Sozial-, Wirtschafts- und Entscheidungspsychologie


Social, Economic, and Decision Psychology Blog

Archive for January, 2016

Stability and Change in Risk-Taking Propensity Across the Adult Life Span

Anika Josef, David Richter, Greg Samanez-Larkin, Gert Wagner, Ralph Hertwig, and I have a new paper out on risk taking (abstract below). We were particularly interested in understanding how risk taking changes across the life span and whether it does so differentially across different domains, such as in driving, finance, or health domains. We were able to analyse data from a large longitudinal panel representative of the German population and estimate how much risk-taking propensity changes across intervals of up to 10 years in adults of 18 to 85 years of age!

The results are quite interesting in suggesting that risk-taking propensity shows patterns of stability/change similar to those of other personality traits. For example, in the figure below, one can see an inverted U-shape pattern in test-retest stability (i.e., the correlation between two measurements that took place 5 or 10 years apart) across different life domains that matches what we know about other measures of personality such as the Big Five. The inverted-U shape indicates that there are periods in life, young adulthood and old age, when we are most likely to change our risk-taking propensity. One question raised by these results and that we hope to address in the future is what are the specific life events that lead to such changes…

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Stability and Change in Risk-Taking Propensity Across the Adult Life Span

Can risk-taking propensity be thought of as a trait that captures individual differences across domains, measures, and time? Studying stability in risk-taking propensities across the life span can help to answer such questions by uncovering parallel, or divergent, trajectories across domains and measures. We contribute to this effort by using data from respondents aged 18 to 85 in the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) and by examining (a) differential stability, (b) mean-level differences, and (c) individual-level changes in self-reported general (N = 44,076) and domain-specific (N = 11,903) risk-taking propensities across adulthood. In addition, we investigate (d) the correspondence between cross-sectional trajectories of self-report and behavioral measures of social (trust game; N = 646) and nonsocial (monetary gamble; N = 433) risk taking. The results suggest that risk-taking propensity can be understood as a trait with moderate stability. Results show reliable mean-level differences across the life span, with risk-taking propensities typically decreasing with age, although significant variation emerges across domains and individuals. Interestingly, the mean-level trajectory for behavioral measures of social and nonsocial risk taking was similar to those obtained from self-reported risk, despite small correlations between task behavior and self-reports. Individual-level analyses suggest a link between changes in risk-taking propensities both across domains and in relation to changes in some of the Big Five personality traits. Overall, these results raise important questions concerning the role of common processes or events that shape the life span development of risk-taking across domains as well as other major personality facets.

Josef, A. K., Richter, D., Samanez-Larkin, G. R., Wagner, G. G., Hertwig, R., Mata, R. (2016). Stability and change in risk-taking propensity across the adult life span. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000090

Measuring Happiness

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I’ve been reading up on well-being research in preparation for the lecture Urteilen & Entscheiden taking place in the spring semester. One of the books I’ve just read is Measuring Happiness by Joachim Weimann, Andreas Knabe, and Ronnie Schöb, which asks the question “Does money bring happiness?”

The book offers a good overview of work on well-being done in the past decades by both economists and psychologists. I found the discussion about measurement and difficulties of ensuring that subjective scales mean the same thing across cultures, individuals, and time particularly interesting. We’ll definitely discuss these issues in the lecture and I’ll recommend the book to my students!

Here’s MIT Press’ overview of  Measuring Happiness:

Can money buy happiness? Is income a reliable measure for life satisfaction? In the West after World War II, happiness seemed inextricably connected to prosperity. Beginning in the 1960s, however, other values began to gain ground: peace, political participation, civil rights, environmentalism. “Happiness economics”—a somewhat incongruous-sounding branch of what has been called “the dismal science”—has taken up the puzzle of what makes people happy, conducting elaborate surveys in which people are asked to quantify their satisfaction with “life in general.” In this book, three economists explore the happiness-prosperity connection, investigating how economists measure life satisfaction and well-being. The authors examine the evolution of happiness research, considering the famous “Easterlin Paradox,” which found that people’s average life satisfaction didn’t seem to depend on their income. But they question whether happiness research can measure what needs to be measured. They argue that we should not assess people’s well-being on a “happiness scale,” because that necessarily obscures true social progress. Instead, rising income should be understood as increasing opportunities and alleviating scarcity. Economic growth helps societies to sustain freedom and to finance social welfare programs. In this respect, high income may not buy happiness with life in general, but it gives individuals the opportunity to be healthier, better educated, better clothed, and better fed, to live longer, and to live well.

2nd PhD conference SWE

The 2nd PhD conference of the Social, Economic, and Decision Psychology doctoral program took place on Friday, 22nd of January, 2016. The doctoral students of the departments of Social Psychology, Economic Psychology, and Cognitive and Decision Sciences gave an impressive and engaging overview of their current research during this day-long event. I would like to thank all the doctoral students for their hard work and I’m looking forward to next year’s conference!

SWE doctoral students and the organising commitee at the “Deutsche Seminar” in the heart of Basel’s historic center.

 

Hengstberger Symposium: Opportunities and Challenges in Cognitive Aging

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Loreen Mamerow and I spent the past couple of days at an interesting symposium on “Opportunities and Challenges in Cognitive Aging” at the International Academic Forum, in Heidelberg (Organisers: Dr. Markus Wettstein, Dr. Elzbieta Kozma). The symposium included keynotes by Christopher Hertzog, Georgia Institute of Technology, and Sherry Willis, University of Washington, that discussed promises and challenges of intervention programs to improve cognitive function in old age. The field has been very active, with a number of randomised control trials (RCT) emerging in the past years, including those that test the role of physical activity and the use of game-like cognitive tasks, among others. Unfortunately, it looks like the jury is still out about the role of such interventions for cognitive function (e.g., memory) and daily function (e.g., living independently). The promise seems to now lie in RCTs that combine multiple strategies and long-term outcomes – it should prove interesting to take stock of the field in a few more years once the results from these are out…

You can find the Symposiums’ program here.

Risk Taking Across the Life Span and Around the Globe

Anika Josef, Ralph Hertwig, and I have a new paper out on cross-cultural differences in risk taking across the life span (abstract and reference below). We show that the typical age-risk curve varies systematically as a function of country characteristics. Specifically, we found that an index of hardship (i.e., an index of resource scarcity and, therefore, heightened competition in each country)  is significantly associated with the shape of the age-risk function: Hardship is associated with flatter age-risk curves and, consequently, smaller differences between younger and older individuals. We believe these results are important in helping portray life span differences in risk taking as psychological adaptations to local challenges and demands.

Propensity for Risk Taking Across the Life Span and Around the Globe

Past empirical work suggests that aging is associated with decreases in risk taking. But are such effects universal? Life-history theory suggests that the link between age and risk taking is a function of specific reproductive strategies that can be more or less risky depending on the ecology. We assessed variation in the age-risk curve using World Values Survey data from 77 countries (N = 147,118). The results suggest that propensity for risk taking tends to decline across the life span in the vast majority of countries. In addition, there is systematic variation among countries: Countries in which hardship (e.g., high infant mortality) is higher are characterized by higher levels of risk taking and flatter age-risk curves. These findings suggest that hardship may function as a cue to guide life-history strategies. Age-risk relations thus cannot be understood without reference to the demands and affordances of the environment.

Mata, R., Josef, A. K., & Hertwig, R. (2016). Propensity for risk taking across the life span and around the globe. Psychological Science. doi:10.1177/0956797615617811