Risk Aversion - Risk Aversion in The Brain

Risk Aversion in The Brain

Attitudes towards risk have attracted the interest of the field of neuroeconomics and behavioral economics. A study by researchers at the University of Cambridge suggested that the activity of a specific brain area (right inferior frontal gyrus) correlates with risk aversion, with more risk averse participants (i.e. those having higher risk premia) also having higher responses to safer options. This result coincides with other studies, that show that neuromodulation of the same area results in participants making more or less risk averse choices, depending on whether the modulation increases or decreases the activity of the target area.

Read more about this topic:  Risk Aversion

Famous quotes containing the words risk, aversion and/or brain:

    Anyone who takes himself too seriously always runs the risk of looking ridiculous; anyone who can consistently laugh at himself does not.
    Václav Havel (b. 1936)

    My aversion from music rests on political grounds.
    Thomas Mann (1875–1955)

    I don’t know but a book in a man’s brain is better off than a book bound in calf—at any rate it is safer from criticism. And taking a book off the brain, is akin to the ticklish & dangerous business of taking an old painting off a panel—you have to scrape off the whole brain in order to get at it with due safety—& even then, the painting may not be worth the trouble.
    Herman Melville (1819–1891)