Evaluating risk-taking in a cooperative context

Abstract

Risk-taking is a fundamental feature of human behavior. The evaluation of risk-taking has commonly focused on the assessment of individuals rather than on social scenarios which often entail cooperative interactions as well as consensual decision making. Our aim in the present study was to assess joint risk-taking in same and mixed gender dyads from an age range encompassing children and young adults. For this, we tested participants in an ecologically relevant, cooperative tower-building task in which they had to work together using their assigned wooden blocks to build the tallest tower they could within 10 minutes. Participants of all ages collaboratively engaged in a construction process that involved options, uncertainty, and a potential for undesirable outcomes. We found that adult male dyads built taller towers than female and mixed dyads. Given the low number of metrics showing gender differences and the small effect sizes, we consider further methodological implementations in order to increase the salience of the outcome and in consequence, provide a sharper assessment of risk-taking. We conclude that the current task shows potential as a novel experimental method to evaluate risk-taking in a realistic cooperative context.