Joshua A Weller

University of Leeds · Centre for Decision Research (CDR)

Although risk taking traditionally has been viewed as a unitary, stable individual difference variable, emerging evidence in behavioral decision-making research suggests that risk taking is a domain-specific construct. Utilizing a psychological risk-return framework that regresses risk taking on the perceived benefits and perceived riskiness of an...

Research has demonstrated that individual differences in numeracy may have important consequences for decision making. In the present paper, we develop a shorter, psychometrically improved measure of numeracy—the ability to understand, manipulate, and use numerical information, including probabilities. Across two large independent samples that vari...

The current study focused on the degree to which decision context (deliberative vs. affective) differentially impacted the use of available information about uncertainty (i.e., probability, positive and negative outcome magnitudes, expected value, and variance/risk) when older adults were faced with decisions under risk. In addition, we examined wh...

Adolescence and emerging adulthood are developmental periods associated with increased risk taking, including alcohol and substance use and antisocial behaviors. Typical psychological growth from adolescence into early adulthood reflects increases in traits related to psychological regulation (e.g., greater emotional stability and less impulsivity)...

Because the construct of psychopathy is of chief interest across different disciplines, spanning developmental, clinical, and forensic psychology, its assessment bears far-reaching implications. One prominent contemporary conceptualization of psychopathy, the Triarchic Model, posits that a psychopathic personality encompasses three phenotypic const...

Decisions about one’s health are often accompanied by uncertain outcomes, which may be either positively or negatively valenced. The presence of this uncertainty, which can range along a continuum from risk to ambiguity (i.e., decisions in which the outcome probabilities are known or unknown), can be perceived as threatening, and individuals tend t...

The aim of the Kitchen Life 2 project is to identify the key behaviours relating to food safety that occur in domestic and business kitchens, as well as the factors that may reduce the likelihood to enact recommended food safety and hygiene behaviours. The outcomes will inform risk assessment and development of hypotheses for behavioural interventi...

Historically, individual differences research has sought to explain problem-gambling severity in adolescence by means of unitary “risk-taking” traits, such as sensation seeking and impulsivity, implying that these personality traits account for risk-taking tendencies across different types of behaviors and situations. However, increasing empirical...

Purpose This paper aims to empirically compare the degree to which two technological interventions, based on the computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) and the technology acceptance model (TAM), were associated with a different incidence of financial biases. Design/methodology/approach The study adopted a quasi-experimental research desi...

In the first week after the first COVID-19 patient was reported in the Netherlands, we conducted a pre-registered momentary assessment study (7 surveys per day, 50 participants, 7 days) to study the dynamic relationship between individuals’ occupation with and worries about COVID-19 in daily life, and the moderating role of neuroticism in this rela...

In the first week after the first COVID-19 patient was reported in the Netherlands, we conducted a pre-registered momentary assessment study (7 surveys per day, 50 participants, 7 days) to study the dynamic relationship between individuals’ occupation with and worries about COVID-19 in daily life, and the moderating role of neuroticism in this rela...

Identity development has been linked to substance use, but the directionality of this relationship remains unclear. We examined the longitudinal associations of educational and relational identity with substance use across three annual waves in 360 Dutch adolescents (M age = 13.7 years). We found three latent profiles using the identity dimensions...

Identity development has been linked to substance use, however, the directionality of this relationship remains unclear. We examined the longitudinal associations of educational and relational identity with substance use across three annual waves in 360 Dutch adolescents (Mage = 13.7 years). Using the identity dimensions of commitment, exploration,...

Identity development has been linked to substance use, however, the directionality of this relationship remains unclear. We examined the longitudinal associations of educational and relational identity with substance use across three annual waves in 360 Dutch adolescents (Mean age = 13.7 years). Using the identity dimensions of commitment, explorat...

Self-regulation is considered a major predictor of crime and deviant behavior. However, longitudinal research investigating these associations, frequently looked only at the effect of self-regulation on deviant behavior, but not the other way around. The current study argued that deviance may contribute to later problems in self-regulation, and exa...

The aim of this study was to assess the influence of diurnal cortisol profile on decision making under risk in individuals with problem gambling and a healthy control group. We examined the relationship between diurnal cortisol, assessed over the course of 2 days, and a battery of tasks that assessed decision making under risk, including the Columb...

