Differences In Risk-taking Behavior Research Articles

Exploring Different Types of Superstitious Beliefs in Risk-Taking Behaviors

Superstitions are common phenomena in human society, especially in Asian cultures. Superstitious beliefs can have a negative impact on the social well-being of people in society because they are highly associated with financial risk-taking and gambling behaviors. This study looks at the effects of different types of superstitious belief (proactive vs. passive) on consumers’ risk-taking behaviors. Categorized based on the characteristics associated with an illusion of control in a situation, proactive and passive superstitious beliefs were found to show differences in risk-taking behaviors. The results demonstrate that passive superstitious beliefs increase the likelihood of engaging in risky behaviors when a superstitious object is introduced. The research suggests social marketing and public policy implications.

Similarities between adult female crack cocaine users and adolescents in risky decision-making scenarios

ABSTRACTBackground: Although previous studies have shown that both adolescence and drug addiction can influence risk-taking and decision-making processes, the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Specifically, there is a lack of evidence as to whether these conditions could affect deliberative and affective processes involved in risk taking, such as feedback learning and valuation of profits and risk. Objectives: The objectives were to compare the role of feedback and the use of information in risk-taking behavior between female crack cocaine users and adolescents. Additionally, we aimed to investigate whether sensation seeking, impulsivity, depressive and anxiety symptoms, executive functioning, and working memory performance could explain differences in risk-taking behavior. Method: This is a quasi-experimental study comparing 27 low-income adult female crack cocaine users (CU) to 18 female adolescents (AD) within two conditions (no-feedback or delayed-feedback) of the Columbia Card Task (CCT). In order to investigate CCT reference values for adult females, we also included 20 female non-drug-users with regular education and income as a reference group (RG). Results: A similar pattern of risk-taking behavior was found between CU and AD within the CCT no-feedback condition. When delayed feedback was provided, AD exhibited a similar pattern of risk-taking behavior in the no-feedback condition, while CU showed a reduction of risk-taking behavior. Both groups exhibited higher risk taking than the RG within the CCT no-feedback condition, but only the AD group showed higher risk-taking behavior within the CCT feedback condition. Depressive symptom severity and working memory deficits were associated with higher risk-taking behaviors in CU. Executive functioning deficits were associated with higher risk-taking behavior in AD. Conclusions: Adult female crack cocaine users and female adolescents took similar risks during risky decision-making scenarios where feedback about their own performance was absent. However, when participants were provided with such feedback, it modulated risk-taking behaviors in crack cocaine users but not in adolescents.

Balancing past and present: how experience influences boldness over time in Eurasian perch.

Adapting to fluctuating predation conditions is a challenge for prey. By learning through experience, animals may adjust their anti-predator behavior to better reflect current predation risk. Although many studies show experience of predation to alter prey behavior, little is known about how prey rely on such experience over time. By comparing boldness over different temporal scales between individuals of Eurasian perch, either experienced or naïve of predators, we examine how risk is traded based on past and present experience. Differences in predator exposure during the first year of life were found to lead to differences in risk-taking behavior, even after the perch been kept in a predator-free environment for 9 months. However, the response to a potential predator was quickly readjusted after increased experience of current conditions. The results highlight how prey have to balance past experiences of predators against current threat levels.

Predator experience homogenizes consistent individual differences in predator avoidance

In the presence of predators, many prey species exhibit immediate behavioral responses like the avoidance of risky areas, which imposes opportunity costs, for instance, in the form of reduced foraging. Thus, prey species should be able to discriminate between different predator types and adjust their response to the imminent predation risk. In our current study, we evaluated the relative importance of innate versus learned components of predator recognition and avoidance in the guppy (Poecilia reticulata). We used a feral guppy population occurring in Germany and compared avoidance reactions of each focal individual towards both coevolved piscine predators from their original distribution range and novel, presently co-occurring predator species. Wild-caught, predator-experienced as well as laboratory-reared, predator-naive individuals showed strong avoidance responses towards all predator animations. Avoidance was stronger in small-bodied than in large-bodied individuals in both cohorts; however, this effect was significant only in predator-naive fish. Moreover, wild-caught individuals showed a significantly higher within-individual variance (across the six predator species) along with a lower among-individual variance in predator avoidance, which resulted in a lower behavioral repeatability in this cohort. Our results suggest that consistent individual differences in risk-taking behavior (also referred to as the personality trait ‘boldness’) are modified by predator exposure and learning about predators.

