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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.
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.
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