A recent study posted to the bioRxiv* preprint server evaluates how individuals with anxiety reply to a gambling decision-making task.
Study: Risk and Loss Aversion and Attitude to COVID and Vaccines in Anxious Individuals. Image Credit: Zivica Kerkez / Shutterstock.com
*Necessary notice: bioRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that aren’t peer-reviewed and, subsequently, mustn’t be thought to be conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information.
Risk behavior and anxiety
Anxiety disorders have been related to behavioral changes in decision-making. The Prospect theory describes how individuals prefer sure outcomes with a low magnitude over less sure outcomes with a high magnitude, thus leading to risk-averse behaviors.
Previous studies have evaluated anxiety effects on risk aversion and linked high anxiety to elevated risk aversion bias in decision-making tasks. Notably, a few of these studies using computational models report mixed findings; nonetheless, limited studies have assessed loss aversion.
Risk and loss aversion in anxiety can profoundly affect on a regular basis life and economic decisions, especially in crises comparable to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. When public health is at stake, understanding what motivates attitudes and behaviors toward vaccination and pre-emptive measures is important.
Concerning the study
In the current study, researchers quantify the impact of risk and loss aversion on decision-making in a web based gambling task. A complete of 163 participants in the UK were recruited in September and October 2022. After exclusions, 115 participants were included.
In the course of the computer-based gambling task, participants were asked to choose from a sure option and a gambling wheel, with a 50% probability of every option appearing on the wheel after spinning.
Two varieties of trials including mixed gamble and gain-only trials were studied. Within the mixed gamble trial, the sure option was £0 and the gambling wheel had an equal probability of winning a small monetary reward or losing some money. Within the gain-only trial, the sure option was a hard and fast and small amount of cash and the wheel had an equal likelihood of winning a bigger monetary reward or nothing.
The experiment comprised 98 mixed gamble and 50 gain-only trials, by which participants chosen between options inside 4 seconds. Participants accomplished a state trait anxiety inventory (STAI), a seven-item generalized anxiety disorder (GAD-7) scale, and COVID-19-related questionnaires after the gambling task.
The team fitted three models derived from the Prospect theory to participant data. The primary model estimated risk and loss aversion, whereas the opposite two models estimated only loss and risk, respectively. Maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) and the hierarchical Bayesian (HB) method were used to suit models.
Findings
The proportions of gambling weren’t different by anxiety or vaccination status. The mean response time was statistically non-significant between individuals with high and low anxiety, COVID-19 vaccination status not having an impact on this factor. Nevertheless, significant differences in response times were observed within the mixed gamble trials between high- and low-anxiety groups.
The researchers observed that the HB method produced higher results than MLE. Participants were risk-averse and valued losses twice as much as wins.
Individuals with high anxiety showed more loss aversion than low-anxiety subjects, with no differences in risk aversion. GAD-7 scores were significantly correlated with loss aversion but not with risk aversion.
A logistic regression model was fitted using GAD-7-based anxiety because the dependent variable and risk and loss aversion as independent variables. The model revealed that loss aversion, moderately than risk aversion, was a major predictor of tension. There was no correlation between risk/loss aversion and COVID-19 attitudes/behaviors.
Conclusions
Individuals with increased levels of GAD had higher loss aversion than those with lower levels of GAD. Risk aversion was not different between high and low anxiety groups.
Future studies should concentrate on the results of motivation and rewards on dangerous decision-making.
*Necessary notice: bioRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that aren’t peer-reviewed and, subsequently, mustn’t be thought to be conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information.