Individual Differences in Risk Perception and Risk Taking: The Role of Handedness and Interhemispheric Interaction

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Previous research suggests that there is a link between decision processes and brain organization, and that strength of handedness, which relates to left brain-right brain interconnectivity, is a powerful and generalizable predictor of decision making style. The literature indicates that the right hemisphere is biased towards greater sensitivity and aversion to risk, and that mixed-handers have greater access to right-hemisphere processing. Thus, the prediction is that mixed-handers should be more risk averse than strong-handers. The studies in Phase 1 are designed to test this hypothesis by examining a variety of risk phenomena such as sunk costs, endowment effects, ambiguity-avoidance, and risky choice framing "preference reversals." Phase 2 will explore the neural mechanisms that may underlie these handedness differences. Specifically, a second set of studies is proposed in which these same tasks are combined with eye movement and unidirectional gaze manipulations that serve to increase or decrease inter-hemispheric interaction, respectively. This work may advance our understanding of decision behavior, in general, and risk perception and risk taking, in particular. At the very least, strength of handedness could be used as a screening tool to identify "risky" and "non-risky" individuals. Perhaps even more intriguing, we could then use the techniques described in Phase 2 to help people more fully comprehend the potential risks of their decision behaviors. For example, if we find that inter-hemispheric interaction drives belief updating, one could use eye movements in public health and media relation campaigns to increase this interaction, thereby increasing one's aversion to risk.