scholarly journals The effect of acute alcohol intoxication on risk attitude

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Kayleigh McCarty
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Personality Traits ◽  
Risk Taking ◽  
Alcohol Intoxication ◽  
Risk Attitude ◽  
Strong Relationship ◽  
Alcohol Problems ◽  
Acute Alcohol Intoxication ◽  
Placebo Condition ◽  
Risk Taking Behaviors

There is a strong relationship between engaging in risk taking behaviors, or behaviors with a high probability of negative and undesirable consequences, and the use of alcohol and other substances of abuse. Mounting evidence suggests that dysfunctional decision making contributes to the development and maintenance of addiction and related behaviors. This study explored the effects of acute alcohol intoxication on decision making under risk. Regular drinkers were recruited for a within subjects, placebo controlled, alcohol administration study. They completed a decision-making task at peak alcohol intoxication and at a time matched assessment in a placebo condition, as well as several baseline measures. The aim of this study was to examine whether alcohol intoxication impacts risk attitude. The associations between risk attitude and related personality traits, problematic alcohol use, and alcohol related risk-taking behaviors were also tested. The results of the study suggest that intoxicated risk attitude, and not risk attitude in the placebo condition, is associated with indices of alcohol consumption and to a lesser extent, alcohol consequences. Alcohol intoxication did not significantly impact risk attitude classification. Risk attitude was not associated with impulsive personality traits, alcohol expectancies, or risk-taking behaviors. While risk attitude may have utility for identifying those who are at risk for alcohol problems, tasks designed to assess behavior specific decision processes may be useful for understanding risky patterns of decision making.

scholarly journals Dopaminergic drug effects on probability weighting during risky decision-making

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karita E. Ojala ◽  
Lieneke K. Janssen ◽  
Mahur M. Hashemi ◽  
Monique H. M. Timmer ◽  
Dirk E. M. Geurts ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Prospect Theory ◽  
Risk Taking ◽  
Subjective Probability ◽  
Probability Weighting ◽  
Risky Decision Making ◽  
Risky Decision ◽  
Placebo Condition ◽  
Pathological Gamblers ◽  
Dopaminergic Drug

AbstractDopamine has been associated with risky decision-making, as well as with pathological gambling, a behavioural addiction characterized by excessive risk-taking behaviour. However, the specific mechanisms through which dopamine might act to foster risk-taking and pathological gambling remain elusive. Here we test the hypothesis that this might be achieved, in part, via modulation of subjective probability weighing during decision-making. Healthy controls (n = 21) and pathological gamblers (n = 16) played a decision-making task involving choices between sure monetary options and risky gambles both in the gain and loss domains. Each participant played the task twice, either under placebo or the dopamine D2/D3 receptor antagonist sulpiride, in a double-blind, counter-balanced, design. A prospect theory modelling approach was used to estimate subjective probability weighting and sensitivity to monetary outcomes. Consistent with prospect theory, we found that participants presented a distortion in the subjective weighting of probabilities, i.e. they overweighted low probabilities and underweighted moderate to high probabilities, both in the gain and loss domains. Compared with placebo, sulpiride attenuated this distortion in the gain domain. Across drugs, the groups did not differ in their probability weighting, although in the placebo condition, gamblers consistently underweighted losing probabilities. Overall, our results reveal that dopamine D2/D3 receptor antagonism modulates the subjective weighting of probabilities in the gain domain, in the direction of more objective, economically rational decision-making.Significance statementDopamine has been implicated in risky decision-making and gambling addiction, but the exact mechanisms underlying this influence remain partly elusive. Here we tested the hypothesis that dopamine modulates subjective probability weighting, by examining the effect of a dopaminergic drug on risk-taking behaviour, both in healthy individuals and pathological gamblers. We found that selectively blocking dopamine D2/D3 receptors diminished the typically observed distortion of winning probabilities, characterized by an overweighting of low probabilities and underweighting of high probabilities. This made participants more linear in their subjective estimation of probabilities, and thus more rational in their decision-making behaviour. Healthy participants and pathological gamblers did not differ in their risk-taking behaviour, except in the placebo condition in which gamblers consistently underweighted losing probabilities.

