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Abstract
Introduction
Money source influences risk-taking behaviors. Although studies consistently indicated that individuals demonstrate a higher propensity to make risky investments when utilizing non-labor income as opposed to labor income, explanations as to why non-labor income leads to continuously blowing money into risky investments are scarce.
Methods
The current study leverages a computational modeling approach to compare the differences in the dynamic risk investment process among individuals endowed with income from different sources (ie, non-labor income vs labor income) to understand the shaping force of higher risk-taking propensity in individuals with non-labor income. A total of 103 participants were recruited and completed the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART) with an equal monetary endowment, either as a token for completion of survey questionnaires (representing labor income) or as a prize from a lucky draw game (representing non-labor income).
Results
We found that individuals endowed with non-labor income made more risky investments in BART compared to those with labor income. With computational modeling, we further identified two key differences in the dynamic risk investment processes between individuals endowed with labor and those with non-labor income. Specifically, individuals endowed with non-labor income had a higher preset expectation for risk-taking and displayed desensitization towards losses during risk investments, in contrast to individuals with labor income.
Discussion
This study contributed to a better understanding of the psychological mechanisms of why individuals make more risk-taking behaviors with non-labor income, namely higher preset expectations of risk-taking and desensitization towards losses. Future research could validate these findings across diverse samples with varying backgrounds and adopt different manipulations of labor and non-labor income to enhance the external validity of our study.
Preregistration of Analysis Plans
We did not preregister the research with or without an analysis plan in an independent, institutional registry.
Preregistration of Studies
We did not preregister the research in an independent, institutional registry.
Data Sharing Statement
Data for this research project will be available upon reasonable request to the corresponding author.
Ethics Approval
All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This study was reviewed and given ethical clearance by the Institutional Review Board of Southwest University (IRB NO.H23171).
Consent to Participate
Before participation, all participants provided written informed consent.
Consent to Publish
Participants signed informed consent regarding publishing their data and photographs.
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank all the participants and the supports from all the research assistants. This work was supported by Innovative Practical Training Program for College Students, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (project number D202101) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (project number 72033006 and 82171535), which provided support for the data collection. The manuscript has been posted as a preprint on PsyChinaXiv to ensure timely access for the academic community to our research findings (DOI: 10.12074/202309.00151V1). This paper has been uploaded as a preprint: https://chinaxiv.org/abs/202309.00151.
Disclosure
The authors declare no conflicts of interest in this work.