Some Love Taking Risks Because It Makes Them Feel Good
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amoklv/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — Like a lot of what we do, the amount of risk we’re willing to take in a game of chance is tied to how much pleasure we derive from it.
Dr. Kaisa Hytonen of Finland’s Aalto University explains, “The stronger the emotion areas of the brain react to experiences of profit and loss, the more people subsequently accept risk.”
Hytonen, a neurofinance researcher, said that by studying MRI images of the brain of people making choices subject to risk, he could see that the desire to engage in greater risk taking, after profit and loss, linked to greater activity in the processes affecting mood.
He adds that the choices people make when risk is involved is also influenced by previous experience.
That seemed to be the case whether people are at a casino, the racetrack or playing the stock market.
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