Interaction of Current and Childhood Environment on Risky Decision-Making: An Experimental and Longitudinal Life-History Theory Approach

项目摘要这项研究调查了一个人的童年环境如何与他或她当前的青壮年环境相结合，来影响他/她成年后的冒险行为。年轻人做出的冒险决定是否会受到当前环境中突出的特定事件的影响，比如附近的人最近是否过早死亡？他们是否依赖于一个人的童年环境，例如他或她是否在经济上被剥夺了？这项研究通过将来自生活史理论(LHT)的关于特定环境线索影响的知识与风险决策的新的跨学科模型相结合，为这些问题提供了答案。这项研究将检验这样一种观点，即早期风险因素(例如，儿童贫困)和青年环境(例如，暴露于暴力或经济不确定性)的组合最能解释年轻人的危险行为。该研究涉及两种类型的研究。首先是一系列关于高风险决策的实验室实验。这些实验小心翼翼地操纵死亡率和/或经济不确定性的线索，看看相同的线索是否会对来自不同风险背景的人的风险决策(例如，进行更高风险的赌博)产生不同的后果。第二类研究是补充性纵向研究。具体地说，PI将分析明尼苏达州风险和适应纵向研究的数据。这项正在进行的研究包括：(A)来自父母的关于其子女(即目标参与者)童年环境的数据，(B)关于成人目标当前环境的数据(23岁)，以及(C)关于成人目标从事现实生活危险行为的倾向的数据(例如，财务支出记录、健康和毒品相关行为、犯罪记录)。这项纵向研究与实验相结合，将使PI能够确定当前和儿童环境是否以及如何共同影响成年后不同类型的危险行为的制定。在理论层面上，本研究将：(1)从发展心理学、社会心理学、经济学和人格心理学角度整合环境对风险决策和行为的影响的理论和研究；(2)将心理学工作与人类学和进化生物学的理论和研究联系起来；(3)使用实验室实验和纵向数据对所提出的想法进行严格的测试。除了在不同的研究生研究助理群体中促进研究生培训之外，这项研究还有可能对重要的日常决策--对经济和心理健康、健康和公共政策有直接影响的决策--产生重要的见解。例如，如果这项研究支持这样一种观点，即早期风险暴露和当前的经济不确定性共同促进了高风险决策(并更好地阐明了哪些高风险决策最有可能符合这种模式)，那么科学家和政策制定者将更好地针对危险行为设计和制定更有效的干预措施，从不安全的性行为或吸毒到赌博或其他经济风险行为的易感性。

Project Abstract This research investigates how an individual's childhood environment combines with his or her current young-adult environment to influence his/her risk-taking in adulthood. Are risky decisions made by young adults influenced by specific events that are salient in that person's current environment, such as whether someone nearby has recently died prematurely? Do they depend on the person's childhood environment, such as whether she or he was economically deprived? This research provides answers to these questions by integrating knowledge about the effects of specific environmental cues derived from life history theory (LHT) with new, interdisciplinary models of risky decision-making. This research will test the idea that it is the combination of early risk factors (e.g., childhood poverty) and young adult environment (e.g., exposure to violence or economic uncertainty) that best explain risky behavior in young adults. The research involves two types of studies. The first is a series of laboratory experiments on risky decision-making. The experiments carefully manipulate cues for mortality and/or feelings of economic uncertainty to see if the same cues have different consequences for risky decision making (e.g., taking riskier gambles) among people who come from different risk backgrounds. The second type of study is a complementary longitudinal study. Specifically, the PIs will analyze data from the Minnesota Longitudinal Study of Risk and Adaptation. This ongoing study contains: (a) data from parents on their children's (i.e., the target participants') childhood environment, (b) data on the adult targets' current environment (at age 23), and (c) data on the adult targets' tendency to engage in real-life risk behaviors (e.g., financial spending records, health and drug-related behavior, criminal records). This longitudinal study, in combination with the experiments, will allow the PIs to determine whether and how current and childhood environments work together to influence the enactment of different kinds of risky behaviors in adulthood. At a theoretical level, this research will: (1) integrate theory and research on environmental influences on risky decision-making and behavior from developmental, social, economic, and personality psychology, (2) link psychological work to theory and research in anthropology and evolutionary biology, and (3) provide rigorous tests of the proposed ideas using both lab experiments and longitudinal data. In addition to promoting graduate training among a diverse group of graduate research assistants, this research has the potential to yield important insights about important everyday decisions -- decisions with direct implications for financial and mental well-being, health, and public policy. For example, if this research supports the idea that it is the combination of early exposure to risk and current economic uncertainty that promotes risky decision making (and clarifies better exactly which risky decisions are most likely to fit this pattern), scientists and policy makers will be in a better position to design and target more effective interventions for risky behaviors, ranging from unsafe sex or drug use to susceptibility to gambling or other economically risky behaviors.