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Off the Cuff: Self-Reported Positive Urgency Predicts Rapid Choices During Risky Decision-Making
Ziqi Fu1,2, Y Doug Dong1,3, Sean Devine1
1Department of Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, Canada.
Abstract:
Impulsivity is a multifaceted personality trait reflecting a tendency to act on immediate urges, often linked to maladaptive real-world behaviors. One facet of impulsivity, Positive Urgency-the tendency to act rashly in response to positive affect-has been increasingly recognized as an important predictor of detrimental risk-taking behaviors. While a body of past work has uncovered modest predictive relationships between Positive Urgency and laboratory-assseed risk preferences, little work has examined whether Positive Urgency relates to speed at which risky choices are made. Here we directly examined the relationship between Positive Urgency (measured using the SUPPS-P Impulsive Behavior Scale) and risky choice behavior in a simple, gain-only risky decision-making task wherein outcomes and probabilities were fully described to participants. Across two samples (a laboratory and a direct online replication; total N = 285), we observed that participants higher in Positive Urgency made significantly faster risky choices, but not faster choices to the certain option. This predictive effect was specific to Positive Urgency as other impulsivity dimensions, such as Sensation Seeking and Negative Urgency, did not appear to relate to risky choice speed. Together, these results highlight how Positive Urgency captures the "rash" aspect of impulsive decision-making for rewards under risk.
Supplementary Information:
The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1007/s42761-026-00377-6.
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