monoamine oxidase a gene (maoa) associated with attitude towards longshot risks单胺氧化酶基因(maoa)周密与态度有关的风险.pdfVIP

Monoamine Oxidase A Gene (MAOA) Associated with Attitude Towards Longshot Risks 1 2 3 2,4 1,5 Songfa Zhong , Salomon Israel , Hong Xue , Richard P. Ebstein , Soo Hong Chew * 1 Center for Experimental Business Research and Department of Economics, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Kowloon, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, 2 Scheinfeld Center of Human Genetics for Social Sciences, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel, 3 Applied Genomics Laboratory and Department of Biochemistry, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, 4 Herzog Memorial Hospital, Givat Shaul, Jerusalem, Israel, 5 Department of Economics and Department of Finance, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore Abstract Decision making often entails longshot risks involving a small chance of receiving a substantial outcome. People tend to be risk preferring (averse) when facing longshot risks involving significant gains (losses). This differentiation towards longshot risks underpins the markets for lottery as well as for insurance. Both lottery and insurance have emerged since ancient times and continue to play a useful role in the modern economy. In this study, we observe subjects’ incentivized choices in a controlled laboratory setting, and investigate their association with a widely studied, promoter-region repeat functional polymorphism in monoamine oxidase A gene (MAOA). We find that subjects with the high activity (4-repeat) allele are characterized by a preference for the longshot lottery and also less insurance purchasing than subjects with the low activity (3-repeat) allele. This is the first result to link attitude towa