Document Type
Article
Publication Date
3-2022
Disciplines
Cognitive Psychology | Psychology | Statistical Models
Abstract
A commonly reported finding is that anxious individuals are less likely to make risky decisions. However, no studies have examined whether this association extends to death-related anxiety. The present study examined how groups low, moderate, and high in death-related anxiety make decisions with varying levels of risk. Participants completed a series of hypothetical bets in which the probability of a win was systematically manipulated. High-anxiety individuals displayed the greatest risk-taking behavior, followed by the moderate-anxiety group, with the low-anxiety group being most risk-averse. Experiment 2 tested this association further by framing outcomes in terms of losses, rather than gains. A similar pattern was observed with both positive and negative framing. In contrast to findings with trait anxiety, the present results suggest that death-related anxiety is positively associated with risky decision-making – an effect that holds regardless of how options are framed. Furthermore, the present study demonstrates that Bayesian modeling can provide very accurate predictions for economic decision-making behavior.
Copyright Statement
This is an Accepted Manuscript version of the article, accepted for publication in Personality and Individual Differences. The published version may be found at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2021.111438
It is deposited under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is not modified and properly cited.
Recommended Citation
Tomkins B. (2022). Death-related anxiety associated with riskier decision-making irrespective of framing: A Bayesian model comparison. Personality and Individual Differences, 187(111438). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2021.111438