"Chinese personality is very conservative. They are traditionally and typically risk takers." A FCII told me.

We love gambling and hate insurance. So what do you think?

I think that's quite right, on a general scale.

Paradox does exist in our society.

Being conservative, traditional and risk taker can refer to different aspects. E.g. on the one hand, when talking about family and relationship, we are relatively conservative and traditional in comparison to the west(well I hope); then on the other hand, when talking about gambling, insurance willingness and minor offence of regulations such as cheating in an exam etc, we are risk takers.

because what?
no job? no money!no good benefit!no good life!---------so we are high risk taker!

good point, strongly agree

I just want to know the perception of and attitude to risks from a Chinese perspective. So his opinion is not that important.

how can the insurance industry change ppl's attitude to risks and insurance?

What I think is 'you don't want to lose a penny from your pocket' doesn't mean you are risk taking, since he/she may have better solutions to protect him/her self.

BTW, insurance does not protect a person physically and infact they just give you some money while you're in trouble. Lots of people lost their sense of 'in-danger' after purchasing an insurance because they think they're being protected, and this would surely put them to an even risky condition. Am I right?

but I think it's less likely that the western people judge the chinese people as risk takers because they always expecting a 911 or tsunami.

blame the risk maker

hey man, the risk maker could be nature itself. How to complain?

This is exactly what I want to say. As insurance is not something to cover high-frequency risks, so there's no big difference between an insuranced people and non-insuranced people. [QUOTE]

Logical mistakes. Whether or not the insurance is useful depends on the your fortune and luckiness. If you get injured but have no money to be cured, you will be regret for your choices for the rejection of insurances.

High Frequency Risk?

You can have High Risk or you can have High Frequency, the above just makes no sense.

In every culture, some people are risk-averse, some are not.

The behaviour, though, depends on the upbringing and economic condition.

In this country, for example, many people are against the tuition-fees and student-loans. In the US however going into student debt is seen as an investment. Perception will change over time, across all cultures.

We can't take it for granted that every Chinese is risk-takers. Risk is perceptive, hence everyone has different definition of risk. Risk attitudes, however, would reflect a range of subjective values, cultural experience being one of which. My professor took a research in the 80s and found that Asians (Chinese, Malaysian and Hong Kong) are not inclined to think in terms of probability, in other words, they are not used to assessing risk in analytical way. I rather agree that when thinking risks, we are more relying on our intuitive sense rather than algorithms. It is not a good thing or bad thing, but just a pattern that we perceive risk. But again, culture is not the driving force for individual behaviour. So I should warn you here not to fit people you meet into their cultural stereo types.

The fact that Chinese like gambling does not prove anything in terms of risk-attitude. How much you are willing to lose in comparison with your possession in a gamble should be the ultimate test for risk-attitude.

Insurance is another controversial topic. I guess people who buy insurance for the first time percieve risk to be at a higher level than actual risk. So they are expecting a high compensation for their loss. However, for insurances that you buy as a habit, typically car insurance. There is a common pitfall that people always claim every damage incurred to their cars, without realising that the price will be going up according to the number of their claims.

用经济学上的adverse selection理论来说，那个FCII的陈述是因为他没有低索赔的中国人群做他的客户。

We are learning very hard in the Second Classroom how to behave like British.

Wedding seems not very fashionable nowdays. We'll give it a rain check.

Old fashioned scone and tea is still someone's favourite though.

我没有好好学习insurance market，只是挺喜欢你的这个Chinese are risk-takers的标题，所以进来掺和了一下。

我指的低索赔是索赔金额和索赔概率之积比较低的意思，倒是没有那么specific的想到了车险和寿险。

你说的保险市场两个问题（1，moral hazard不可避免的存在使保险公司没法区分potential投保人群；2，习惯是然，是中国人的索赔概率下降，以至premium更显不合理），正好说明中国保险市场（或者针对中国人的保险市场）之所以因为信息不对称所造成的market failure，所以chinese不是risk-taker至少不是irrational的risk taker或者中国人只是被price出了这个market。

同意'Chinese are risk-takers'的说法。在老外看来，有这样的印象是因为：

1. 中国人是机会主义者。他们不愿按程序/法律办事，总想走捷径。如买车不上保险的，坐车逃票等等，侥幸心理很严重。

2. 中国人酷爱赌博。我去过几次赌场，里面的亚洲人面孔可真是多啊。他们一般都玩得很投入，不象一般老外玩得很放松，有说有笑的。