The link between cognitive abilities and risk preference depends on measurement

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 13; no. 1; p. 21151
• Main Authors: Olschewski, Sebastian, Rieskamp, Jörg, Hertwig, Ralph
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 30.11.2023; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 631/378/2649; 631/477/2811; Cognition; Cognitive ability; Decision making; Heterogeneity; Humanities and Social Sciences; Humans; Memory, Short-Term; Mental task performance; multidisciplinary; Risk taking; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Self Report; Short term memory
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-47844-9

Risk preference is an important construct for understanding individual differences in risk taking throughout the behavioral sciences. An active stream of research has focused on better understanding risk preference through its connection to other psychological constructs, in particular, cognitive abilities. Here, we examine two large-scale multimethod data sets and demonstrate that the method used to measure risk preference is an important moderator. In self-report measures, we found small but consistent positive correlations between working memory capacity/numeracy, facets of cognitive abilities, and risk tolerance. In behavioral measures, we found, on average, no correlation and large intermethod heterogeneity. This heterogeneity can be explained by the choice architecture that is created in behavioral methods—in particular, the relation between risk and reward and the impact of decision error in a task. Consequently, investigating how risk preference relates to psychological constructs such as cognitive abilities require a profound understanding of the choice architecture in measurements of risk preference and in the real world.