The Relative State Model: Integrating Need-Based and Ability-Based Pathways to Risk-Taking

Convergence of Age Differences in Risk Preference, Impulsivity, and Self-Control: A Multiverse Analysis

OBJECTIVES

Numerous theories exist regarding age differences in risk preference and related constructs, yet many of them offer conflicting predictions and fail to consider convergence between measurement modalities or constructs. To pave the way for conceptual clarification and theoretical refinement, in this preregistered study we aimed to comprehensively examine age effects on risk preference, impulsivity, and self-control using different measurement modalities, and to assess their convergence.

METHODS

We collected a large battery of self-report, informant report, behavioral, hormone, and neuroimaging measures from a cross-sectional sample of 148 (55% female) healthy human participants between 16 and 81 years (mean age = 46 years, standard deviation [SD] = 19). We used an extended sample of 182 participants (54% female, mean age = 46 years, SD = 19) for robustness checks concerning the results from self-reports, informant reports, and behavioral measures. For our main analysis, we performed specification curve analyses to visualize and estimate the convergence between the different modalities and constructs.

RESULTS

Our multiverse analysis approach revealed convergent results for risk preference, impulsivity, and self-control from self- and informant reports, suggesting a negative effect of age. For behavioral, hormonal, and neuroimaging outcomes, age effects were mostly absent.

DISCUSSION

Our findings call for conceptual clarification and improved operationalization to capture the putative mechanisms underlying age-related differences in risk preference and related constructs.

Personality Traits and Insurance Demand

Personality traits drive people's financial decisions and hence affect their lives. Yet, we know little about the relationship between personality traits and insurance decisions. Do Risk-Taking, the Big Five and Locus of Control predict a variety of personal insurance decisions? Using a sample of 14,624 German adults with the goal of identifying associations between personality and insurance demand, we found that personality traits predict demand for various insurance types. We also found that associations may be mediated by demographic variables and may depend on the statistical modeling approach (e.g., including nonlinear relationships or examining between- and within-person effects). These findings contribute to our understanding of the role of personality in insurance demand and highlight the need for further exploration of this relationship, as our results demonstrate that personality-insurance-demand-associations depend on the examined insurance type.

To Take a Risk or Not? The Effect of Perceived Scarcity on Risky Choices

Studies suggest that resource scarcity leads to risky behaviors. From a cognitive perspective, a scarcity mindset affects the decision-making process. Does perceived scarcity therefore affect risk taking when making decisions? This study (N = 213) was conducted in western China to examine the effect of perceived scarcity on risky choices. Our results revealed that participants in the scarcity condition tended to be more risk averse than participants in the control condition when making a risky decision. Perceived scarcity increased the probability of choosing the safe option that offered a sure gain. The effect of psychological variables (emotion, risk attitude, personality, impulsivity, self-control and ego depletion) on risky choices was also tested. Risk attitude, urgency in impulsivity, and deliberate action in self-control also influence risky choices.

Leveraging Empowering Leadership to Improve Employees' Improvisational Behavior: The Role of Promotion Focus and Willingness to Take Risks

Improvisational behavior is an individual's spontaneous and creative behavior in the face of emergencies, using existing material and emotional resources to respond quickly and effectively to uncertain situations. Despite increasing interest in this behavior, its antecedents remain unclear, with particular ambiguity regarding the relationship between empowering leadership and employee improvisational behavior. The present article addresses this ambiguity with the theory of reasoned action to examine whether the impact of empowering leadership on employees' improvisational behavior is determined by employees' attitudes toward such behavior. In this study, a multi-source design was adopted, and data (339 valid samples) were collected from five Internet companies in China's Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. Hierarchical regression and bootstrapping methods were used to test the hypotheses. The results reveal that (1) employees' promotion focus moderates the relationship between empowering leadership and improvisational behavior and (2) employees' willingness to take risks mediates the moderating effect of promotion focus. Our findings demonstrate employees' attitudinal utility in explaining when improvisational behavior is most likely to occur under empowering leadership.

Mothers of small-bodied children and fathers of vigorous sons live longer

Life-history traits (traits directly related to survival and reproduction) co-evolve and materialize through physiology and behavior. Accordingly, lifespan can be hypothesized as a potentially informative marker of life-history speed that subsumes the impact of diverse morphometric and behavioral traits. We examined associations between parental longevity and various anthropometric traits in a sample of 4,000-11,000 Estonian children in the middle of the 20th century. The offspring phenotype was used as a proxy measure of parental genotype, so that covariation between offspring traits and parental longevity (defined as belonging to the 90th percentile of lifespan) could be used to characterize the aggregation between longevity and anthropometric traits. We predicted that larger linear dimensions of offspring associate with increased parental longevity and that testosterone-dependent traits associate with reduced paternal longevity. Twelve of 16 offspring traits were associated with mothers' longevity, while three traits (rate of sexual maturation of daughters and grip strength and lung capacity of sons) robustly predicted fathers' longevity. Contrary to predictions, mothers of children with small bodily dimensions lived longer, and paternal longevity was not linearly associated with their children's body size (or testosterone-related traits). Our study thus failed to find evidence that high somatic investment into brain and body growth clusters with a long lifespan across generations, and/or that such associations can be detected on the basis of inter-generational phenotypic correlations.

