Language: English