Economic inequality increases risk taking

Inequality and risk-taking behaviour

Becker, Murphy and Werning (2005) found that individuals about to participate in a status tournament may take fair gambles even though they are risk averse in both wealth and status. Here, this insight is matched with that of Hopkins and Kornienko (2010) that in a tournament or status competition one can consider equality either in terms of initial endowments or in terms of the status or reward...

Discrimination and risk - taking , 1 Experiencing discrimination increases risk - taking

Prior research has revealed racial disparities in health outcomes and more health-compromising behaviors, such as smoking and drug abuse. It has been suggested that discrimination may contribute to such disparities, but the mechanisms through which this occurs are not well understood. Here, we examined whether the experience of discrimination affects acute physiological stress responses and inc...

Experiencing discrimination increases risk taking.

Prior research has revealed racial disparities in health outcomes and health-compromising behaviors, such as smoking and drug abuse. It has been suggested that discrimination contributes to such disparities, but the mechanisms through which this might occur are not well understood. In the research reported here, we examined whether the experience of discrimination affects acute physiological st...

Informational content of relative deprivation as a channel linking economic inequality to risk taking.

Informational content of relative deprivation as a channel linking economic inequality to risk taking

The evidence that economic inequality (or relative deprivation) increases risk taking, as presented in PNAS by Payne et al. (1), is an insightful addition to a broader literature that finds that relative deprivation has distinct effects on individuals, not the least of which is their happiness, in addition to any direct effects of individuals’ absolute wealth or prosperity (2–4). However, when ...