Job satisfaction has differential associations with delay discounting and risk-taking

Low job satisfaction has been associated with both negative health and negative organizational outcomes. Knowledge on which factors influence job satisfaction remains limited. This study assesses the associations between job satisfaction and three personality traits related to cognitive- and inhibitory control: delay discounting, risk-taking and sensation seeking (DRS-traits). Delay discounting and sensation seeking were inferred using self-reported behavioral data and health measurements for 80,676 participants in the UK Biobank. Multiple linear regression analysis produced beta coefficients and confidence intervals for each DRS-trait and job satisfaction. Analyses were adjusted for age, socioeconomic status and sleep quality. A combination of the three DRS-traits (CDRS) was assessed as well. Delay discounting and risk-taking were associated with, respectively, lower and higher job satisfaction in both sexes. Sensation seeking had no significant association with job satisfaction for either sex. The combined score, CDRS, was only negatively associated with job satisfaction in females but not in males. We discuss that the negative association between delay discounting and job satisfaction may be due to career related delay discounting effects, but also highlight that low job satisfaction itself may also lead to increased delay discounting. Additionally, we discuss why increased risk-taking behavior may have a positive effect on job satisfaction.

Does higher perceived risk of morbidity and mortality decrease risk-taking?

Previous studies have shown that people change their behaviour in response to negative shocks such as economic downturns or natural catastrophes. Indeed, the optimal behaviour in terms of inclusive fitness often varies according to a number of parameters, such as the level of mortality risk in the environment. Beyond unprecedented restrictions in everyday life, the COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly affected people's environment. In this study, we investigated how people form their perception of morbidity and mortality risk associated with COVID-19 and how this perception in turn affects psychological traits, such as risk-taking and patience. We analysed data from a large survey conducted during the first wave in France on 3353 nationally representative people. We found that people use public information on COVID-19 deaths in the area where they live to form their perceived morbidity and mortality risk. Using a structural model approach to lift endogeneity concerns, we found that higher perceived morbidity and mortality risk increases risk aversion. We also found that higher perceived morbidity and mortality risk leads to less patience, although this was only observed for high levels of perceived risk. Our results suggest that people adapt their behaviour to anticipated negative health shocks, namely the risk of becoming sick or dying of COVID-19.

White Collars, Dark Histories: The Factors That Lead Women to Commit Corporate Crimes

The literature on white-collar crimes committed by women is sparse, dealing mostly with their motivations, the incidence of the phenomenon, and differences between the women who commit them and those who commit other types of offenses. This qualitative study maps factors leading women to commit such crimes, with particular focus on their family and personal histories, and on the various roles they played as children and adults, which prepared and "trained" them for future illegal behavior. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews with 18 women convicted and imprisoned for white-collar crimes. A relationship was found between problematic family background and difficulty in help seeking and a nearly obsessive need for love in adulthood, and between the latter and white-collar crime. Theoretical and practical conclusions are discussed and future directions proposed.

The relationship between future self-continuity and intention to use Internet wealth management: The mediating role of tolerance of uncertainty and trait anxiety

This study aimed to analyze the mediating effect of tolerance of uncertainty (TU) and trait anxiety (TA) on future self-continuity (FSC) and intention to use Internet wealth management (IUIWM) systems. A questionnaire survey was distributed online and a total of 388 participants completed questionnaire, The questionnaire included the following scales: Chinese version of the FSC, Intention to Use the Internet Wealth Management, TU, and TA. Pearson correlation was used to investigate the correlation coefficient between variables while the sequential regression method was used to analyze relationship between variables. To analyze the collected data, the SPSS 26.0 was used. A two-step procedure was applied to analyze the mediation effect. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted to test the measurement model. Afterward, the Maximum Likelihood method was used for path analysis, and the Bias-corrected Bootstrap method was used to investigate determine the estimated value and confidence interval of the mediating effect. To analyze the mediation effect, the Mplus 7.0 was used. The results showed that FSC positively predicted individuals’ Internet wealth management systems. Furthermore, TU and TA played complete serial multiple mediating roles between FSC and IUIWM. The role of TA and TU have negative impact on intention to use. This study provides a theoretical basis in personality psychology that Internet financial product suppliers can use to improve the attractiveness of their products. Product managers can subdivide users according to these personality traits to provide customized products.

