Table 5 Table of papers included in the review, with basic details including research area, design, research question, type of data, and factor(s) identified
Ref. # | Author | Year | Research Area | Designa | Research Questiona | Type of Data | Factor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
[35] | Ajzen | 2004 | Behavioural economics | Respondents to a survey were asked their willingness to pay for a certain good (contribute to a scholarship fund) in a hypothetical or contingent market. | The study explored the reasons for hypothetical bias. Secondary aim was examining the effect of a corrective entreaty on bias. | Empirical | Normative beliefs |
[66] | Anselme | 2015 | Behavioural economics | Review argues that risk is only present if the consequences affect on resources (lack of reward is not enough). | The occasional and unpredictable absence of reward is a negative consequence interpreted as risk. | Review | Real consequences |
[43] | Barkan | 2016 | Behavioural economics | Five experiments where participants were randomly assigned the role of chooser (treated as real choice) or adviser (treated as hypothetical choice). Examined difference between behaviours when acting as a chooser vs. adviser. | Hypothesize choosers will experience more curiosity than they predict others will have as advisers. Choosers will purchase the costly and useless information, while acting as advisers they will recommend against this action. In hypothetical situation chooser and adviser behaviour will be more similar. | Empirical | Real consequences; abstract construals |
[58] | Beattie | 1997 | Behavioural economics | Common ratio effect, anticipated regret, behaviour toward a particular form of multi-stage gamble. Hypothetical, random problem selection procedure, and real settings. | How far and in what ways do incentives, or lack of incentives, influence responses. | Empirical | Salience of/ concern with the decision |
[81] | Bickel | 2010 | Behavioural economics; health | Hypothetical delay discounting task and possibility to earn vouchers for consecutive negative urine analysis. | They examined delay discounting measures in predicting whether an opioid-dependent earning voucher in a clinical trial would be redeemed frequently or not, and if delay discounting predicted the voucher redemption rates. | Empirical | Matching procedures |
[53] | Blumenschein | 2001 | Behavioural economics; health | Both hypothetical and real groups received a valuation question about their willingness to pay for an asthma management program. If they said yes, they were asked about their degree of certainty. The real group could purchase the program. | They conducted a field experiment of hypothetical versus real willingness to pay for a health care good. | Empirical | Certainty |
[55] | Blumenschein | 1998 | Behavioural economics | Hypothetical then real, or only real; question about purchasing sunglasses. Hypothetical question was followed by probably sure or definitely sure. Real group offered option to purchase. | An experiment comparing the dichotomous choice contingent valuation method with real decisions for a consumer good. | Empirical | Certainty |
[13] | Bostyn | 2018 | Moral reasoning | Two samples from the same student population: a group of students completed a real-life version of the mouse dilemma, while a second group completed a hypothetical version of the same dilemma. | They studied differences in the classic trolley dilemma using real mice receiving a shock. Examined anti-social personality traits in relation to hypothetical and real choice. | Empirical; hypothesis | Personality traits; social desirability |
[36] | Camerer | 1999 | Behavioural economics | Review of 74 studies in relation to financial incentives. | They summarize the results of 74 studies comparing behavior of experimental subjects who were paid zero, low or high financial incentives in both real and hypothetical studies. | Review | Social desirability |
[37] | Camerer | 2017 | Neuroscience | Review compares evidence of mental processes during real and hypothetical choices. | They evaluate evidence of differences in hypothetical and real behavior and brain activity in five areas: social, moral, emotional, economic choice, and vision. | Review | Real consequences; matching procedures; social desirability; emotional forecasting |
[38] | Ceccato | 2018 | Social psychology | They investigate the relationship between perceived stress and social preferences in a 2x2x2x2 anonymous dictator game. They manipulated the gender of the sender and recipient, the frame (give vs. take), and the nature of the reward (real or hypothetical money). | They hypothesize that chronic stress is positively related to both real and hypothetical money transfers. | Hypothesis | Social desirability |
[39] | Chapman | 2004 | Behavioural psychology; health psychology | Summary of literature related to the psychology of medical decision making in six areas. | One area reviewed was whether decisions in hypothetical questionnaire scenarios are related to real-world health behavior. | Review | Emotional forecasting; matching procedures |
[31] | Day | 1998 | Behavioural psychology | Standardized measures of personality and Kohlberg’s moral maturity. Asked to distribute money among 4 people. Relevant groups: hypothetical, real people fake money (play), and real. | The goals of the study were to evaluate aspects of Kohlberg’s model, and to examine one alternative—the interaction additive/inclusive model. | Empirical | Openness to experience; salience of/ concern with the decision |
