Understanding Risky Behavior: The Influence of Cognitive, Emotional and Hormonal Factors on Decision-Making under Risk

Kusev, Petko; Purser, Harry; Heilman, Renata M.; Cooke, Alex; Schaik, Paul van; Baranova, Victoria A.; Martin, Rose; Ayton, Peter

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00102

Cited by 83 publications

(100 citation statements)

References 111 publications

(125 reference statements)

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“…Therefore, we could speculate that personal values, along with other individual differences, could be predictors of SVO but that future studies are needed to further investigate this topic. Numerous previous studies have provided ample support for the influence of personality traits, current affective state, and dispositional mood on decision-making [5,6,9,21,23,37,38]. Our aim for the present study was to complement the existing literature on these highly investigated individual differences in decision-making with the less investigated line of research focusing on personal values, thus proving new evidence that human decisions are influenced by a large category of internal and external factors.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 82%

“…Nevertheless, numerous research contributions from both psychology and economics refuted the self-maximization principle, indicating that people prefer quite frequently options that illustrate a more cooperative or fairness-inclined nature [2]. Some of the most investigated factors that divert decision-makers from following the self-maximization norm include decision context, content, experience, and emotions [3][4][5][6]. Considering the long-lasting interest scholars are showing in the topic of social decisions, the aim of the current article is to add to this research line by looking at personal values as possible factors associated with a preference for more self-maximizing or cooperative choices.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Personal Values Associated with Prosocial Decisions

Heilman

Kusev

2020

Behavioral Sciences

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Social situations require people to make complex decisions, sometimes involving different outcomes for the self and others. Considering the long-lasting interest scholars are showing in the topic of social decisions, the aim of the current article is to add to this research line by looking at personal values as possible factors associated with a preference for more self-maximizing or cooperative choices. In a general adult sample (N = 63), we used the Social Value Orientation (SVO) slider measure to investigate participants' tendency towards prosocial or proself outcomes. We also administered a personal values questionnaire, measuring 19 basic values, organized in 4 higher-order values. Building on the theory of basic individual values, we expected self-transcendence to be positively associated with more prosocial orientations. Our main result confirmed that self-transcendence was positively correlated with SVO whereas no other higher-order values were associated with SVO. Our data also revealed that inequality aversion was the primary motivation of prosocials, and this result was unrelated to gender effects or the personal values under investigation.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 82%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Personal Values Associated with Prosocial Decisions

Heilman

Kusev

2020

Behavioral Sciences

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“…The behavioral variability of individuals have been a focus of psychological and behavioral studies of humans [31]. Choice preferences of individuals under uncertain or risky conditions have been studied in the context of value evaluation by a large-scale brain network including cortical and subcortical structures [32, 33].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Individual differences in perceptual decision making reflect neural variability in medial frontal cortex

Kurikawa

Handa²,

Fukai

2017

Preprint

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Decision making obeys common neural mechanisms, but there is considerable variability in individuals’ decision making behavior particularly under uncertainty. How individual differences arise within common decision making brain systems is not known. Here, we explored this question in the medial frontal cortex (MFC) of rats performing a sensory-guided choice task. When rats trained on familiar stimuli were exposed to unfamiliar stimuli, choice responses varied significantly across individuals. We examined how variability in MFC neural processing could mediate this individual difference and constructed a network model to replicate this. Our model suggested that susceptibility of neural trajectories is a crucial determinant of the observed choice variability. The model predicted that trial-by-trial variability of trajectories are correlated with the susceptibility, and hence also correlated with the individual difference. This prediction was confirmed by experiment. Thus, our results suggest that variability in neural dynamics in MFC networks underlies individual differences in decision making.

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“…This raises important questions about the ontogeny of risk preference. While models typically treat preferences as fixed, there is experimental evidence that attitudes toward risk are mediated through HPA stress response, both acute [66] and chronic [67,68], suggesting the possibility for a strong environmental-developmental component to risk preference.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hierarchical Evolutionary Preferences Explain Discrepancies in Expected Utility Theory

Price

Jones

2016

Preprint

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The standard axiomatic theory of rationality posits that agents order preferences according to the average utilities associated with the different choices. Expected Utility Theory has repeatedly failed as a predictive theory of the choice behavior, as reflected in the enormous new literature in behavioral economics. A frequent thread in this literature is that apparently irrational behaviors in contemporary contexts may have once served important functions, but there has been little attempt to formalize the relationship between evolutionary fitness and choice behavior. Biological agents should maximize fitness, but fitness itself is not a reasonable choice variable since its time-scale exceeds the lifespan of the decisionmaker. Consequently, organisms use proximate motivational systems that work on appropriate time-scales and are amenable to feedback and learning. We develop an evolutionary principal-agent model in which individuals maximize a set of proximal choice variables, the interests of which are aligned with fitness. We show that age-specific demographic rates can be used as choice variables. The solution to our model yields probability weightings similar to Cumulative Prospect Theory and Rank-Depended Expected Utility Theory. The pessimistic probability weighting characteristic of these models emerges naturally in an evolutionary framework because of extreme intolerance to zeros in multiplicative growth processes. We show that even under a model of constant absolute risk aversion for choice variables at the proximate level, agents are highly risk-averse at the lowest levels of consumption and suggest a consistency with empirical research on the risk preferences of the poor.

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Understanding Risky Behavior: The Influence of Cognitive, Emotional and Hormonal Factors on Decision-Making under Risk

Cited by 83 publications

References 111 publications

Personal Values Associated with Prosocial Decisions

Personal Values Associated with Prosocial Decisions

Individual differences in perceptual decision making reflect neural variability in medial frontal cortex

Hierarchical Evolutionary Preferences Explain Discrepancies in Expected Utility Theory

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