We investigate how the experience of extreme events, such as the COVID-19 market crash, influence risk-taking behavior. To isolate changes in risk-taking from other factors, we ran controlled experiments with finance professionals in December 2019 and March 2020. We observe that their investments in the experiment were 12 percent lower in March 2020 than in December 2019, although their price expectations had not changed, and although they considered the experimental asset less risky during the crash than before. This lower perceived risk is likely due to adaptive normalization, as volatility during the shock is compared to volatility experienced in real markets (which was low in December 2019, but very high in March 2020). Lower investments during the crash can be supported by higher risk aversion, not by changes in beliefs.

我们调查极端事件（例如 COVID-19 市场崩盘）的经历如何影响冒险行为。为了将风险承担的变化与其他因素分开，我们在 2019 年 12 月和 2020 年 3 月对金融专业人士进行了对照实验。我们观察到，他们在 2020 年 3 月的实验投资比 2019 年 12 月低 12%，尽管他们的价格预期没有改变，尽管他们认为实验资产在崩溃期间的风险比以前低。这种较低的感知风险可能是由于适应性正常化，因为冲击期间的波动性与实际市场的波动性相比（2019 年 12 月较低，但 2020 年 3 月非常高）。崩溃期间较低的投资可以由更高的风险规避来支持，而不是由信念的变化来支持。