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Experimental Research Examining How People Can Cope with Uncertainty Through Soft Haptic Sensations

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Experience-based risk taking is primarily shaped by prior learning rather than by decision-making.

Alon Erdman¹, Arne Gouwy², Gal Sananes²

¹Department of Psychology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel. alon.erdman@mail.huji.ac.il.

Nature Communications

|July 8, 2025

Summary

Risk-taking behavior is primarily shaped by learning processes, not decision-making. Changes in how individuals learn to weigh potential gains and losses significantly influence their risk preferences over time.

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Area of Science:

Cognitive Neuroscience
Behavioral Economics
Decision Science

Background:

Individual risk-taking varies significantly, impacting economic behavior and mental health.
Risk assessment often involves weighting potential gains and losses, but real-life decisions are influenced by prior learning experiences.

Purpose of the Study:

To determine whether cognitive decision-making or learning processes primarily govern the weighting of gains and losses in experience-based choices.
To investigate the interplay between learning and decision-making in shaping risk-taking behavior over time.

Main Methods:

A longitudinal decision task over 28 days involving 100 participants.
Computational modeling to analyze participants' choices and identify factors influencing risk-taking.
Measurement of neural and physiological learning signals in response to decision outcomes.

Main Results:

Changes in risk-taking behavior were predominantly explained by alterations in how learning, rather than decision-making, weighted gains and losses.
Observed neural and physiological signals confirmed inferred changes in learning processes.
Learning's influence on risk weighting was found to be more significant than decision-making's.

Conclusions:

In decisions based on experience, learning plays a crucial role in regulating risk-taking.
Understanding the learning mechanisms behind risk weighting is key to explaining individual differences in financial and behavioral choices.