Peers' Choices Influence Adolescent Risk-taking Especially When Explicit Risk Information is Lacking

Virtual agents and risk-taking behavior in adolescence: the twofold nature of nudging

Peer pressure can influence risk-taking behavior and it is particularly felt during adolescence. With artificial intelligence (AI) increasingly present in a range of everyday human contexts, including virtual environments, it is important to examine whether AI can have an impact on human's decision making processes and behavior. By using the balloon analogue risk task (BART) evaluating propensity to take risk, in this study 113 adolescents' risk-taking behavior was measured when playing alone and in the presence of either a robot avatar or human avatar. In the avatar conditions, participants performed the BART while the avatars either (1) verbally incited risk-taking or (2) discouraged risk-taking (experimental tasks). Risk-taking behavior in the BART was assessed in terms of total number of pumps, gain and explosions. Tendency to impulsivity was also evaluated, as well as the effects of age and gender on risky behavior. The main finding showed a significant effect of both avatars on risk-taking tendency, with riskier behavior during incitement than discouragement conditions, the latter being also substantially different from the playing-alone condition. The results of this study open up new questions in a very sensitive and timely topic and offer various insights into the effect of nudging on adolescents' behavior in virtual contexts.

The Impact of Childhood Socioeconomic Status on Adolescents' Risk Behaviors: The Role of Physiological and Psychological Threats

Adolescence is a period of high levels of risk behavior. The present research aims to examine the influences of childhood socioeconomic status (SES) on risk behaviors in gain or loss domains among adolescents and the roles of threats in this effect. In experiment 1, a total of 107 adolescents (M_age = 14.80; SD_age = 1.15) were asked to complete the childhood socioeconomic status scale before they took part in a risk behavior task under the gain and loss situation. A total of 149 adolescents (M_age = 14.24; SD_age = 1.11) in experiment 2a and 139 adolescents (M_age = 13.88; SD_age = 1.09) in experiment 2b completed the childhood socioeconomic status scale before they took part in a risk behavior task under the gain and loss situation under physiological threats and psychological threats, respectively. The results showed that high-childhood-SES adolescents tend to take more risks than low-childhood-SES adolescents in the gain domain, while low-childhood-SES adolescents tend to take more risks than high-childhood-SES adolescents in the loss domain. Threats amplified the impact of childhood socioeconomic status on adolescents' risk behaviors in the gain and loss domains. When a physiological threat or psychological threat was primed, compared to the control group, in the gain situation, the extent to which high-childhood-SES adolescents showed greater risk seeking than low-childhood-SES adolescents became larger; in the loss domain, the extent to which low-childhood-SES adolescents showed greater risk seeking than high-childhood-SES adolescents became larger.

Development of ambiguity aversion from early adolescence to adulthood: New insights from the Ellsberg paradox

This research aimed to clarify whether middle adolescents’ risk-taking is driven by reduced ambiguity aversion. In Study 1, we explored the development of ambiguity aversion using an adaptation of the classic Ellsberg paradox with early adolescents (10–11 years old), middle adolescents (14–16 years old), and young adults (20–25 years old). Study 2 examined the development of ambiguity aversion depending on the ambiguity level in middle adolescence compared with adults. These two studies revealed that only early adolescents did not demonstrate ambiguity aversion. In contrast, middle adolescents and adults showed strong ambiguity aversion irrespective of ambiguity level. These findings support the idea that the period of young adolescence could be the start of ambiguity aversion development, although this tendency to avoid ambiguous options is already developed in middle adolescence. This finding might have important public health implications and suggests that prevention campaigns should consider early adolescence to be a particularly vulnerable age group for risky behaviors.

Face masks increase compliance with physical distancing recommendations during the COVID-19 pandemic

Governments across the world have implemented restrictive policies to slow the spread of COVID-19. Recommended face mask use has been a controversially discussed policy, among others, due to potential adverse effects on physical distancing. Using a randomized field experiment (N = 300), we show that individuals kept a significantly larger distance from someone wearing a face mask than from an unmasked person during the early days of the pandemic. According to an additional survey experiment (N = 456) conducted at the time, masked individuals were not perceived as being more infectious than unmasked ones, but they were believed to prefer more distancing. This result suggests that wearing a mask served as a social signal that led others to increase the distance they kept. Our findings provide evidence against the claim that mask use creates a false sense of security that would negatively affect physical distancing. Furthermore, our results suggest that behavior has informational content that may be affected by policies.