Evaluation of boldness assays and associated behavioral measures in a social parrot, monk parakeet (Myiopsitta monachus)

Boldness reflects consistent individual differences in risk-taking behavior across various contexts. However, evaluating this basic assumption has largely been neglected in birds. In a captive monk parakeet population (Myiopsitta monachus; ), we undertook an analysis of 7 measures across 3 commonly used boldness assays (i.e., novel object, emergence, and predator-exposure tests). Using principal component analysis, we derived 3 components (PCs). PC-2 loaded strongly with measures from emergence and predator-exposure tests; we interpreted it as the closest approximation of boldness. PC-1 and PC-3 described different aspects of feeding such as foraging activity and rate, respectively. Finally, we assessed the predictive power of each measure that loaded significantly on the boldness axis. We found that no single metric explained even %55 of the variation in PC-2, nor could more than %50 individuals at the extremes of the spectrum be predicted. Our results demonstrate the utility of an inclusive approach in personality research.

Do Owners and Managers Really Differ?

This study examines the determinants of satisfaction with overall firm performance by owner- and non-owner-managers of SMEs. It is expected that owners of SMEs will develop contracts for non-owner-managers or monitoring practices that align the interests of agents and principals. As a result of interest alignment, the relationships between entrepreneurial orientation, views on intangible resources, focus on performance metrics and satisfaction with overall financial performance should be similar for owner- and non-owner-managers of SMEs. The study results show differences in risk-taking behaviour and views of resource development between owner-managers and non-owner-managers. However, a strong relationship between short-term performance and overall satisfaction with financial performance existed in the sample of both owner-managers and non-owner-managers.

Reasoned and Reactive Decision-Making Processes as Predictors of Between-Person and Within-Person Differences in Risk-Taking Behavior

Both reasoned and reactive decision-making processes contribute to risk-taking behavior. This study tested whether elements of the reasoned and reactive processes are completely separate, partially interconnected, or fully interconnected and whether reasoned and reactive processes predict both between-person and within-person differences in risk-taking behavior. Participants were 580 university students (M age = 20.45, range 18–52 years) who completed surveys assessing decision-making processes and risk-taking behavior. The reasoned and reactive decision-making processes appear to overlap and intersect; distal elements from both decision-making processes exhibit indirect effects on risk-taking behavior through elements from their own, as well as the other, process. However, reasoned and reactive processes both helped explain why some individuals engage in more risk-taking behavior than other individuals and why each individual is more likely to engage in some forms of risk-taking more than others.

Sex differences in lizard escape decisions vary with latitude, but not sexual dimorphism

Sexual selection is a powerful evolutionary mechanism that has shaped the physiology, behaviour and morphology of the sexes to the extent that it can reduce viability while promoting traits that enhance reproductive success. Predation is one of the underlying mechanisms accounting for viability costs of sexual displays. Therefore, we should expect that individuals of the two sexes adjust their anti-predator behaviour in response to changes in predation risk. We conducted a meta-analysis of 28 studies (42 species) of sex differences in risk-taking behaviour in lizards and tested whether these differences could be explained by sexual dichromatism, by sexual size dimorphism or by latitude. Latitude was the best predictor of the interspecific heterogeneity in sex-specific behaviour. Males did not change their escape behaviour with latitude, whereas females had increasingly reduced wariness at higher latitudes. We hypothesize that this sex difference in risk-taking behaviour is linked to sex-specific environmental constraints that more strongly affect the reproductive effort of females than males. This novel latitudinal effect on sex-specific anti-predator behaviour has important implications for responses to climate change and for the relative roles of natural and sexual selection in different species.

Second language feedback abolishes the "hot hand" effect during even-probability gambling.

