Krzysztof Przybyszewski, Centre for Market Psychology of L. Kozminski Academy of Entrepreneurship Management
Tadeusz Tyszka, Centre for Market Psychology of L. Kozminski Academy of Entrepreneurship Management, Institute of Psychology, PAN
Hanna Ulatowska, Callier Center for Communication Disorders University of Texas at Dallas
William K. Spence, Callier Center for Communication Disorders University of Texas at Dallas

ABSTRACT

This research focuses on how people evaluate proverbs as recommendations about risk taking. In Study 1 we found that each of the proverbs presented without a context activated its favorite context. In Study 2 we discovered that when a scenario involved risk, the advice given in proverbs was not rated very high. We also found that the acceptance of advice given in antonymous proverbs was inconsistent. In Study 3 it was found that the rating of a proverb without any context was typically better than the rating of the same proverb when a context was provided. It was also found that the advice given by a proverb was rated no higher than was a direct recommendation. The inconsistency of ratings was found to be higher for proverbs than for direct recommendations, and (2) for the proverbs in the context of concrete scenarios than for the same proverbs given without any scenario.