Risky Decision-Making Under Social Influence

Risky decision-making and social influence are associated with many health-risk behaviors. However, more work is necessary to understand risky decision-making and social influence. Additionally, to begin identifying ways to change individuals' engagement in health-risk behaviors, more work is necessary to understand whether and how risky decision-making and social influence can be modulated. Using computational modeling in conjunction with other techniques, this dissertation 1) explores mechanisms underlying risky decision-making under social influence (Study 1) and 2) examines how individuals could modulate risky decision-making and social influence (Studies 2 and 3). Study 1 identifies a novel social heuristic decision-making process whereby individuals who are more uncertain about risky decisions follow others and proposes dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) as a 'controller' of this heuristic. Study 2 finds that giving individuals agency in viewing social information increases the utility of that information. Study 3 finds that some individuals can modulate brain patterns associated with risky decision-making using a real-time fMRI (rt-fMRI) neurofeedback paradigm, and preliminarily shows that this leads to behavior change in risky decision-making. In sum, these studies expand on previous work elucidating mechanisms of risky decision-making under social influence and suggest two possible avenues (agency and real-time fMRI neurofeedback) by which individuals can be taught to change their behavior when making risky decisions under social influence.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy

Level thesis:degree_level

doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Translational Biology, Medicine and Health

Department dc:contributor.department

Graduate School

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2021

Author dc:creator

• Orloff, Mark Andrew

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Chiu, Pearl H.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Chung, Dongil
• LaConte, Stephen M.
• Casas, Brooks

• risky decision-making
• social influence
• health-risk behaviors
• computational modeling
• functional magnetic resonance imaging
• lesion

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language.iso

en

Dc Identifier Other

vt_gsexam:32603

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/114066