Research into language-emotion interactions has revealed intriguing cognitive inhibition effects by emotionally negative words in bilinguals. Here, we turn to the domain of human risk taking and show that the experience of positive recency in games of chance-the "hot hand" effect-is diminished when game outcomes are provided in a second language rather than the native language. We engaged late Chinese-English bilinguals with "play" or "leave" decisions upon presentation of equal-odds bets while manipulating language of feedback and outcome value. When positive game outcomes were presented in their second language, English, participants subsequently took significantly fewer gambles and responded slower compared with the trials in which equivalent feedback was provided in Chinese, their native language. Positive feedback was identified as driving the cross-language difference in preference for risk over certainty: feedback for previous winning outcomes presented in Chinese increased subsequent risk taking, whereas in the English context no such effect was observed. Complementing this behavioral effect, event-related brain potentials elicited by feedback words showed an amplified response to Chinese relative to English in the feedback-related negativity window, indicating a stronger impact in the native than in the second language. We also observed a main effect of language on P300 amplitude and found it correlated with the cross-language difference in risk selections, suggesting that the greater the difference in attention between languages, the greater the difference in risk-taking behavior. These results provide evidence that the hot hand effect is at least attenuated when an individual operates in a non-native language.

Malaria parasites, immune challenge, MHC variability, and predator avoidance in a passerine bird

Several hypotheses predict a relationship between parasite burden and risk-taking behavior, but the underlying causal mechanisms are poorly understood due to the scarcity of experimental studies and the neglected focus on immune defense. Here, in 3 sets of field studies on the collared flycatcher, Ficedula albicollis, we investigated how among-male variation in flight initiation distance (FID, the distance at which an individual flee a potential predator) is linked to among-male variation in health status. First, we correlatively assessed the relationship between FID and the prevalence of haemosporidian blood parasites. We found no difference in risk-taking behavior between parasitized and nonparasitized individuals rejecting a hypothesis that predicts that malaria infection status affects the costs of predator avoidance. Second, we performed an immune challenge experiment, in which randomly chosen birds were injected with a novel antigen (sheep red blood cell) and their change in FID was compared with birds that received a placebo treatment. This experiment revealed no evidence for the immunological treatment affecting risk-taking behavior, thus we failed to obtain support for the hypothesis that posits that immediate health status mediates decisions about when to flee a predator. Finally, we detected a negative relationship between the number of alleles of the major histocompatibility complex and FID. This result, in concordance with the above negative results, supports the “avoidance” hypothesis that states that only individuals with efficient immune defense machinery are able to bear the costs of risk-taking that can emerge through the increased infection rates of risk-taker individuals.

Linking Gender To Creativity: Role of Risk Taking and Support For Creativity Towards Creative Potential of Employees

The purpose of this study is to lay its prime focus on the support for creativity that defines the self-analysis of creative capabilities and potential among men and women. Benefitting from the cross-level interactionist perspective, social role theory, and role congruity theory, this research developed an integrated multilevel model to examine gender differences in risk-taking behavior and determine how the contextual factor of support for creativity shapes employees' risk-taking and influences their creativity performance. Data for this study were collected from 347 employees and their respective 98 supervisors of a pharmaceutical company in Jakarta, Indonesia. The proposed cross-level moderated mediation model was tested using data obtained at two points in time from two data sources (subordinates and supervisors) working at a pharmaceutical company. The obtained data were then analyzed with Mplus. Our findings indicate that women may have lower risk-taking than men in organizational contexts. However, support for creativity restores parity between men and women through cross-level moderated mediation, such that support for creativity has a stronger effect on women's risk-taking than that of men, resulting in increased creative performance for women. Research contributions and future research directions are also discussed in the relevant sections.

Sexual differences in risk-taking behaviour of the Southern house wren during the nestling rearing stage

When faced with a predator near the nest, breeding birds faced a dilemma: to continue providing parental care to their offspring exposing themselves to risk or to desert the nest for a brief period of time, exposing their offspring to harm due to the suspension of parental brooding and feeding. In this study, we analysed the response of nesting Southern house wrens (Troglodytes aedon musculus) to a predator model placed near the nest. The experiment was performed in 56 nests when nestling were 3–4 or 10–12 days old. The model (a plastic decoy of the Great Horned Owl Bubo virginianus) was placed at 3 m from the nest. Parent risk-taking was measured as the time elapsed for males and females to resume parental activities during the exposition to the model. We found that males and females delayed parental visits when exposed to the predator model, but females resumed them faster than males, irrespectively of the nesting stage. We also found that males refused to enter to the nest more frequently than females when exposed to the predator model. No effect of breeding experience or nesting stages was noted in the risk taking behaviour of adults. We suggest that sexual differences detected in this species reflect the higher ability of females to cope with the nestling needs and its lower lifetime expectancy.