[84] | Dixon | 2013 | Behavioural psychology | Participants made choices between varying real amounts of money and a fixed delayed amount. | The study examined whether actual and hypothetical delays have similar effects on delay discounting. Also compared the discounting of hypothetical and real monetary rewards. | Empirical | Matching procedures |
[14] | Eastwick | 2013 | Social psychology | Review of three perspectives that may help determine when a study will be externally valid. | They draw from existing psychological theories to predict differences between laboratory research and externally valid, field-like research. | Review | Abstract construals; deliberative mindset; emotional forecasting |
[76] | Ebbesen | 1980 | Behavioural psychology | Review and discussion of studies comparing decision making in the laboratory to decision making in real life in four areas: bail setting, sentencing of adult felons, automobile driver behavior, and judging swine. | They state that many current models of decision making are based on evidence from laboratory experiments where a limited set of simulated decision problems have been used. | Review | Matching procedures |
[57] | Etchart-Vincent | 2011 | Behavioural economics | Binary lottery versus sure amount. Conditions included: real losses, hypothetical losses, losses from endowment, real versus hypothetical gains. | The study aimed to systematically explore whether subjects’ risk aversion over losses depends on the payment scheme, including real vs. hypothetical gains. | Empirical | Salience of/ concern with the decision |
[20] | FeldmanHall | 2012 | Social psychology; neuroscience | Subjects were asked about their willingness to receive money by causing pain to another subject in hypothetical and real (but actually fake) settings. Used fMRI to see whether the same neural areas were activated. | They hypothesized that their moral conflict would provide an ideal method to examine the behavioral and neural differences between intentions and actions. | Empirical | Salience of / concern with the decision |
[18] | FeldmanHall | 2012 | Behavioural psychology | Two studies where they compared decisions in real and hypothetical conditions by asking participants whether they would be willing to spend money to prevent harm to another person. The second study increased the richness of hypothetical contextual cues. | They aimed to investigate moral decision-making in situations where harm to another person and personal gain act in opposition, and examine how this moral tension was resolved in hypothetical and real contexts. | Empirical | Space for mental simulation |
[21] | Galotti | 1989 | Reasoning | Literature review examining three approaches to the study of reasoning that extend beyond one specific task: the componential approach, the rules/heuristics approach, and the mental models/ search approach. | Purpose is to assess the strengths and weaknesses of three approaches in accounting for performance in a variety of contexts and on a variety of tasks, both laboratory and every day. | Hypothesis | Thinking dispositions |
[75] | Gold | 2014 | Behavioural psychology | Two studies using real and hypothetical variants of the trolley dilemma. Compared British to Chinese participants | They operationalize a version of the trolley problem in which the harms are small but meaningful economic losses, and compare the actual and hypothetical choice behavior of British and Chinese samples. | Empirical | Matching samples |
[63] | Gold | 2015 | Behavioural psychology | 2 × 2 design. Footbridge vs. Side-track and actor vs observer. Actors made decisions that influenced the amount of money to donate to an orphanage in Northern Uganda and observers told the investigators what decision the actor should take. | They investigated whether there were behavioral differences between different trolley problems, what the patterns of moral judgments were in real-life trolley problems, and if behavior corresponds to moral judgments. | Empirical | Fundamental attribution error |
[33] | Grebitus | 2013 | Behavioural economics | 2 × 2 design. Hypothetical and non-hypothetical choices. Products were apples and wine. | They examined whether personality predicts behavior in hypothetical and non-hypothetical choice experiments and auctions. | Empirical | Personality traits |
[56] | Hainmueller | 2015 | Social psychology | Compared five different vignette types asking participants about whether they would accept the potential immigrant described. Compared results to real-world naturalization referendums. | They examined whether a survey experimental design would be similar to the behavioral benchmark and if there was important variation in the performance of the various designs. | Empirical | Salience of/ concern with the decision; matching samples |
[60] | Harrison | 2005 | Behavioural economics | Review of studies that considered hypothetical bias over uncertain outcomes. | Paper reviews evidence for whether estimates of risk attitudes defined over monetary outcomes suffer from hypothetical bias. | Review | Explicit statements of uncertainty; high stakes rewards |
[52] | Harrison | 2008 | Behavioural economics | Book chapter reviews studies that considered hypothetical bias in value elicitation methods. | They review experimental results that support hypothetical valuation exceeding real valuation. They examine two bodies of literature. | Review | Certainty; real consequences |
[68] | Hinvest | 2010 | Behavioural economics | Delay discounting: Eight blocks of 30 binary choice trials (4 real, 4 hypothetical) with probability discounting (wheel of fortune). | They explored the effect of real versus hypothetical reward on choice behavior using real-time delay discounting and probability discounting tasks. | Empirical | Real consequences |