Coalitionary psychology and group dynamics on social media

Pietraszewski's model allows understanding group dynamics through the lens of evolved coalitionary psychology. This framework is particularly relevant to understanding group dynamics on social media platforms, where coalitions based on salience of group identity are prominent and generate unique frictions. We offer testable hypotheses derived from the model that may help to shed light on social media behavior.

Can impulsivity evolve in response to childhood environmental harshness?

Previous studies have suggested that human impulsivity is an adaptive response to childhood environmental harshness: individuals from families of low socioeconomic status (SES) tend to be more impulsive. However, no studies have tested the evolvability of this reaction norm. This study examined whether (a) impulsivity is associated with higher fitness among individuals from low SES families, while (b) it is associated with lower fitness among individuals from high SES families. We assessed three indices of impulsivity (temporal discounting, risk taking and fast/slow life history strategy), childhood SES and five proxy indices of fitness (number of children, lifelong singlehood, annual household income, subjective SES and life satisfaction) of 692 middle-aged participants (40-45 years old). None of the results supported the evolvability of the impulsivity reaction norm, although low childhood SES was associated with lower fitness on every proxy measure. Impulsivity (operationalised as the fast life history strategy) was associated with lower fitness regardless of childhood SES.

What is the expected human childhood? Insights from evolutionary anthropology

In psychological research, there are often assumptions about the conditions that children expect to encounter during their development. These assumptions shape prevailing ideas about the experiences that children are capable of adjusting to, and whether their responses are viewed as impairments or adaptations. Specifically, the expected childhood is often depicted as nurturing and safe, and characterized by high levels of caregiver investment. Here, we synthesize evidence from history, anthropology, and primatology to challenge this view. We integrate the findings of systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and cross-cultural investigations on three forms of threat (infanticide, violent conflict, and predation) and three forms of deprivation (social, cognitive, and nutritional) that children have faced throughout human evolution. Our results show that mean levels of threat and deprivation were higher than is typical in industrialized societies, and that our species has experienced much variation in the levels of these adversities across space and time. These conditions likely favored a high degree of phenotypic plasticity, or the ability to tailor development to different conditions. This body of evidence has implications for recognizing developmental adaptations to adversity, for cultural variation in responses to adverse experiences, and for definitions of adversity and deprivation as deviation from the expected human childhood.

Keep your budget together! Investigating determinants on risky decision-making about losses

The present study investigates the influence of framing, different amounts to lose, and probabilities of a risky and sure choice option, time limits, and need on risky decision-making. For a given block of trials, participants were equipped with a personal budget (number of points). On each trial within a block, a specific initial amount is possibly taken from the budget by the outcome of a gamble or the choice of a sure loss option. The goal was to avoid losing points from the budget for not falling below a predefined need threshold. Three different levels of induced need were included. Employing a psychophysical experimental approach, we furthermore tested a sequential component of human risk behavior towards a need threshold inspired by research on animal foraging behavior. Risk-sensitivity models and the Stone-Geary framework serve as generating hypotheses on need thresholds. We found that framing, need, and probabilities influenced risky choices. Time limits and initial amounts moderated the framing effect. No sequential component was observed.

A brief child-friendly reward task reliably activates the ventral striatum in two samples of socioeconomically diverse youth

Adolescence is a period of increased risk-taking behavior, thought to be driven, in part, by heightened reward sensitivity. One challenge of studying reward processing in the field of developmental neuroscience is finding a task that activates reward circuitry, and is short, not too complex, and engaging for youth of a wide variety of ages and socioeconomic backgrounds. In the present study, we tested a brief child-friendly reward task for activating reward circuitry in two independent samples of youth ages 7-19 years old enriched for poverty (study 1: n = 464; study 2: n = 27). The reward task robustly activated the ventral striatum, with activation decreasing from early to mid-adolescence and increasing from mid- to late adolescence in response to reward. This response did not vary by gender, pubertal development, or income-to-needs ratio, making the task applicable for a wide variety of populations. Additionally, ventral striatum activation to the task did not differ between youth who did and did not expect to receive a prize at the end of the task, indicating that an outcome of points alone may be enough to engage reward circuitry. Thus, this reward task is effective for studying reward processing in youth from different socioeconomic backgrounds.

