The role of social context in risky decision‐making: Presence of friend and low resistance to peer influence increase risky decision‐making

Abstract

Following sociocultural and personality theory, the current study addresses the need to investigate the influence of the social context and related personality variables on risky decision-making. Risky decision-making was assessed in six daily-life scenarios in a sample of 357 adult participants, ages 18-75. Scenarios differed regarding competition (competitive vs. non-competitive) and presence of others (alone, with friends, or with acquaintances). Additionally, the personality variables ego-strength, agreeableness, and resistance-to-peer influence as well as demographic variables were assessed. Results showed that participants made more risky decisions in the non-competitive scenarios and in the scenarios when they were accompanied by a friend compared to when they were alone. Regression analyses revealed that men made more risky decisions than women. High resistance-to-peer influence and agreeableness whereas related to fewer risky decisions. Overall, results showed the strong influence of social and personality factors on risky decision-making which could have implications for prevention programmes. Further, these results show that a pure cognitive approach to the study of risky decision-making is too narrow. Considering cognition, social context, and personality traits together seems to be a promising approach for the study of risky daily-life decisions.

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