[45] | Holt | 2002 | Behavioural economics | Lottery choices. Participants were presented with paired lottery choices in real payoff and hypothetical conditions. | They present subjects with simple choice tasks to estimate the degree of risk aversion and specific functional forms. | Empirical | Risk aversion |
[46] | Holt | 2005 | Behavioural economics | Lottery choices. Two groups: 1. Real low-payment followed by real high-payment. Second group only did one lottery choice menu (low/high-real/hypo) | They replicate finding that the order effect (participating in a low-payment choice before making a high-payment choice) magnifies the scale effect. Then eliminate the order effect in a subsequent study. | Empirical | Risk aversion |
[22] | Irwin | 1992 | Behavioural economics | Vickrey auction; 1% chance of a $40.00 loss. Hypothetical and real money groups. Length of experiment was varied to test for effects of boredom. | They presented subjects with an objective risk, over a number of trials, with feedback and consequences dependent on behavior to test the effect of reward type only. They also varied the task length, to see if boredom effects of hypothetical rewards became pronounced in longer experiments. | Empirical | Salience of/ concern with the decision |
[41] | Joel | 2015 | Social psychology | Two studies. Single participants were given the option to accept or reject a potential date in what they believed to be either a hypothetical or a real-life context. | They hypothesized that people making decisions about whether to accept or reject a potential romantic partner are influenced by their desire to avoid causing that person harm, and that people underestimate this source of influence. | Empirical | Emotional forecasting |
[54] | Johannesson | 1999 | Behavioural economics | Data from dichotomous choice experiments, real and hypothetical (chocolates and sunglasses). | They present a method for identifying a subset for which hypothetical yes responses represent real yes responses. | Empirical | Certainty |
[72] | Johansson-Stenman | 2012 | Behavioural economics | Choice experiment using real and hypothetical decisions for moral (donation to WWF) and amoral (restaurant voucher) goods, selected at random to be replicated in a real setting. | They develop and test a theoretical model aimed at explaining variations of hypothetical bias in other studies. | Empirical | Self-image |
[74] | Johnson | 2018 | Social psychology | Three studies testing how dispatch information and police experience impact the decision to shoot. Compared decisions of police with students. | They used the drift diffusion model to outline different mechanisms by which race, dispatch information, and police experience could impact the decision to shoot. | Empirical | Matching procedures; matching samples |
[78] | Johnson | 2002 | Behavioural economics | Within subject measure of delay discounting for hypothetical and (potentially) real rewards. Monetary rewards, greater magnitudes than previously used in the literature. | They measured delay discounting of real and hypothetical rewards using both exponential and hyperbolic decay models to describe the data. | Empirical | Matching procedures |
[40] | Kang | 2013 | Behavioural economics | Fifty aversive food items. Rated familiarity with foods, bid to purchase the right not to eat the food in hypothetical and real contexts. | Their goal was to see if there was distinct neural valuation during hypothetical and real choices. | Empirical | Emotional forecasting |
[73] | Kesternich | 2013 | Behavioural economics | Online survey asking to older participants to choose between insurance contracts and compared to real choices. Varied prices. | They investigated whether hypothetical choice experiments can answer questions during the design phase of a program. | Empirical | Matching samples |
[67] | Klein | 2019 | Behavioural economics | Review: raters classified studies into fully consequential choice, partially consequential choice, hypothetical choice, and non-choice task. Experiment: compares the first three choice classes in the same setting. | They tested for hypothetical bias in fully consequential, partially consequential, and hypothetical choices to understand whether having the possibility to consume the product alters choices. | Review; empirical | Real consequences |
[19] | Kuhberger | 2002 | Behavioural economics | Two studies using a gambling paradigm. Varied positive and negative framing in real and hypothetical conditions. | Examined specific criteria where hypothetical situations can be used instead of real ones. | Empirical | Emotional forecasting |
[79] | Lagorio | 2005 | Behavioural economics | Participant presented with both real and hypothetical rewards to purchase snacks from the researchers, both immediately and after a delay. | Examined delay discounting of real and hypothetical consumables. | Empirical | Matching procedures |
[80] | Lawyer | 2011 | Behavioural economics | Compared probability and delay discounting rates and patterns of non-systematic response in hypothetical and potentially real conditions with non-substance abusing and substance dependent individuals. | The purpose of the study was to compare patterns of delay and probability discounting in two samples (substance dependent and not dependent). | Empirical | Matching procedures |
