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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Aug 9, 2025

A New Method for Inducing a Depression-Like Behavior in Rats

A New Method for Inducing a Depression-Like Behavior in Rats

Published on: February 22, 2018

Reduced social risk-taking in depression.

Daisy Follett¹, Caitlin Hitchcock¹, Tim Dalgleish¹

¹University of Cambridge.

Journal of Psychopathology and Clinical Science

|February 22, 2023

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Individuals with major depressive disorder (MDD) show reduced social risk-taking. This suggests depressed mood may be an adaptive response to social status concerns, promoting caution in social situations.

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Published on: May 19, 2015

Area of Science:

Psychology
Evolutionary Psychology
Clinical Psychology

Background:

Evolutionary models propose depression is an adaptive response to low social status.
Depressed mood may motivate reduced social risk-taking to avoid exclusion.

Purpose of the Study:

To test the hypothesis of reduced social risk-taking in individuals with major depressive disorder (MDD).
To investigate if MDD is associated with altered risk-taking behavior in social contexts.

Main Methods:

A novel adaptation of the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART) was used.
Participants with MDD (n=27) and never-depressed controls (n=35) completed individual and social risk-taking conditions.
Social risk involved risking group resources, while individual risk involved personal resources.

Main Results:

No significant difference in risk-taking between groups in the individual condition.
The MDD group exhibited significantly reduced risk-taking in the social condition compared to controls.
This indicates an aversion to social risk in depression.

Conclusions:

The findings support the evolutionary hypothesis linking depression to social risk aversion.
Depression may involve adaptive strategies to mitigate social exclusion risks.
Altered social risk-taking is a key feature of major depressive disorder.