Experiments using the Balloon Analog Risk Task revealed that when men are primed for anger, they tend to take larger risks resulting in increased monetary rewards compared to neutral or angry women. Previous studies suggested anger typically lowers risk perception, but these findings indicate a different dynamic specifically for men. Gender and emotion correlation is complex and cannot be solely attributed to biology or culture. The implications of these findings extend into high-stakes areas such as entrepreneurship and stock trading.
When males were primed for anger, they took bigger risks and walked away with fatter wallets than did neutral-emotion males or angry females.
Correlating gender and emotion is always slippery, Lerner noted. After all, you can't randomly assign adults to the category of male and female, never mind tease out whether differences are due to biology, socialization, culture, or something else entirely.
The findings raise interesting questions about how gender, emotions, and risk intersect in high-stakes environments like entrepreneurship or the stock market.
There's a large and interesting debate about whether males are more risk-taking in general, which our work only partially addresses.
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