[62] | Levin | 1988 | Behavioural economics | Gambling task, asked to evaluate gambles based on likelihood of picking a task and confidence in that judgment. Probability and/or payoff information was given. Positive and negative conditions. Hypothetical and Real. | The goals the study were to: (1) to examine how confidence in judgments is affected by the absence of information; (2) to compare conditions where subjects are or are not required to make explicit inferences; (3) to replicate and extend earlier results of frame effects; and (4) to examine the external validity in a real context. | Empirical | Framing effect |
[71] | List | 2001 | Behavioural economics | Meta-analysis examining evidence pertaining to the effects of various experimental protocols on the calibration factors related to hypothetical bias. | They examine various questions related to hypothetical bias, contingent valuation, willingness-to-pay/accept, elicitation methods, benefits of within-subjects designs, lab vs field experiments, and public vs private goods. | Review | Self-image |
[50] | Little | 2004 | Behavioural economics | Meta-analysis examining conditions that influence discrepancies between real and stated values. | They updated and expanded a meta-analysis to identify the conditions that may influence the disparity between actual and stated values. | Review | Certainty |
[32] | Lonnqvist | 2011 | Behavioural economics | Incentivized and hypothetical prisoner’s dilemma game. | They investigated the effect of incentives on research outcomes, by focusing on the big five personality determinants of incentivized or hypothetical behaviour in the prisoner’s dilemma game. | Empirical | Openness to experience; personality traits |
[77] | Madden | 2003 | Behavioural economics | Participants were quasi-randomly assigned to complete a real or hypothetical reward system first. They chose between immediate or delayed rewards. | They sought to further explore the relation between reward type and rates of delay discounting. | Empirical | Matching procedures |
[82] | Madden | 2004 | Behavioural economics | Two experiments: (1) real rewards group given the amount they selected and hypothetical group received a flat rate. Choose between immediate and delayed rewards, and (2) with fewer choices to increase the proportion of real choices. | They sought to compare discounting rates when potentially real and hypothetical rewards were used in both between- and within-subjects methods. | Empirical | Matching procedures |
[30] | Mjelde | 2012 | Behavioural economics | Analysed data from three previously existing studies. Studies assessed people’s hypothetical and real willingness to pay by asking them if they were willing to make a donation. | The aim of the study was to (1) examine the relationship between discounting of real and hypothetical rewards; and (2) to examine the one-week test-retest reliability of these rewards. | Empirical | Age; education |
[12] | Morales | 2017 | Behavioural economics | Review paper looking at the the choice of independent variables along the experimental-realism dimension (artificial to real) and the choice of dependent variables along the behavioral-measures dimension (hypothetical intention to actual behavior). | They examined the importance and benefits of using realistic manipulations and measuring actual behavior, and discussed how researchers could increase the veracity and believability of their work using said methods. | Review | Matching procedures |
[23] | Morgenstern | 2013 | Behavioural economics | Study where participants play a lottery or receive a sure amount. EEG recordings taken. | They hypothesized that real choices in a lottery choice paradigm should provoke a more careful comparison process, and that they would observe a higher level of cognitive control for real decisions because they are more salient. | Empirical | Cognitive control |
[44] | Morkbak | 2014 | Behavioural economics | Choice experiment survey of preferences for apples using hypothetical and incentivized samples. | They explored potential differences in a choice experiment with real incentives and a hypothetical choice experiment by examining general preference structure, error variance, willingness-to-pay, and attribute non-attendance. | Empirical | Attribute non-attendance |
[69] | Müller | 2012 | Behavioural economics | Choice set options, familiar brands at realistic price levels. The scenario was that the participant had found options of varying price levels for an item they need, and they must choose one (or buy one in binding setting). | They examined the compromise effect using an experimental design that incorporates some basic conditions of real purchases (e.g. unforced decisions) to investigate whether the compromise effect differs across choice settings (hypothetical or binding/real choice). | Empirical | Matching procedures; real consequences |
[61] | Murphy | 2005 | Behavioural economics | Meta-analysis to assess bias in stated preference studies. | They attempt to evaluate the effect of different stated preference formats and other factors on the degree of hypothetical bias. | Review | High stakes rewards |
[51] | Murphy | 2004 | Behavioural economics | Commentary about the need to better understand hypothetical bias and review of the literature. | Although the presence of this bias is well documented, its underlying causes are not fully understood. Consequently, this paper highlights the need for a better understanding of the causes of this bias, and argues that future experimental research should focus on this issue. | Review | Certainty; real consequences; self-image |
