Risk Choice: Intention vs. Action

Abstract

In decision-making research, the most common point of view is the synonymous similarity of intentions and actions. Most experimental procedures “reduce” them into a single act. Understanding the conventionality of separating these concepts, we distinguish two types of tasks. The first one involves only the intention and the second one also involves its subsequent behavioral implementation. The purpose of our study is to compare the risky choice as an intention and as an action. The hypothesis of various manifestations of risk-related personality traits in choice as an intention and as an action was tested. 462 students from 17 to 46 years old (M=21.20, SD=3.09) became participants in the study, including 80 male (17.3%) and 382 female (82.7%). To measure risk as intention, the participants were offered a case describing a hypothetical gambling game. To measure risk as an action, it was proposed to play a computer game of similar content. The results of one-way ANOVA (between group measures) showed that the choice of risk at the level of intention did not allow to fix the personal correlates of the decision making, however, at the level of real actions, its correlations with the Dark Triad and Uncertainty Tolerance appeared. These empirical facts were interpreted in the logic of cognitive, motivational and socio-psychological approaches. The results obtained can be used in the field of forecasting economic risks.