In a comprehensive experimental study, we explore intrinsic preferences for various types of uncertainty resolution. We focus on gradual information revelation with different skewness (positive, negative, symmetric) and demonstrate that intrinsic skewness preferences depend on the chosen information environment. In a typical ‘compound lottery’ environment non-skewed information revelation is the most preferred option. In an equivalent ‘information structure’ environment, most participants prefer positively skewed information revelation.  Our experimental subjects also evaluate early and late resolution, and state preferences for all pair-wise comparisons. By this integrated set-up our study provides a complete picture of intrinsic preferences for information revelation, connecting previous studies that have focused on specific facets of the phenomenon. We discuss for a number of decision theories which allow the timing of non-instrumental information revelation to influence preferences whether they can explain the overall preference patterns observed in our experiment.

Co_authors: Thomas Langer; Sven Nolte; Judith C. Schneider

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