Emotional experience and personality traits influence individual and joint risk-based decision making

We compared individual and joint risk-based decision making using the Balloon Analogue Risk Task, with a focus on participants’ (160 Chinese men) emotional experience during decision making and their Big Five personality traits as measured by the NEO Five-Factor Inventory. We found that, compared with the individual decision-making process, making a joint decision led to reduced risk taking and increased earnings, and brought a greater sense of control, stronger feelings of achievement and happiness, and a reduced sense of regret for the participants. The Big Five personality traits of the participants were related to their risk-based decision making; participants tended to act differently according to their personality traits during individual and joint decision making. Our findings show that, compared with individual decision making, joint decision making has many advantages.