Background: Catastrophizing, when an individual overestimates the probability of a severe negative outcome, is related to various aspects mental ill-health. Here, we further characterize catastrophizing by investigating extent which self-reported associated with risk-taking, using online behavioural task and computational modelling. Methods: We performed two st...

tempt was usually made to rescue the individual by sending out a fleet of canoes. The chances of the rescue succeeding depended on many factors including the availability of the canoes, the weather and the time of day or night. The individual therefore knew that the outcome of his suicide attempt was uncertain even if he did not really wish to end his life but was making an appeal or a protest....

rence of this newly defined disease, it would be difficult to detect if outcomes were determined only according to the presence or absence of injury events, as opposed to this more refined measure. Further, in the development ofmultivariable etiological models, one guiding principle is never to adjust for variables unless we understand how they relate to both the exposure and the outcome. If on...

We analyze a continuous-time model of dynamic project choices by an agent that is relevant to various important issues in financial economics. An agent controls the drift and volatility of a lognormal output process by dynamically selecting one of N projects. Under broad conditions, the optimal risk-taking policy is characterized by at most K − 1 unique switching triggers, where K is the number...

In an asymmetric tournament model with endogenous risk choice by the agents it is shown that equilibrium efforts decrease (increase) with risk if abilities are sufficiently similar (different). Risk also affects winning probabilities. The interaction of both effects is analyzed. JEL classification: D23, J3, M12.

We test whether specific, challenging goals increase risk taking. We propose that goals serve as reference points, creating a region of perceived losses for outcomes below a goal (Kahneman & Tversky, 1979; Tversky & Kahneman, 1992). According to the Prospect Theory value function, decision makers become more risk seeking in the domain of losses. In three experiments we compared a “do your best”...