Fear and anxiety in the face of COVID-19: Negative dispositions towards risk and uncertainty as vulnerability factors

In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic it is important to identify factors that make people particularly vulnerable of developing mental-health issues in order to provide case-specific treatments. In this article, we examine the roles of two psychological constructs - originally put forth in the behavioral decision sciences - in predicting interindividual differences in fear responses: general risk aversion (GRA) and intolerance of uncertainty (IU). We first provide a review of these constructs and illustrate why they may play important roles in shaping anxiety-related disorders. Thereafter we present an empirical study that collected survey data from 550 U.S. residents, comprising self-assessments of dispositions towards risk and uncertainty, anxiety- and depression levels, as well as demographic variables - to thus test the extent to which these psychological constructs are predictive of strong fear responses related to COVID-19 (i.e., mortal fear, racing heart). The results from Bayesian multi-model inference analyses showed that GRA and IU were more powerful predictors of fear responses than demographic variables. Moreover, the predictive power of these constructs was independent of general anxiety- and depression levels. Subsequent mediation analyses showed that the effects of GRA and IU were both direct and indirect via anxiety. We conclude by discussing possible treatment options, but also highlight that future research needs to further examine causal pathways and conceptual overlaps.

Three Theories of Choice and Their Psychology of Losses

Loss aversion has long been regarded as a fundamental psychological regularity, yet evidence has accumulated to challenge this conclusion. We review three theories of how people make decisions under risk and, as a consequence, value potential losses: expected-utility theory, prospect theory, and risk-sensitivity theory. These theories, which stem from different behavioral disciplines, differ in how they conceptualize value and thus differ in their assumptions about the degree to which value is dependent on state and context; ultimately, they differ in the extent to which they see loss aversion as a stable individual trait or as a response to particular circumstances. We highlight points of confusion that have at least partly fueled the debate on the reality of loss aversion and discuss four sources of conflicting views: confusion of loss aversion with risk aversion, conceptualization of loss aversion as a trait or as state dependent, conceptualization of loss aversion as context dependent or independent, and the attention-aversion gap-the observation that people invest more attentional resources when evaluating losses than when evaluating gains, even when their choices do not reveal loss aversion.

Overclaiming is not related to dark triad personality traits or stated and revealed risk preferences

The tendency to be overly confident in one’s future and skills has long been studied. More recently, a correlate of this overconfidence, the tendency to overclaim knowledge, has been in the focus of research. Its antecedents and downstream behavioral consequences are still in question. In a sample of undergraduate students (N = 168), we tested whether a set of characteristics of the person (e.g., age, gender) and personality traits (i.e., the Dark Triad) is related to overclaiming knowledge. Moreover, we investigated whether overclaiming, in turn, predicts risk preferences. To this end, we asked individuals to rate their confidence in solving a set of different math problems and their familiarity with a set of math concepts. Some of these concepts were nonexistent, thereby allowing participants to overclaim knowledge. Participants then stated their general risk preference and performed three tasks revealing their general, financial, and social risk preferences. We demonstrated the hypothesized relationship between overclaiming and confidence. Furthermore, we observed that the assessed characteristics of the person were not correlated with overclaiming. If anything, height and digit ratio, a phenomenological correlate of hormonal differences during development, tended to be associated with overclaiming. Surprisingly, overclaiming was not at all related to risk preferences or personality traits. This set of results shows the need for relevant theoretical and methodological refinements.

What game we are playing: the psychosocial context of problem gambling, problem gaming and poor well-being among Italian high school students

Gambling and gaming are not infrequent among adolescents and preventing low-risk youth from becoming at-risk appears to be a priority of public health strategies. Greater scrutiny of the risk and protective factors in the relationships and community of young people appears crucial in steering prevention initiatives adequately. This study aimed to explore the role of the qualities of relational networks (i.e. family functioning, perceived social and class support), family and peer approval and view of the social environment in predicting problem gambling, problem gaming and overall well-being among adolescents. High-school students aged 14-18 years (N: 595; female: 68,7%) completed a survey including the target variables. A multivariate multiple regression analysis was performed to examine the role of socio-demographic characteristics and psychosocial predictors on gaming, gambling, and well-being. Multivariate multiple regressions identify a common core underpinning problem gambling, gaming and poor well-being but also the distinct roles of psychosocial variables: being male, with low parental monitoring, and an anomic view of the social environment all predict problem gambling and gaming, which were also found to be associated. Low social support predicts problem gambling but not problem gaming; poor family functioning predicts problem gaming but not problem gambling. All the target psychosocial variables, except approval of gambling, predict poor well-being. On the whole the findings suggest the need to look more closely at the way adolescents, their system of activity and their culture participate in constructing the meaning of gambling and gaming activities and their impact on adolescents' well-being, so that future studies and strategies can more effectively examine the relational dynamics in which problem gambling and gaming develop.

