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This is Your Portfolio on Winter: Seasonal Affective Disorder and Risk Aversion in Financial Decision Making

October 13, 2011 Comments off

This is Your Portfolio on Winter: Seasonal Affective Disorder and Risk Aversion in Financial Decision Making
Source: Social Psychological and Personality Science

This study found that people who suffer from seasonal affective disorder (SAD) displayed financial risk aversion that varied across the seasons as a function of seasonally changing affect. The SAD-sufferers had significantly stronger preferences for safe choices during the winter than non-SAD-sufferers, and they did not differ from non-SAD-sufferers during the summer. The effect of SAD on risk aversion in the winter was mediated by depression.

+ Full Paper (PDF)

See: Fall Market Jitters a SAD Thing: Less Daylight in Fall May Lead to Depressed Markets (Science Daily)

Categories: business and economics, insurance and risk, investments, mental health and substance abuse, psychology and sociology, science, Social Psychological and Personality Science

Living Dangerously: Culture of Honor, Risk-Taking, and the Nonrandomness of “Accidental” Deaths

August 17, 2011 Comments off

Living Dangerously: Culture of Honor, Risk-Taking, and the Nonrandomness of “Accidental” Deaths (PDF)
Source: Social Psychological and Personality Science

Two studies examined the hypothesis that the culture of honor would be associated with heightened risk taking, presumably because risky behaviors provide social proof of strength and fearlessness. As hypothesized, Study 1 showed that honor states in the United States exhibited higher rates of accidental deaths among Whites (but not non-Whites) than did nonhonor states, particularly in nonmetropolitan areas. Elevated accidental deaths in honor states appeared for both men and women and remained when the authors controlled for a host of statewide covariates (e.g., economic deprivation, cancer deaths, temperature) and for non-White deaths. Study 2, likewise, showed that people who endorsed honor-related beliefs reported greater risk taking tendencies, independent of age, sex, self-esteem, and the big five.

Categories: gender and sexuality, psychology and sociology, race, safety, social and cultural issues, Social Psychological and Personality Science
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