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Updated: Jun 24, 2025

Measuring the Subjective Value of Risky and Ambiguous Options using Experimental Economics and Functional MRI Methods
Published on: September 19, 2012
Physiology of Risk-Taking and Risk Management in Realistic Decision-Making Scenarios
Davide Crivelli1,2, Roberta A Allegretta1,2, Michela Balconi1,2
1International research center for Cognitive Applied Neuroscience (IrcCAN), Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy.
Abstract:
Decisions under risk are a particular case of decisional skills taking place in complex and mostly unpredictable situations, where affective connotation of deciding is highly relevant. We aimed at investigating decisional processes under risk by outlining individual risk-taking (RT) and risk management (RM) attitudes via realistic decision-making and, in keeping with the risk-as-feeling hypothesis, at exploring implicit physiological correlates of such processes. 35 participants were presented with realistic situations where they had to make decisions by choosing between alternatives connoted by different levels of riskiness. Concurrently, autonomic physiological activation (cardiovascular and electrodermal activity) was recorded. Data analysis highlighted that: (i) participants showed higher propensity towards risk management than risk-taking; (ii) the propensity towards both risk taking and risk management was significantly determined by physiological markers of autonomic activity; and (iii) risk taking and risk management indices showed associations with different autonomic measures, respectively heart rate and skin conductance metrics.
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