The effect of interference on dynamic risk-taking judgments

The experiment outlined in this paper investigated the effect of interferen ce on everyday dynamic risk-taking judgments. Two questions were addressed. First, can highly practised dynamic risk-taking decisions become automated , such that they are not affected by the presence of a demanding secondary task? Second, if risk-taking decisions are interfered with by a secondary t ask, what is the direction of the effect? Do people take more risks when th ey are distracted or do they compensate for the interference and take fewer risks? Drivers (Ai = 121) were required to perform video-simulation tests measuring driving-related, risk-taking decisions. Participants were require d to carry out the tasks while either performing a concurrent verbal task o r not. It was found that those in the dual-task condition took more risks. This suggests that dynamic risk-taking decisions in this context are not au tomatic and also that interference increases individuals' propensity to tak e risks.