The Influence Of Physical Order On Risky Decision-making

Physical order refers to the overall perception of orderliness of things around us.Researches have shown that physical order causes different psychological and behavioral outcomes,indicating that physical disorder can affect sense of control.Risky decision making is affected by the external physical environment and self-control.Based on “World-Is-Random” model,this study examines the influence of physical order on risky decision making.Sense of control is also a relatively stable trait.According to theory of locus of control,individual characterized as internal control is more inclined to internal attribution,ignoring the role of external environment.While individual who has an external control is more sensitive to external stimuli.Different attributions have influence on the process and results of risky decision-making.Therefore,this study applies locus of control as a moderator variable and sense of control as a mediator variable to examine their roles.Three experiments were contained to examine the effect of physical order on risky decision making,the moderating role of locus of control and the mediating role of sense of control.We took the average risk-taking rate to examine participants’ risk preference.Experiment 1 and 2 were single-factor between-subject design.We combined pre-evaluated order and disorder pictures with risk decision-making task(Experiment 1: Cambridge risk task;Experiment 2: the wheel of fortune task)to trigger perception of order or disorder,and to explore the effect of physical order on risky decision-making.In Experiment 3,a 2×2 between-subjects design was to examine the moderating effect of locus of control.We adopted control threat perception index as an indicator of sense of control to investigate the mediating effect of sense of control on risky decision-making.Results show that:(1)Under two risk taking tasks,physical order significantly influences risky decision-making.Individuals in disorder group show higher risk acceptance level and are inclined to risk seeking.(2)Locus of control plays a moderator role in loss situation.Specifically,in disorder group,there is no significant differences in risk taking between external and internal control participants.In order group,external control individuals show higher risk acceptance level than that of internal control ones.(3)Sense of control has partly mediator effect between physical order and risky decision-making,but the effect only appears in gain situation,where individuals in disorder group show higher risk acceptance level and report higher decline in sense of control.Studies show that physical order affects risky decision-making,which provides supplements to the study of physical order.Additional,the moderating effect of sense of control verifies “World-Is-Random” model to a certain extent,and partially explains the influence of physical order on individuals’ psychology and behavior.From a practical perspective,better understanding of the influence of environmental stimuli such as physical order can help us make better decisions.