Risk-Taking Differences Across the Adult Life Span: A Question of Age and Domain

Older adults face important risky decisions about their health, their financial future, and their social environment. We examine age differences in risk-taking behaviors in multiple risk domains across the adult life span. A cross-sectional study was conducted in which 528 participants from 18 to 93 years of age completed the Domain-Specific Risk-Taking (DOSPERT) scale, a survey measuring risk taking in 5 different domains. Our findings reveal that risk-taking tendencies in the financial domain reduce steeply in older age (at least for men). Risk taking in the social domain instead increases slightly from young to middle age, before reducing sharply in later life, whereas recreational risk taking reduces more steeply from young to middle age than in later life. Ethical and health risk taking reduce relatively smoothly with age. Our findings also reveal gender differences in risk taking with age. Financial risk taking reduced steeply in later life for men but not for women, and risk taking in the social domain reduced more sharply for women than for men. We discuss possible underlying causes of the domain-specific nature of risk taking and age.

Nucleus Accumbens Neurons Track Behavioral Preferences and Reward Outcomes During Risky Decision Making

To make appropriate decisions, organisms must evaluate the risks and benefits of action selection. The nucleus accumbens (NAc) has been shown to be critical for this processing and is necessary for appropriate risk-based decision-making behavior. However, it is not clear how NAc neurons encode this information to promote appropriate behavioral responding. Here, rats (n = 17) were trained to perform a risky decision-making task in which discrete visual cues predicted the availability to respond for a smaller certain (safer) or larger uncertain (riskier) reward. Electrophysiological recordings were made in the NAc core and shell to evaluate neural activity during task performance. At test, animals exhibited individual differences in risk-taking behavior; some displayed a preference for the risky option, some the safe option, and some did not have a preference. Electrophysiological analysis indicated that NAc neurons differentially encoded information related to risk versus safe outcomes. Further, during free choice trials, neural activity during reward-predictive cues reflected individual behavioral preferences. In addition, neural encoding of reward outcomes was correlated with risk-taking behavior, with safe-preferring and risk-preferring rats showing differential activity in the NAc core and shell during reward omissions. Consistent with previously demonstrated alterations in prospective reward value with effort and delay, NAc neurons encode information during reward-predictive cues and outcomes in a risk task that tracked the rats' preferred responses. This processing appears to contribute to subjective encoding of anticipated outcomes and thus may function to bias future risk-based decisions.

Predicting Risk-Taking Behavior from Prefrontal Resting-State Activity and Personality

Risk-taking is subject to considerable individual differences. In the current study, we tested whether resting-state activity in the prefrontal cortex and trait sensitivity to reward and punishment can help predict risk-taking behavior. Prefrontal activity at rest was assessed in seventy healthy volunteers using electroencephalography, and compared to their choice behavior on an economic risk-taking task. The Behavioral Inhibition System/Behavioral Activation System scale was used to measure participants’ trait sensitivity to reward and punishment. Our results confirmed both prefrontal resting-state activity and personality traits as sources of individual differences in risk-taking behavior. Right-left asymmetry in prefrontal activity and scores on the Behavioral Inhibition System scale, reflecting trait sensitivity to punishment, were correlated with the level of risk-taking on the task. We further discovered that scores on the Behavioral Inhibition System scale modulated the relationship between asymmetry in prefrontal resting-state activity and risk-taking. The results of this study demonstrate that heterogeneity in risk-taking behavior can be traced back to differences in the basic physiology of decision-makers’ brains, and suggest that baseline prefrontal activity and personality traits might interplay in guiding risk-taking behavior.

