August 29 : A new research has shown that not all risk is created equal and people show a combination of both risky and non-risky behaviours.

The University of Michigan research has also demonstrated that by and large, men are considerably riskier than women.

The research, which counters the standard theories of risk that divide people as either risk-seeking or risk-avoiding, suggests that we can have a fusion of both risky and non-risky behaviour depending on the type.

Daniel Kruger, a research scientist at the U-M School of Public Health, and colleagues X.T. Wang, University of South Dakota, and Andreas Wilke, UCLA, identified areas of risk taking (risk domains) based on the types of challenges that our ancestors faced during many thousands of years of human evolution.

“People are complex. Just because somebody seems to be a big risk taker in one area doesn’t mean they will take risks in all areas,” said Kruger.

The types of risks identified by the research team include competition with other individuals; competition with other groups; mating and allocating resources for mate attraction; environmental risks (chasing a bear or skydiving); and fertility risks. The study showed that our leanings for risk taking follow these different types of challenges.

“It is remarkable not just that we were able to identify different areas of risk taking, but also that many of the challenges faced by our ancestors are similar to challenges we face in our modern world today,” Kruger said.

The researchers found that the study participants were least likely to take fertility risks, and most likely to take risks related to social status in one’s group. They also found that in all spheres, men were significantly more risk taking than women.

According to Kruger, this pattern is not surprising at all, as men, during human evolution, competed for social status and resources in order to attract mates.

Kruger said that fertility risks were not attractive to people, as there is a threat to reproduction. They can only cause harm in the evolutionary sense since they would only hurt the ability to procreate.

“Those were types of risks that weren’t attractive to other people, those risks were the least likely to be taken, and people saw those risks as unattractive in a potential mate,” Kruger said.

The study is published in the latest issue of Evolutionary Psychology. (ANI)

Tags:public-health