An Evolutionary Explanation for the Female Leadership Paradox

Social influence is distributed unequally between males and females in many mammalian societies. In human societies, gender inequality is particularly evident in access to leadership positions. Understanding why women historically and cross-culturally have tended to be under-represented as leaders within human groups and organizations represents a paradox because we lack evidence that women leaders consistently perform worse than men. We also know that women exercise overt influence in collective group-decisions within small-scale human societies, and that female leadership is pervasive in particular contexts across non-human mammalian societies. Here, we offer a transdisciplinary perspective on this female leadership paradox. Synthesis of social science and biological literatures suggests that females and males, on average, differ in why and how they compete for access to political leadership in mixed-gender groups. These differences are influenced by sexual selection and are moderated by socioecological variation across development and, particularly in human societies, by culturally transmitted norms and institutions. The interplay of these forces contributes to the emergence of female leaders within and across species. Furthermore, females may regularly exercise influence on group decisions in less conspicuous ways and different domains than males, and these underappreciated forms of leadership require more study. We offer a comprehensive framework for studying inequality between females and males in access to leadership positions, and we discuss the implications of this approach for understanding the female leadership paradox and for redressing gender inequality in leadership in humans.

Is a Rational Politics of Disaster Possible? Making Useful Decisions for Others in an Experimental Disaster Game

Disaster responses are political. But can citizens make useful disaster decisions? Potential obstacles are that such decisions are complex, involve public goods, and often affect other people. Theories of political decision-making disagree on whether these problems can be overcome. We used experimental economic games that simulate disaster to test whether people are willing and able to prevent disasters for others. Groups of players face a complex task in which options that might help vary in their riskiness. Importantly, although all options are reasonable, which option is most useful depends on the experimental condition. We find that players will pay to help, can identify which option is most useful across experimental conditions, and will pay to learn how best to help. Thus, players were able to make useful and costly decisions to prevent others from experiencing disaster. This suggests that, in at least some situations, citizens may be able to make good disaster decisions.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11109-021-09700-2.

Why do inequality and deprivation produce high crime and low trust?

Humans sometimes cooperate to mutual advantage, and sometimes exploit one another. In industrialised societies, the prevalence of exploitation, in the form of crime, is related to the distribution of economic resources: more unequal societies tend to have higher crime, as well as lower social trust. We created a model of cooperation and exploitation to explore why this should be. Distinctively, our model features a desperation threshold, a level of resources below which it is extremely damaging to fall. Agents do not belong to fixed types, but condition their behaviour on their current resource level and the behaviour in the population around them. We show that the optimal action for individuals who are close to the desperation threshold is to exploit others. This remains true even in the presence of severe and probable punishment for exploitation, since successful exploitation is the quickest route out of desperation, whereas being punished does not make already desperate states much worse. Simulated populations with a sufficiently unequal distribution of resources rapidly evolve an equilibrium of low trust and zero cooperation: desperate individuals try to exploit, and non-desperate individuals avoid interaction altogether. Making the distribution of resources more equal or increasing social mobility is generally effective in producing a high cooperation, high trust equilibrium; increasing punishment severity is not.

In Search of the Cognitively Complex Person: Is There a Meaningful Trait Component of Cognitive Complexity?

Researchers have long assumed that complex thinking is determined by both situational factors and stable, trait-based differences. However, although situational influences on complexity have been discussed at length in the literature, there is still no comprehensive integration of evidence regarding the theorized trait component of cognitive complexity. To fill this gap, we evaluate the degree that cognitive complexity is attributable to trait variance. Specifically, we review two domains of evidence pertaining to (a) the generalizability of individuals' complex thinking across domains and the temporal stability of individuals' complex thinking and (b) the relationship of complex thinking with conceptually related traits. Cumulatively, the literature suggests that persons' cognitive complexity at any point in time results partially from a stable and generalizable trait component that accounts for a small-to-moderate amount of variance. It further suggests that cognitively complex persons are characterized by chronic trait-based differences in motivation and ability to think complexly.

The effects of social vs. asocial threats on group cooperation and manipulation of perceived threats

Individuals benefit from maintaining the well-being of their social groups and helping their groups to survive threats such as intergroup competition, harsh environments and epidemics. Correspondingly, much research shows that groups cooperate more when competing against other groups. However, 'social' threats (i.e. outgroups) should elicit stronger cooperation than 'asocial' threats (e.g. environments, diseases) because (a) social losses involve a competitor's gain and (b) a strong cooperative reaction to defend the group may deter future outgroup threats. We tested this prediction in a multiround public goods game where groups faced periodic risks of failure (i.e. loss of earnings) which could be overcome by sufficient cooperation. This threat of failure was framed as either a social threat (intergroup competition) or an asocial threat (harsh environment). We find that cooperation was higher in response to social threats than asocial threats. We also examined participants' willingness to manipulate apparent threats to the group: participants raised the perceived threat level similarly for social and asocial threats, but high-ranking participants increased the appearance of social threats more than low-ranking participants did. These results show that people treat social threats differently than asocial threats, and support previous work on leaders' willingness to manipulate perceived threats.

