Men more likely to take risks when stressed
Men more likely to take risks such as gambling and smoking when put under stress, according to research
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Wednesday, 01, Jul 2009 12:00
Men are more likely to take risks such as gambling and smoking when put under stress, according to research.
Published in the journal PLoS One, the research, out today, showed stressed women are less likely to make risky choices than men.
The researchers asked both sexes to play a game called 'the Balloon Analogue Risk Task'. The test, which involves inflating balloons to earn money, had previously been used to assess tolerance for risky behaviour among inner-city teenagers.
Nichole Lighthall of the University of Southern California Davis School of Gerontology, and lead author of the paper, said: "Evolutionarily speaking, it's perhaps more beneficial for men to be aggressive in stressful, high-arousal situations when risk and reward are involved.
"Applied to financial risk taking, it's akin to competition for territory or other valuable resources."
In the control group in the study men and women displayed statistically the same levels of risk. However, in the stressed group, women were 30 per cent less likely to take a risk than a man.
Ms Lighthall added: "Obviously, there are situations in the real world where risky behaviour would not be beneficial.
"Sometimes being conservative, thoughtful and taking it slow are good things.
"Men seem to enter more risky financial situations than women, which was part of the impetus for our study.
"But only in the stressed condition did we see any statistical differences in risky behaviour between men and women."