Impact of Loss-Framing and Risk Attitudes on Insurance Purchase: Insights from a Game-like Interface Study

Abstract

This study investigates the impact of loss-framing and individual risk attitude on willingness- to purchase insurance products utilizing a game-like interface as choice architecture. The application presents events as experienced in real life. Both financial and emotional loss-framing events are followed by choices to purchase insurance. The participant cohorts considered were undergraduate students and older participants; the latter group was further subdivided by income and education. The within-subject analysis reveals that the loss framing effect on insurance consumption is higher in the younger population, though contingent on the insurance product type. Health and accident insurance shows a negative correlation with risk attitudes for younger participants and a positive correlation with accident insurance for older participants. Risk attitude and life insurance products showed no dependency. The findings elucidate the role of age, income, family responsibilities, and risk attitude in purchasing insurance products. Importantly, it confirms the heuristics of framing/nudging.