How people know their risk preference

People differ in their willingness to take risks. Recent work found that revealed preference tasks (e.g., laboratory lotteries)-a dominant class of measures-are outperformed by survey-based stated preferences, which are more stable and predict real-world risk taking across different domains. How can stated preferences, often criticised as inconsequential "cheap talk," be more valid and predictive than controlled, incentivized lotteries? In our multimethod study, over 3,000 respondents from population samples answered a single widely used and predictive risk-preference question. Respondents then explained the reasoning behind their answer. They tended to recount diagnostic behaviours and experiences, focusing on voluntary, consequential acts and experiences from which they seemed to infer their risk preference. We found that third-party readers of respondents' brief memories and explanations reached similar inferences about respondents' preferences, indicating the intersubjective validity of this information. Our results help unpack the self perception behind stated risk preferences that permits people to draw upon their own understanding of what constitutes diagnostic behaviours and experiences, as revealed in high-stakes situations in the real world.

Embodied Capital and Risk-Related Traits, Attitudes, Behaviors, and Outcomes: An Exploratory Examination of Attractiveness, Cognitive Ability, and Physical Ability

The relative state model posits two nonindependent pathways to risk. The need-based pathway suggests people take risks when nonrisky options are unlikely to meet their needs. The ability-based pathway suggests people take risks when they possess resources or abilities making them more capable of successfully “pulling off” risk-taking. Growing laboratory and field evidence supports need-based risk-taking. However, little is known about ability-based risk-taking. We examined whether three indicators of embodied capital (attractiveness, cognitive ability, and physical dexterity) were associated with risk-related personality traits, risk-attitudes, behavioral risk-taking, and outcomes associated with risk-taking. Among 328 community members recruited to maximize variance on risk-propensity, we demonstrate that embodied capital indices predict various instantiations of risk-propensity consistent with the relative state model.

State-dependent risk-taking

Who takes risks, and when? The relative state model proposes two non-independent selection pressures governing risk-taking: need-based and ability-based. The need-based account suggests that actors take risks when they cannot reach target states with low-risk options (consistent with risk-sensitivity theory). The ability-based account suggests that actors engage in risk-taking when they possess traits or abilities that increase the expected value of risk-taking (by increasing the probability of success, enhancing payoffs for success or buffering against failure). Adaptive risk-taking involves integrating both considerations. Risk-takers compute the expected value of risk-taking based on their state-the interaction of embodied capital relative to one's situation, to the same individual in other circumstances or to other individuals. We provide mathematical support for this dual pathway model, and show that it can predict who will take the most risks and when (e.g. when risk-taking will be performed by those in good, poor, intermediate or extreme state only). Results confirm and elaborate on the initial verbal model of state-dependent risk-taking: selection favours agents who calibrate risk-taking based on implicit computations of condition and/or competitive (dis)advantage, which in turn drives patterned individual differences in risk-taking behaviour.

Feel Safe to Take More Risks? Insecure Attachment Increases Consumer Risk-Taking Behavior

Attachment styles, originated from early childhood experience, have been documented to influence human behaviors among adults. Drawing on life history theory, we examined whether or not, and how, attachment styles impact risk-taking behaviors beyond evolutionary valid domains, and explored the moderation role of parental status. In the consumer behavior context, three correlational studies provide convergent evidence that insecurely attached (vs. securely attached) consumers are more risk-taking in consumption situations like dining in a toilet-themed restaurant or buying genetically modified products. Specifically, insecurely attached consumers were more likely to take risks in two experiential purchase scenarios (Study 1) and this effect was not domain-specific (Study 2). In Study 3, we showed that safety perception mediated the relationship between attachment insecurity and risk-taking, which was manifested by purchase intentions toward genetically modified products. Specifically, insecurely attached individuals perceived genetically modified products to be safer and were more willing to make a purchase. Additionally, parental status moderates the relationship (Studies 2 and 3). We conclude with a discussion on the implications of attachment theory on consumer risk-taking behaviors from a life history perspective.

