Who is a Risk Taker? Insights from Behavioural Decision-Making and Individual Differences Research

This is a Centre for Decision Research (CDR) Seminar taking place at Leeds University Business School on Wednesday 18 October 2017

Assistant Professor of Developmental Psychology Josh Weller, Tilburg University, The Netherlands, will be delivering the fourth presentation in the Centre for Decision Research’s 2017/18 seminar series. 

The concept of risk and risk-taking is a commonly discussed, but still poorly understood construct. In the psychological literature, risk-taking can be defined in numerous ways, which contributes to confusion and a lack of coherence in findings across clinical, personality, and decision-making literatures.  

In this talk, Josh Weller will present research that demonstrates the challenges and opportunities with respect to risk behaviour. From an integrative perspective encompassing research at the behavioural, individual difference, and process-levels, he will present research that suggests who may be more likely to take a risk, how they approach uncertainty, and the antecedent factors that may encourage risk behaviour. 

For further information, please contact the Research Office at research.LUBS@leeds.ac.uk

About the speaker

Assistant Professor Josh Weller

The research of Assistant Professor Josh Weller focusses on how broadly affective and cognitive processes contribute to decision-making and risk perceptions. He is currently conducting research addressing four specific questions:

1. How do decision-making abilities change from childhood to older age? 
2. In what ways may child maltreatment impact the development and synthesis abilities? 
3. How does stress impact decision making?
4. To what degree do individual differences in personality correlate with decision-making processes and risk perceptions?