The influence of ‘deliberate’ implementation intention on medical students’ risk decision task outcomes

Abstract

ABSTRACT Implementation intention is a kind of behaviour choice strategy in which individuals adopt specific and definite behaviour patterns to achieve behavioural goals. The standard form is ‘if something happens, then I will do something’. Previous studies have shown that implementation intention strategy is a fast and effective mental skill with notable advantages. However, adding the requirement of ‘deliberate’ to the implementation plan will increase the probability of decision adjustment to a certain extent. In this study, the classic Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART) was selected as the evaluation index of risk decision-making, and the ‘deliberate’ implementation intention was adopted to explore the impact of this behavioural strategy on risk selection. The recruited medical students were divided into two groups: the implementation intention group (n = 37) and the control group (n = 34). The baseline assessment for the BART was performed by all participants, and the intensive training of ‘deliberate’ implementation intention to ‘make as much money as possible’ was conducted before the post-test decision-making after one week. The adjusted BART (adj BART) value and AvgIncome were significantly higher than those at baseline in the implementation intention group(adj BART value: baseline 12.63 ± 2.90, post-test: 14.78 ± 2.66, F = 15.978, p < 0.001, η 2 = 0.307; AvgIncome: baseline 12.43 ± 2.56, post-test 15.00 ± 2.57, F = 20.953, p < 0.001, η 2 = 0.368). The mixed-model ANOVAs showed that there was a significant interaction between test time and group (adj BART value: F = 4.859, p = 0.031, η 2 = 0.066; AvgIncome: F = 4.261, p = 0.043, η 2 = 0.058). Conclusion: The implementation of ‘deliberate’ intention can help medical students make more rational judgements in risk decision-making tasks, avoid over conservative behaviour and obtain more benefits.