The effect of war on risk preferences and self-control behavior: The case of Syrian children

War may have even consequences for people who get away from war-ridden places. A growing literature examines how natural disasters and other catastrophes affect human's preferences in a long-lasting manner. Syrian War has been particularly worth close examination as it caused 2nd largest human movement in the world after the 2nd World War. In this study, we examine the effects of Syrian war on the risk, time preferences and self-control ability of children at very young ages. Following Gneezy and Potters (1997), we measure children's risk preferences by playing an incentivized game. We also measure their self-control behavior with another incentivized game. To identify the effect of the war from other confounding effects, we compare children born in Syria and exposed to the war with Turkish children who are not exposed to the war. We restrict our sample to 5-14-year-old children. We find that conflict affects behavior: children exposed to war are more risk seeking and more patient, also being exposed to war teaches them controlling themselves better.