Examining the Role of Physiological Arousal in Laboratory Risk-Taking in Social and Non-Social Contexts

Current theoretical models attribute the rise in risk-taking during adolescence to heightened activity in reward processing brain regions when in the presence of social and non-social rewarding stimuli. However, non-rewarding, but very salient stimuli, have also been shown to increase activity in reward processing brain regions and could, in theory, also increase risk taking propensity in adolescents. To examine this, we had participants complete a risk-taking task under “standard” conditions as well as under one of three experimental conditions: virtual peer observer with positive social feedback (positive social), virtual peer observer with neutral social feedback (negative social), and with triple the potential rewards (non-social positive). The study’s sample consisted of 59 mainly young adult participants (Mage = 20.69, SD = 5.08), where 22 identified as men and 37 identified as women. A multi-level model revealed no overall effect of exposure to the experimental context on risk-taking. Greater skin conductance was, unexpectedly, associated with less risk-taking. When examining each context in separate models, exposure to the non-social showed associations with increased risk-taking, whereas the positive social context did not. Negative social contexts showed a pattern of means suggesting that exposure to such contexts may be associated with increased risk-taking, but our models may have been underpowered and were unable to detect this effect. These findings suggest that the salience of a context may be an important factor to consider when exploring what drives adolescent risk-taking.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.A. Psychology

Level thesis:degree_level

Masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Faculty of Social Sciences

Department dc:contributor.department

Department of Psychology

Grantor

Brock University

Year dc:date.issued

2021

Author dc:creator

• Resch, Chelsie

• risk-taking
• social
• peers
• arousal
• skin conductance

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10464/15223

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:brocku.scholaris.ca:10464/15223