Poverty leads to the desire to change, and wealth leads to the desire for stability: The impact of perceived money scarcity and abundance on individual risk decision-making

Abstract: Money, as an important resource that can fulfill people’s material and spiritual needs, is closely related to everyone. Does perceiving oneself as poor or rich have an impact on risk decision-making? Currently, research on the influence of perceived scarcity (abundance) of money on risk decision-making is very limited at a relative level, and the psychological mechanisms by which perceived scarcity (abundance) of money affects risk decision-making are still unclear. The objective of this study is to determine the psychological mechanism by which money perception affects risk decision-making from the perspectives of relative scarcity and relative abundance. We will reveal the impact of perceived money scarcity and abundance on individual risk decision-making through laboratory and field experiments, cross-temporal tracking empirical research, and eye movement behavioral experiments. Based on these experiments, the impact of perceived money scarcity and abundance on high- or low-risk decision-making (risk perception, expected return, risk choice) will be tested. At the psychological mechanism level, this study seeks to clarify the cognitive (the mediating role of cognitive biases, cognitive reflections, and executive control) and emotional (the mediating role of specific emotions related to perceived scarcity and abundance of money) mechanisms by which perceived money scarcity and abundance influence risk decision-making under different money perception scenarios.