Emerging research has highlighted the utility of measuring individual differences in decision-making competence (DMC), showing that consistently following normatively rational principles is associated with positive psychosocial and health behaviors. From another level of analysis, functional theories of personality suggest that broad trait dimensio...

We reviewed studies relating risk taking to personality traits. This search long has been elusive due to the large number of definitions of risk and to the variety of personality traits associated with risk taking in different forms and domains. In order to reconcile inconsistent findings, we categorized risk taking measures into self-report behavi...

Traditionally, studies examining decision-making heuristics and biases (H&B) have focused on aggregate effects using between-subjects designs in order to demonstrate violations of rationality. Although H&B are often studied in isolation from others, emerging research has suggested that stable and reliable individual differences in rational thought...

People who anticipate the potential regret of one’s decisions are believed to act in a more risk averse manner, and thus, display fewer risk-taking behaviors across many domains. We conducted two studies to investigate whether individual differences in regret-based decision-making (a) reflect a unitary cognitive-style dimension, (b) are stable over...

Decision-making competence (DMC) is the ability to follow normative principles when making decisions. In a longitudinal analysis, we examine the robustness of DMC over time, as measured by two batteries of paper-and-pencil tasks. Participants completed the youth version (Y-DMC) at age 19 and/or the adult version (A-DMC) 11 years later at age 30, as...

The present study aims to connect more the I/O and the decision-making psychological domains, by showing how some common components across jobs interfere with decision-making and affecting performance. Two distinct constructs that can contribute to positive workplace performance have been considered: decision-making competency (DMCy) and decision e...

Mobile phone use while driving (MPUWD) is an increasingly predominant form of distracted driving. Given the widespread prevalence of MPUWD, it is important for researchers to identify who is more likely to engage in this risky behavior. The current study investigates associations between MPUWD risk behaviors, domain-specific risk perceptions, and b...

Decision-making competence reflects individual differences in the susceptibility to committing decision-making errors, measured using tasks common from behavioral decision research (e.g., framing effects, under/overconfidence, following decision rules). Prior research demonstrates that those with higher decision-making competence report lower incid...

Childhood maltreatment has lasting negative effects throughout the life span. Early intervention research has demonstrated that these effects can be remediated through skill-based, family-centered interventions. However, less is known about plasticity during adolescence, and whether interventions are effective many years after children experience m...

Decision-making competence (DMC) reflects individual differences in rational responding across several classic behavioral decision-making tasks. Although it has been associated with real-world risk behavior, less is known about the degree to which DMC contributes to specific components of risk attitudes. Utilizing a psychological risk-return framew...

Two studies were conducted to examine the factor structure of attitude toward ambiguity, a broad personality construct that refers to personal reactions to perceived ambiguous stimuli in a variety of context and situations. Using samples from two countries, Study 1 mapped the hierarchical structure of 133 items from seven tolerance-intolerance of a...

Recent research has demonstrated that decision-making competence (DMC), a latent construct reflecting individual differences in rational thought, is predictive of real-world decision outcomes at various stages of life. This construct has been shown to be associated with concurrent and retrospective accounts of health-risking behavior, but its predi...

This research explored the underlying processes mediating risky decisions for individuals with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). We tested whether BPD patients were more apt to take risks compared to a matched comparison group. We used two controlled tasks designed to assess risky decision-making, both to achieve gains and to avoid losses. Ove...

Although past research has suggested a link between chronic stress and both physical and mental well-being in older adults, less is known about the degree to which neuroendocrine markers of stress are associated with higher-order cognitive processes such as decision-making. In a sample of healthy older adults (55–85 years), we tested the degree to...

HIV+ substance-dependent individuals (SDIs) make significantly poorer decisions than HIV- SDIs, but the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying this impairment have not been identified. We administered the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), a measure of decision making under uncertain risk, and the Cups Task, a measure of decision making under specified risk,...

Although maltreated children involved with child welfare services are known to exhibit elevated levels of health-risking behaviors, little is known about their decision-making processes leading to such tendencies. Research findings suggest that maltreated children exhibit developmental delays in neurocognitive and emotional regulation systems that...

Research has demonstrated that broad HEXACO personality dimensions predict domain-specific risk-taking (Weller & Tikir, 2011). We extend this research by testing the degree to which HEXACO dimensions, especially the Honesty-Humility dimension, differentially predicted risk preferences as a function of whether the decision was presented as a potenti...