scholarly journals Spontaneous Blink Rate Correlates With Financial Risk Taking

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Sherman ◽  
Robert C Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Risk Taking ◽  
Video Recording ◽  
Risk Attitude ◽  
Blink Rate ◽  
Strong Positive Correlation ◽  
Risky Decision ◽  
Simple Method ◽  
Indirect Measure ◽  
General Role

AbstractDopamine has long been thought to play a role in risky decision-making, with higher tonic levels of dopamine associated with more risk seeking behavior. In this work, we aimed to shed more light on this relationship using spontaneous blink rate as an indirect measure of dopamine. In particular we used video recording to measure blink rate and a decision-making survey to measure risk taking in 45 participants. Consistent with previous work linking dopamine to risky decisions, we found a strong positive correlation between blink rate and the number of risky choices a participant made. This correlation was not dependent on age or gender and was identical for both gain and loss framing. This work suggests that dopamine plays a crucial and quite general role in determining risk attitude across the population and validates this simple method of probing dopamine for decision-making research.

Personality Variables in Probability-Learning, Decision-Making, and Risk-Taking

1966 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 583-591 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Ronald Gentile ◽  
Lowell M. Schipper
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Risk Taking ◽  
Probability Learning ◽  
Red Light ◽  
Personality Variable ◽  
Personality Variables ◽  
Event Light ◽  
Manifest Anxiety ◽  
Risk Taking Behaviors

College students were preselected on the personality variables need Achievement (nAch) and manifest anxiety (Anx) to form a 3 by 3 factorial arrangement and to relate these measures to probability-learning, decisionmaking, and risk-taking behaviors. After receiving 90 training trials on each of three green lights which had probabilities of 1/6, 1/2, and 5/6 of being followed by a red event light (probability-learning), Ss were asked to make decisions about the predictive reliabilities of these lights when they occurred in combinations or singly, while the red light was covered (decision-making). Ss were then given a zero expected value gambling game and a double-or-nothing final bet. Neither personality variable showed a consistent relationship to probability-learning, decision-making, or risk-taking behavior according to various criteria.

scholarly journals Can Personality Traits, Risk Attitude, and Demographics Explain Fund Managers’ Disposition Effect?

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (32) ◽  
pp. 303
Author(s):  
Omar Mzioud ◽  
Siham Meknassi
Keyword(s):  
Personality Traits ◽  
Risk Taking ◽  
Risk Attitude ◽  
Disposition Effect ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Fund Managers ◽  
And Gender ◽  
University Degree ◽  
Two Sides ◽  
Practical Implications

This paper focuses on the extent to which personality traits, risk attitude, and demographics explain holding losses and cutting gains using survey data collected among equity and bond fund managers. For this purpose, cross-sectional multiple regressions were conducted. This paper argues that holding losses and cutting gains are two independent biases, rather than two sides of the disposition effect. The results show a significant effect of extraversion, openness, risk-taking, professional experience, and university degree on holding losses, and a significant effect of risk perception and gender on cutting gains. This paper contributes to few studies on personality traits and behavioral biases of professional investors, and it may have important practical implications in fund management companies.

Do personality traits affect decision-making ability: can MBTI type predict biases?

2011 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 359
Author(s):  
Matthew B. Welsh ◽  
Abdulaziz Alhakim ◽  
Finlay Ball ◽  
Joseph Dunstan ◽  
Steve Begg
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Personality Traits ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Petroleum Industry ◽  
Risk Attitude ◽  
Oil And Gas Industry ◽  
Personality Test ◽  
Myers Briggs ◽  
The Impact

