Neural Diversity and Decisions

Purpose

Differences in choices provide a window into the variety of human preferences and behaviors. Most non-trivial decisions recruit multiple regions of the brain with activity that shows substantial variation across individuals and also depends on personality traits and attitudes.

Methods

The present study measured nine physiologic factors and collected 15 types of psychological data while participants made decisions in standard tasks measuring risk aversion, patience, altruism, cooperation, generosity, trust, and trustworthiness. Robust predictors were defined as those that were statistically significant in both forward and backward stepwise regressions using all the collected independent variables.

Results

The analysis showed that multiple measures of physiologic stress decrease cooperative behaviors while testosterone consistently increased antisocial behaviors. In addition, cognitive abilities robustly increased patience but decreased cooperation, while those more satisfied with their lives were more trustworthy. Participants scoring high on the personality trait of imagination were shown to be less altruistic and generous, while neuroticism increased prosociality.

Conclusion

This study identified key drivers of behaviors that should be measured in decision-making experiments in order to capture the multiple factors that affect choices. We conclude with suggestions on how to establish causal relationships between the identified factors and decisions.