Content, cost, and context: A framework for understanding human signaling systems

Humans frequently perform extravagant and seemingly costly behaviors, such as widely sharing hunted resources, erecting conspicuous monumental structures, and performing dramatic acts of religious devotion. Evolutionary anthropologists and archeologists have used signaling theory to explain the function of such displays, drawing inspiration from behavioral ecology, economics, and the social sciences. While signaling theory is broadly aimed at explaining honest communication, it has come to be strongly associated with the handicap principle, which proposes that such costly extravagance is in fact an adaptation for signal reliability. Most empirical studies of signaling theory have focused on obviously costly acts, and consequently anthropologists have likely overlooked a wide range of signals that also promote reliable communication. Here, we build on recent developments in signaling theory and animal communication, developing an updated framework that highlights the diversity of signal contents, costs, contexts, and reliability mechanisms present within human signaling systems. By broadening the perspective of signaling theory in human systems, we strive to identify promising areas for further empirical and theoretical work.

Electoral fortunes reverse, mindsets do not

Conservatives and liberals have previously been shown to differ in the propensity to view socially-transmitted information about hazards as more plausible than that concerning benefits. Given differences between conservatives and liberals in threat sensitivity and dangerous-world beliefs, correlations between political orientation and negatively-biased credulity may thus reflect endogenous mindsets. Alternatively, such results may owe to the political hierarchy at the time of previous research, as the tendency to see dark forces at work is thought to be greater among those who are out of political power. Adjudicating between these accounts can inform how societies respond to the challenge of alarmist disinformation campaigns. We exploit the consequences of the 2016 U.S. elections to test these competing explanations of differences in negatively-biased credulity and conspiracism as a function of political orientation. Two studies of Americans reveal continued positive associations between conservatism, negatively-biased credulity, and conspiracism despite changes to the power structure in conservatives’ favor.

Interpersonal Insecurity and Risk-Taking Propensity Across Domains and Around the Globe

During social interactions, individuals frequently experience interpersonal insecurity, including feelings of not being loved, protected, trusted, or cared for; these feelings cause numerous behavioral consequences. The present research explores the relationship between interpersonal insecurity and risk-taking propensity in multiple risk domains and around the globe based on risk-sensitivity theory and research on group identity. In Study 1, participants ( N = 209) reported their interpersonal insecurity and risk-taking propensity across seven risk domains. The results show that risk-taking propensity generally increases with interpersonal insecurity. However, this relationship was negative in the cooperation domain and null in the financial domain. In Study 2 ( N = 128,162), data from the World Values Survey from 77 countries reveal a positive correlation between risk-taking propensity and interpersonal insecurity with in-group members but a negative relationship between risk-taking propensity and interpersonal insecurity with out-group members.

Why Hate the Good Guy? Antisocial Punishment of High Cooperators Is Greater When People Compete To Be Chosen

When choosing social partners, people prefer good cooperators (all else being equal). Given this preference, people wishing to be chosen can either increase their own cooperation to become more desirable or suppress others’ cooperation to make them less desirable. Previous research shows that very cooperative people sometimes get punished (“antisocial punishment”) or criticized (“do-gooder derogation”) in many cultures. Here, we used a public-goods game with punishment to test whether antisocial punishment is used as a means of competing to be chosen by suppressing others’ cooperation. As predicted, there was more antisocial punishment when participants were competing to be chosen for a subsequent cooperative task (a trust game) than without a subsequent task. This difference in antisocial punishment cannot be explained by differences in contributions, moralistic punishment, or confusion. This suggests that antisocial punishment is a social strategy that low cooperators use to avoid looking bad when high cooperators escalate cooperation.

Age, Loss Minimization, and the Role of Probability for Decision-Making

BACKGROUND

Older adults are stereotypically considered to be risk averse compared to younger age groups, although meta-analyses on age and the influence of gain/loss framing on risky choices have not found empirical evidence for age differences in risk-taking.

OBJECTIVE

The current study extends the investigation of age differences in risk preference by including analyses on the effect of the probability of a risky option on choices in gain versus loss situations.

METHODS

Participants (n = 130 adults aged 19-80 years) chose between a certain option and a risky option of varying probability in gain- and loss-framed gambles with actual monetary outcomes.

RESULTS

Only younger adults displayed an overall framing effect. Younger and older adults responded differently to probability fluctuations depending on the framing condition. Older adults were more likely to choose the risky option as the likelihood of avoiding a larger loss increased and as the likelihood of a larger gain decreased. Younger adults responded with the opposite pattern: they were more likely to choose the risky option as the likelihood of a larger gain increased and as the likelihood of avoiding a (slightly) larger loss decreased.

CONCLUSION

Results suggest that older adults are more willing to select a risky option when it increases the likelihood that larger losses be avoided, whereas younger adults are more willing to select a risky option when it allows for slightly larger gains. This finding supports expectations based on theoretical accounts of goal orientation shifting away from securing gains in younger adulthood towards maintenance and avoiding losses in older adulthood. Findings are also discussed in respect to the affective enhancement perspective and socioemotional selectivity theory.

