“I” make you risk-averse: The effect of first-person pronoun use in a lottery choice experiment

Abstract

Does repeated exposure to the first-person pronoun “I” influence people’s attitudes toward risk? In a lottery-choice experiment, I directly manipulate the use of the pronoun “I” in two treatment conditions: “I,” in which the pronoun is included, and “No I,” in which it is omitted. I find that subjects in the “I” treatment condition appear to be more risk-averse than those in the “No I” treatment, suggesting a simple and cheap but effective way for policymakers and practitioners to mount interventions.