An individual's attitude toward risk is often measured by their behavioral tendency in risky situations. However, commonly used self-report measures of risk attitudes often do not explicitly specify “risk” in all the items, which results in an unsystematic mix of both perceived uncertainty and risk (as loss). Thus, an individual's endorsement of those items can vary as a function of not only the latent construct of attitudes toward risk, but also factors including prior knowledge and affective reaction to uncertainty. Two studies were carried out to examine the extent to which participants perceive behavioral tendency items as entailing uncertainty or risk (as loss) and how behavioral tendency can be influenced by prior knowledge. Results indicate that endorsement of behavioral tendency was significantly greater when “risk” information was implicit when compared with items that had explicit information to contextualize the uncertainty or risk. Furthermore, prior knowledge had a significantly stronger influence on the endorsement of items in which risk information was implicit than on the explicit uncertainty/risk items. Finally, uncertainty and risk in the items appeared to influence behavioral tendency significantly via emotional responses to the items. This research highlights the need for researchers to more adequately control for different sources of variability when measuring the desired construct of attitude toward risk.

中文翻译：

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对风险和不确定性的态度：主观知识和影响的作用

个人对风险的态度通常通过他们在危险情况下的行为倾向来衡量。然而，常用的风险态度的自我报告措施通常没有在所有项目中明确指定“风险”，这导致感知不确定性和风险（作为损失）的非系统性混合。因此，个人对这些项目的认可不仅取决于对风险态度的潜在结构，还取决于包括先验知识和对不确定性的情感反应在内的因素。进行了两项研究，以检查参与者将行为倾向项目视为带来不确定性或风险（作为损失）的程度以及行为倾向如何受到先验知识的影响。结果表明，与具有明确信息以将不确定性或风险背景化的项目相比，当“风险”信息是隐含的时，对行为倾向的认可显着更多。此外，先验知识对隐含风险信息的项目的认可比对明确的不确定性/风险项目有更大的影响。最后，项目中的不确定性和风险似乎通过对项目的情绪反应显着影响行为倾向。这项研究强调了研究人员在衡量对风险态度的理想结构时需要更充分地控制不同的可变性来源。先验知识对隐含风险信息的项目的认可比对明确的不确定性/风险项目有更大的影响。最后，项目中的不确定性和风险似乎通过对项目的情绪反应显着影响行为倾向。这项研究强调了研究人员在衡量对风险态度的理想结构时需要更充分地控制不同的可变性来源。先验知识对隐含风险信息的项目的认可比对明确的不确定性/风险项目有更大的影响。最后，项目中的不确定性和风险似乎通过对项目的情绪反应显着影响行为倾向。这项研究强调了研究人员在衡量对风险态度的理想结构时需要更充分地控制不同的可变性来源。