Rationality spillovers

We design an experiment to test whether the rationality that is induced by market-like discipline spills over to nonmarket valuation settings-a rationality spillover. Our results confirm that this new phenomenon exists. The rationality stimulated by market-like discipline extends to the nonmarket setting, and these spillover effects are robust even when the nonmarket setting involves hypothetical choices and environmental lotteries. We observe that people stop reversing their preferences for lotteries by revising downward their stated values to buy and sell high-risk lotteries; they do not change their preference ordering. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science (USA). All rights reserved.