Gender Differences in Risk Behaviors among High School Youth

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) demonstrates that American youth engage in a wide variety of risky behaviors.1 The frequency and type of these behaviors often differ by a number of factors, such as socioeconomic status, race, and ethnicity. For example, results of the 2011 YRBSS revealed that white high school students were most likely to have texted or e-mailed while driving or been bullied on school property, while black high school students were most likely to have engaged in risky sexual behaviors, to have been physically inactive, and to be obese.1 Conversely, Hispanic high school students were most likely to have ridden with a driver who had been drinking alcohol; to have ever used cocaine, inhalants, or ecstasy; and to have failed to use protection to prevent pregnancy during last sexual intercourse.1 However, it is difficult to discern whether differences in risk-taking behaviors between and among ethnic groups can actually be attributed to differences in group norms, socioeconomic status, or cultural beliefs regarding acceptance or rejection of such behaviors,1 suggesting a need for more comprehensive regional investigations.

Sex Differences in Risk Taking Behavior among Dutch Cyclists

The majority of research examining sex differences in risk-taking behavior focuses on overt physical risk measures in which failed risk attempts may result in serious injury or death. The present research describes sex differences in patterns of risk taking in day-to-day behavior among Dutch cyclists. Through three observational studies we test sex differences in risk taking in situations of financial risk (fines for failing to use bike lights, Study 1), theft risk (bike locking behavior, Study 2) as well as physical risk (risky maneuvers, Study 3). Results corroborate previous findings by showing that across these domains men are more inclined to take risks than women. We discuss how these findings might be used in an applied context.

Gender and Competition: Evidence from Jumping Competitions

We analyze if female athletes differ from male athletes in their competitive behavior, using data from high jump and pole vault competitions. We estimate if female athletes use risky strategies as often as male athletes and whether or nor their returns to risky strategies differ. Returns to risky strategies are identified via an instrumental variable approach where we use other athletes' declarations as instruments for individual risk taking. We find that women use risky strategies less often than men, although their returns are significantly greater than men's. We also find that women's returns to risky strategies do not differ between relatively low and relatively high risk situations, whereas male athletes' returns decrease in the level of risk. Our results show considerable differences between male and female professional athletes which are likely to be a lower bound of overall gender differences in risk-taking behavior.

Female Entrepreneurship and Alternative Career Advancement Inside the Firm

Using unique data on mutual funds and hedge funds founded between 1979 and 2005, I assess gender differences in the pursuit of new ventures. Although women transition to entrepreneurship at lower rates than men, they are more likely to pursue an alternative venturing route available inside the established organization. Moreover, gender inequality in venturing rates disappears when the rates of both internal and external ventures are considered. The results further suggest that higher rates of female intrapreneurship are unlikely to arise because of gender differences in risk-taking behaviors, differential sorting, and differential labor supply. Instead, I find evidence consistent with the notion that women become intrapreneurs at higher rates because they are more successful at intrapreneurship than men and because organizations can evaluate their skills more accurately.

Boldness in two perch populations – long‐term differences and the effect of predation pressure

1. Populations of the same species often display different behaviours, for example, in their response to predators. The question is whether this difference is developed as part of a divergent selection caused by differences in predation pressure, or as a result of phenotypic responses to current environmental conditions. 2. Two populations of Eurasian perch were investigated over a time span of 6 years to see whether risk-taking behaviour in young-of-the-year perch were consistent across cohorts, or if behaviour varied over time with changes in predation regime. 3. Boldness was estimated in aquarium studies by looking at how the fish made trade-offs between foraging in a risky area and staying in shelter. Predation risk of each year and lake was estimated from fishing surveys, using an individual-based model calculating attack rates for cannibalistic perch. 4. The average boldness scores were consistently lower in perch from Fisksjön compared with those in Ängersjön, although the magnitude of the difference varied among years. Variance component analyses showed that differences between lakes in boldness scores only explained 12 per cent of the total variation. Differences between years were contributing at least similarly or more to the total variance, and the variation was higher in Fisksjön than in Ängersjön. 5. The observed risk-taking behaviour of young-of-the-year perch, compared across cohorts, was significantly correlated with the year-specific estimates of cannibalistic attack rates, with lower boldness scores in years with higher predation pressure. In Fisksjön, with significant changes over the years in population structure, the range of both predation risk and boldness scores was wider than in Ängersjön. 6. By following the two perch populations over several years, we have been able to show that the differences in risk-taking behaviour mainly are due to direct phenotypic responses to recent experience of predation risk. Long-term differences in behaviour among perch populations thus reflect consistent differences in predation regime rather than diverging inherent traits.