Recent decision-making research provides empirical evidence that human risk

preferences are constructed ‘on the fly’ during risk elicitation, influenced by the

decision-making context and the method of risk elicitation (Kusev et al., 2020). In this

article we explore the lability of human risk preferences and argue that the most

recent choices guide decision-making. Accordingly, our novel proposal and

experimental method provide a psychological tool that measures people’s shift in

preferences. Specifically, in our experiment (240 participants, registered UK users of

an online survey panel) we developed and employed a two-stage risk elicitation

experimental method. The results from the experiment revealed that providing

participants with false feedback on their initial decisions (stage 1) changes their risk

preferences at the feedback stage of the experiment in the direction of the false

feedback. Moreover, participants’ final decisions (stage 2) were influenced by the

type of feedback (correct or false) and informed by their altered risk preferences at

the feedback stage of the experiment. In conclusion, our work provides experimental

evidence that human preferences are constructed ‘on the fly’, influenced by the

decision-making context and recent decision-making experience (e.g., Kusev et al.,

2020; Slovic, 1995).