RAPID: Collaborative Research: The Impact of Trauma on Economic Preferences

在这个RAPID项目中，首席调查员将通过在阿富汗进行经济实验，研究战争暴力造成的创伤对风险规避和其他经济态度的影响。研究小组的初步结果显示，住在爆炸地点附近的阿富汗人，在准备回忆起可怕事件时，愿意为经济上的取舍付出比主流经济学理论预测的要高得多的代价。本项目将扩展这项工作，以研究创伤对影响经济行为的所有“五大”核心因素的影响：对风险的容忍度、耐心和时间贴现、社会偏好、竞争倾向和战略成熟度。经济态度的这些变化可能使个人远离原本有益的经济机会，并在全社会范围内损害复苏的前景。就更广泛的影响而言，这项研究将揭示遭受暴力如何极大地影响个人经济决策的许多方面。该项目还将试图证明简单的经济工具作为经济学家和决策者识别潜在风险个人的诊断工具的潜力，特别是在转型经济中。虽然这些实验是在阿富汗人身上进行的，但这些实验可能会揭示创伤对任何接触暴力的人的影响，包括美国军人和暴力犯罪的受害者。更广泛地说，这项工作可能显示经济态度的转变，这可能对饱受战争蹂躏的社会的发展和经济增长前景产生影响。

In this RAPID project, the Principal Investigators will examine the effects of trauma from the violence of war on risk aversion and other economic attitudes by conducting economic experiments in Afghanistan. The team has preliminary results showing that Afghans who live near a bombing site, when primed to recall a fearful event, are willing to pay far more for certainty in an economic trade-off than is predicted by mainstream economic theory. This project will extend this work to examine the effects of trauma on all of the "Big 5" core factors that significantly shape economic behavior: tolerance for risk, patience and time discounting, social preferences, competitive propensity, and strategic sophistication. These changes in economic attitude can turn individuals away from otherwise beneficial economic opportunities and, society-wide, harm prospects for recovery.In terms of broader impacts, this research will reveal how exposure to violence can dramatically influence many aspects of an individual's economic decision making. The project will also attempt to demonstrate the potential for simple economic instruments to act as diagnostic tools for economists and policy makers to identify potentially at-risk individuals, especially in transitional economies. While conducted with Afghans, these experiments may shed light on the effects of trauma on anyone exposed to violence, including members of the U.S. military and victims of violent crime. More broadly, this work may show shifts in economic attitudes that can have implications for the development and economic growth prospects of war-torn societies.