[70] | Patil | 2014 | Moral reasoning | Text/virtual reality moral dilemmas. Four experimental settings (pitted the welfare of one individual against 2–3 individuals) and four control settings (controlled general differences across modalities). | Sought to examine how moral judgments translate into behavior. | Empirical | Space for mental simulation |
[65] | Sacco | 2017 | Health behaviours | Systematic review that examined outcomes of actual (N = 6) or intended (N = 5) food purchasing decisions or consumption. | The purpose was to assess whether menu labelling influences the amount of calories ordered by children and adolescents (or parents on behalf of youth) in food outlets including restaurants and cafeterias. | Review | Matching procedures; real consequences |
[59] | Scholl | 2015 | Neuroscience | Learning task, repeated choices between two options trying to minimize effort and maximise payoff. Three attributes of each choice: reward, effort, probability. Performed inside and outside an fMRI scanner. | They aimed to examine how contingencies are learned when an outcome has multiple components, only some of which should be learned. | Empirical | Salience of/ concern with the decision |
[83] | Silva | 2004 | Behavioural psychology | Two studies: (1) hypothetical money rewards were devalued by delaying their occurrence, students made choices between smaller immediate and larger delayed rewards, and (2) real academic rewards were devalued by requiring more effort for larger rewards. | They examined whether higher and lower scoring students differed in their choices for outcomes devalued either by delay (Study 1) or by effort (Study 2). | Empirical | Matching procedures |
[64] | Skoe | 2002 | Behavioural psychology | Asked respondents to rate the importance and difficulty of self-generated real moral dilemmas and three standardized hypothetical moral dilemmas. | The goal of the study was to examine the relationship of emotions with moral reasoning and the perceived importance of moral dilemmas. | Empirical | Personal relevance |
[24] | Slovic | 1969 | Behavioural economics | Duplex gamble. Subjects faced 18 pairs with a probability range of winning and losing. Hypothetical and Real money groups. | The study was designed as a direct test of the hypothesis that individuals decide to maximize hypothetical gains, but cautiously decide to minimize chance of losing and amount to lose when real money is at stake. | Empirical | Risk aversion |
[25] | Taylor | 2013 | Behavioural economics | Each subject made both real and hypothetical choices between gambles with varying probabilities and payoffs. Participants completed a cognitive test and questionnaire. | The study explored why some studies find that individuals are more tolerant of risk when making hypothetical choices than when making real choices. | Empirical | Cognitive ability |
[42] | Teper | 2015 | Behavioural psychology | Two studies that test dissociation between behaviours and forecasts with a math test on which participants have a chance to cheat or to forecast cheating. | Their goal was to further clarify why people’s moral actions do not always match their predictions by varying the intensity of the affective experience. | Empirical | Emotional forecasting |
[34] | Trevethan | 1989 | Behavioural psychology | Compared moral reasoning of incarcerated and non-incarcerated individuals along with antisocial personality scores. | They examined moral reasoning about hypothetical and real-life dilemmas from personal experience. They also examined stage of moral reasoning development and moral orientation. | Empirical | Personality traits |
[85] | van Nieuwenhuijzen | 2005 | Social psychology | Addressed social problem solving in hypothetical (15 video vignettes) and real-life (fishing game). Compared how children with intellectual disabilities and externalizing behaviour problems respond and behave compared to kids without externalizing behaviour problems. | They investigated the relationships between responses provided in hypothetical problematic situations and responses occurring in similar real-life situations. | Empirical | Matching procedures |
[49] | Verneau | 2017 | Behavioural economics | They used “food waste” as the target of participants’ implicit associations, and anti-waste certification as the target of participants’ willingness-to-pay. | They examined the effect of implicit associations on individuals’ behavior in hypothetical versus real auctions. | Empirical | Implicit associations |
[26] | Vlaev | 2012 | Behavioural economics | Prisoner’s Dilemma. Manipulated reality (incentivized or not) and context (by putting medium cooperativeness round in a series of lower or higher cooperativeness games). | They examine whether hypothetical and real social behaviours are plagued by similar cognitive biases stemming from perceptual and action processes. | Empirical | Certainty |
[47] | Xu | 2016 | Behavioural economics; neuroscience | Balloon analog risk task and EEG used to examine the effects of real and hypothetical monetary rewards on risk taking behavior among undergraduates. | They hypothesized that risk taking would show larger cerebral response to negative feedback during real monetary reward condition as compared to hypothetical reward condition. | Empirical | Risk aversion; real consequences |
[48] | Xu | 2018 | Behavioural economics; neuroscience | They used event-related potential and measured brain responses to risk taking and decision making during the balloon analog risk task with large and small hypothetical or real monetary rewards. | They hypothesized that the response to real monetary reward would be stronger than the response to hypothetical monetary reward after negative feedback (money loss). | Empirical | Risk aversion |