Tendency for people to ignore the fact that all money is the same (see Mental accounting).
The task uses slightly modified versions of the two theater ticket questions in Tversky and Kahneman (1981). Participants are asked to make a hypothetical binary choice between going to the theater or not when they had already decided to go but either lost the ticket (first question) or the money (second question) with which they had intended to buy the ticket.
1. Imagine that you have decided to watch a play that costs SEK 100. When you enter the theatre to buy the ticket you discover that you have lost a SEK 100 bill. Will you still pay SEK 100 to watch the play?
Yes
No
2. Now imagine that you have decided to watch a play and that you have already bought a ticket for SEK 100. When you enter the theatre you discover that you have lost the ticket. It is impossible to get a refund for the lost ticket. Would you buy a new ticket for SEK 100?
Yes
No
Participants who gave answers that are incompatible with fungibility ("yes" to one question 1 and "no" to question 2) are coded as biased.
Cesarini, D., Johannesson, M., Magnusson, P. K. E., & Wallace, B. (2012). The behavioral genetics of behavioral anomalies. Management Science, 58(1), 21–34.