Recent research using late adolescent (18–19 years) and adult samples suggests that within‐subject performance on a variety of standard, controlled laboratory tasks reflects a higher‐order positive manifold of decision‐making competence. The present paper extends this important work by testing whether preadolescent children (10‐ to 11‐year‐olds, n...

Objective: Distracted driving has become an important public health concern. However, little is known about the predictors of this health-risking behavior. One overlooked risk factor for distracted driving is the perceived attachment that one feels toward his or her phone. Prior research has suggested that individuals develop bonds toward objects,...

Affective neuroscience has helped guide research and theory development in judgment and decision-making by revealing the role of emotional processes in choice behavior, especially when risk is involved. Evidence is emerging that qualitatively and quantitatively different processes may be involved in risky decision-making for gains and losses. We st...

In this chapter we explore age differences in complex decision making. In particular, we focus on a key theme—the construction of preferences—that underlies the psychology of judgment and decision making and may influence age differences shown in decision making. Its central idea is that, in many situations, we do not know what we prefer and, as a...

In conclusion, rather than present a summary of the preceding chapters, we invited nine eminent past presidents of the Society for Judgment and Decision Making (SJDM) to provide personal perspectives on the concept of JDM as a dynamic skill. These scholars were not asked to comment on the chapters in this book, but rather to highlight their persona...

The ability to make advantageous decisions in the face of uncertainty is an essential human skill, yet the development of such abilities over the lifespan is still not well understood. In the current study, from childhood through older adulthood, we tracked the developmental trajectory of risk taking for gains and losses, and expected value (EV) se...

Several lines of functional neuroimaging studies have attributed a role for the insula, a critical component of the brain's emotional circuitry, in risky decision-making. However, very little evidence yet exists as to whether the insula is necessary for advantageous decision-making under risk, specifically decisions involving uncertain gains and lo...

We relate performance on the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), a widely used, but complex, neuropsychological task of executive function in which mixed outcomes (gains and losses) are experienced together, to performance on a relatively simpler descriptive task, the Cups task, which isolates adaptive decision making for achieving gains and avoiding losses....

We report two studies investigating whether relationship satisfaction differentially influences the use of the "self-based heuristic" (SBH) or the degree to which an individual's own characteristics contribute to ratings of another's personality. Individuals rated themselves, a friend, and a person with whom they have experienced significant confli...

A well-studied index of reasoning and decision making is the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT). The IGT possesses many features important to medical decision making, such as weighing risks and benefits, dealing with unknown outcomes, and making decisions under uncertainty. There exists a great deal of individual variability on the IGT, particularly among ol...

Making a risky decision is a complex process that involves evaluation of both the value of the options and the associated risk level. Yet the neural processes underlying these processes have not so far been clearly identified. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging and a task that simulates risky decisions, we found that the dorsal region of t...

Do decisions about potential gains and potential losses require different neural structures for advantageous choices? In a lesion study, we used a new measure of adaptive decision making under risk to examine whether damage to neural structures subserving emotion affects an individual's ability to make adaptive decisions differentially for gains an...

In a 3-year follow-up to Levin and Hart's (2003) study, we observed the same children, now 9–11 years old, and their parents in the same risky decision-making task. At the aggregate level the same pattern of means was observed across time periods. At the individual level the key variables were significantly correlated across time periods for both c...

While previous research has found that children make more risky decisions than their parents, little is known about the developmental trajectory for the ability to make advantageous decisions. In a sample of children, 5--11 years old, we administered a new risky decision making task in which the relative expected value (EV) of the risky and riskles...

Given recent evidence for multiple attachment models, we examined the organization and predictive power of general and relationship-specific attachment representations in two samples using two distinct measures of attachment models. With regard to associations among relationship-specific models, peer models (romantic partner and friend) and parenta...

In this paper, we stress the contribution to basic knowledge of consumer behavior through Decision Neuroscience which combines the methods and theories of Behavioral Decision Making and Neuroscience. We will conclude by describing a planned cross-cultural study of consumer decision making using this approach. Decision Neuroscience represents a more...

In order to develop the optimal mix of online and offline services for a particular product, marketers must determine which key attributes are perceived by their target market to be delivered better online or offline. A multi-part survey was administered to assess how product attribute evaluations drive differences in online/offline shopping prefer...