Sex differences in risk-based decision making in adolescents with conduct disorder

Altered decision making processes and excessive risk-seeking behaviours are key features of conduct disorder (CD). Previous studies have provided compelling evidence of abnormally increased preference for risky options, higher sensitivity to rewards, as well as blunted responsiveness to aversive outcomes in adolescents with CD. However, most studies published to date have focused on males only; thus, it is not known whether females with CD show similar alterations in decision making. The current study investigated potential sex differences in decision making and risk-seeking behaviours in adolescents with CD. Forty-nine adolescents with CD (23 females) and 51 control subjects (27 females), aged 11-18 years, performed a computerised task assessing decision making under risk-the Risky Choice Task. Participants made a series of decisions between two gamble options that varied in terms of their expected values and probability of gains and losses. This enabled the participants' risk preferences to be determined. Taking the sample as a whole, adolescents with CD exhibited increased risk-seeking behaviours compared to healthy controls. However, we found a trend towards a sex-by-group interaction, suggesting that these effects may vary by sex. Follow-up analyses showed that males with CD made significantly more risky choices than their typically developing counterparts, while females with CD did not differ from typically developing females in their risk-seeking behaviours. Our results provide preliminary evidence that sex may moderate the relationship between CD and alterations in risk attitudes and reward processing, indicating that there may be sex differences in the developmental pathways and neuropsychological deficits that lead to CD.

Income Inequality and Adolescent Gambling Severity: Findings from a Large-Scale Italian Representative Survey

Background: Studies have shown that problems related to adult gambling have a geographical and social gradient. For instance, adults experiencing gambling-related harms live in areas of greater deprivation; are unemployed, and have lower income. However, little is known about the impact of socioeconomic inequalities on adolescent problem gambling. The main purpose of the present study was to investigate the contextual influences of income inequality on at-risk or problem gambling (ARPG) in a large-scale nationally representative sample of Italian adolescents. A secondary aim was to analyze the association between perceived social support (from family, peers, teachers, and classmates) and ARPG. Methods: Data from the 2013-2014 Health Behavior in School-aged Children Survey (HBSC) Study was used for cross-sectional analyses of ARPG. A total of 20,791 15-year-old students completed self-administered questionnaires. Region-level data on income inequality (GINI index) and overall wealth (GDP per capita) were retrieved from the National Institute of Statistics (Istat). The data were analyzed using the multi-level logistic regression analysis, with students at the first level and regions at the second level. Results: The study demonstrated a North-South gradient for the prevalence of ARPG, with higher prevalence of ARPG in the Southern/Islands/Central Regions (e.g., 11% in Sicily) than in Northern Italy (e.g., 2% in Aosta Valley). Students in regions of high-income inequality were significantly more likely than those in regions of low-income inequality to be at-risk or problem gamblers (following adjustment for sex, family structure, family affluence, perceived social support, and regionale wealth). Additionally, perceived social support from parents and teachers were negatively related to ARPG. Conclusions: Income inequality may have a contextual influence on ARPG. More specifically, living in regions of highest income inequality appeared to be a potential factor that increases the likelihood of becoming an at-risk or problem gambler. Findings of the study suggest that wealth distribution within societies affected by economic policies may indirectly have an influence adolescent gambling behaviors.

Gambling, Risk-Taking, and Antisocial Behavior: A Replication Study Supporting the Generality of Deviance

Research suggests that high frequency gambling is a component of the "generality of deviance", which describes the observation that various forms of risky and antisocial behavior tend to co-occur among individuals. Furthermore, risky and antisocial behaviors have been associated with such personality traits as low self-control, and impulsivity, and sensation-seeking. We conducted a replication (and extension) of two previous studies examining whether high frequency gambling is part of the generality of deviance using a large and diverse community sample (n = 328). This study was conducted as a response to calls for more replication studies in the behavioral and psychological sciences (recent systematic efforts suggest that a significant proportion of psychology studies do not replicate). The results of the present study largely replicate those previously found, and in many cases, we observed stronger associations among measures of gambling, risk-taking, and antisocial behavior in this diverse sample. Together, this study provides evidence for the generality of deviance inclusive of gambling (and, some evidence for the replicability of research relating to gambling and individual differences).

Relative state, social comparison reactions, and the behavioral constellation of deprivation

Pepper & Nettle compellingly synthesize evidence indicating that temporal discounting is a functional, adaptive response to deprivation. In this commentary, we underscore the importance of the psychology of relative state, which is an index of relative competitive (dis)advantage. We then highlight two proximate emotional social comparison reactions linked with relative state – personal relative deprivation and envy – that may play an important role in the deprivation-discounting link.