From decades of psychological research, the observation that people’s decisions are often biased by particular decision-making flaws has led to discussions of what can be done to de-bias decisions. A key area of research is the study of individual differences in decision-making ability–that is, whether certain people are less susceptible to particular biases. Much of this research, however, has focused on the impact of intelligence on decision-making ability. This, however, is of limited use in industries such as oil and gas where, due to hiring criteria that commonly include at least a bachelor’s degree, a restricted range of intelligence is observed. Given this, it may be more fruitful to consider other sources of potential differences in decision-making ability such as personality traits. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) (Myers et al, 1998) is a personality test based on Jung’s 1921 theory of psychological types (see, e.g., Jung, 1971). People are sorted into one of 16 categories based on their responses to the personality test. Although the test is widely used to identify leadership styles and preferences and therefore influence recruitment decisions (including within the petroleum industry), the impact of Myers-Briggs personality type on decision making itself and, in particular, on decisionmaking biases, has not been thoroughly investigated. A large number of specific, cognitive biases have been identified by psychologists and in this study we have chosen to investigate two of particular interest in the oil and gas industry: overconfidence and risk attitude/framing. It has been shown (Welsh and Begg, 2008; Welsh et al, 2007) that these biases can have disastrous consequences on the value of projects in the petroleum industry. If it is possible, therefore, to use an easily administered and well-known test (MBTI) to quantify and predict an individual’s susceptibility to bias, we can improve decisions in the industry by ensuring that the right people are employed to make decisions where bias may prove to be a problem. To test this, we distributed a survey–which included the complete Myers-Briggs test and questions to identify biases in the respondent’s responses–to engineering students at the University of Adelaide, petroleum industry employees and a small number of employees from other industries. Individual MBTI distinctions (e.g., extroverts versus introverts) were studied for bias tendencies. We discuss the observed relationships between Myers-Briggs type and decision biases and their relevance to decision making in the petroleum industry. We conclude that while there do seem to be some effects of personality on susceptibility to decision-making biases, these are not necessarily what one might expect given the descriptions attached to specific MBTI types. They are also relatively weak effects and, as such, the use of the Myers-Briggs as a tool for assessing decision-making ability is not supported by our results.

Regret-Based Decision-Making Style Acts as a Dispositional Factor in Risky Choices

2018 ◽  
Vol 122 (4) ◽  
pp. 1412-1431 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Lauriola ◽  
Angelo Panno ◽  
Joshua A. Weller
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Risk Behaviors ◽  
Risk Taking ◽  
Anxiety And Depression ◽  
Risk Averse ◽  
Factorial Structure ◽  
Balloon Analogue Risk Task ◽  
Risk Taking Behaviors ◽  
Over Time

People who anticipate the potential regret of one’s decisions are believed to act in a more risk-averse manner and, thus, display fewer risk-taking behaviors across many domains. We conducted two studies to investigate whether individual differences in regret-based decision-making (a) reflect a unitary cognitive-style dimension, (b) are stable over time, and (c) predict later risk-taking behavior. In Study 1, 332 participants completed a regret-based decision-making style scale (RDS) to evaluate its psychometric qualities. In Study 2, participants ( N = 119) were tested on two separate occasions to assess the association between RDS and risk-taking. At Time 1, participants completed the RDS, as well as trait measures of anxiety and depression. One month later, they completed the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART) and state mood (Positive/Negative affect) scales. The RDS had a sound unidimensional factorial structure and was stable over time. Further, higher reported RDS scores were significantly associated with less risk-taking on the BART, holding other variables constant. These studies suggest that individual differences in regret-based decision-making may lead to a more cautious approach to real-world risk behaviors.

scholarly journals Indirect Effects of Acute Alcohol Intoxication on Sexual Risk-taking: The Roles of Subjective and Physiological Sexual Arousal

2008 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 498-513 ◽  
Author(s):  
William H. George ◽  
Kelly Cue Davis ◽  
Jeanette Norris ◽  
Julia R. Heiman ◽  
Susan A. Stoner ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Risk ◽  
Sexual Arousal ◽  
Risk Taking ◽  
Indirect Effects ◽  
Alcohol Intoxication ◽  
Sexual Risk Taking ◽  
Acute Alcohol Intoxication
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