The Effect Of Social Exclusion And Cognitive Load On Risk Decision-Making:Evidence From The Dual-Task Paradigm

In real life,people often make risk decisions based on multi-task state,such as risk decisions accompanied by other cognitive tasks.According to the dual processing system decision theory,intuitionistic experience system based on heuristic and logical analysis system based on rationality affect risk decisions.However,the influence of social factors(such as social acceptance or social exclusion)and the degree of cognitive load on decision making is not clear.In this study,The Game of Dice Task(GDT)and The Balloon Analogue Risk Task(BART)under the dual-task paradigm are taken as risk decision tasks.To explore the effects of social exclusion and cognitive load on risk decision making under dual-task paradigm.79 subjects(age: 27.28±4.71 years old,male: 36 \ female :42)were recruited into the study.It used 2(social exclusion: social exclusion VS social acceptance)×2(cognitive load: High vs.low).And social exclusion was the inter-subject independent variable,divided into two levels of exclusion and acceptance.And cognitive load was the intra-subject independent variable,divided into two levels of high and low.The dependent variables were the BART value(the average number of blow-ups of unpopped balloons),the number of blow-ups,and the GDT value [the number of times a three-or four-digit combination was chosen(risk aversion)minus the number of times a single or two-digit combination was chosen(risk seeking)].The subjects were randomly assigned to the social rejection group or the social acceptance group.They completed the game of dice task and the balloon analogue risk task under the condition of high(memorizing 4numbers)and low(memorizing 2 numbers)cognitive load respectively.Repeated measures of variance showed that the main effect of social exclusion was significantly different,and the risk seeking in the social exclusion group was significantly greater than that in the social acceptance group(BART value: F(1,152)=26.801,p<0.001;The number of balloons blown: F(1,152)=59.845,p<0.001;GDT value: F(1,152)=9.214,p=0.003).The main effect of cognitive load under GDT task was significantly different(F(1,152)=140.407,p<0.001).The risk-seeking under high cognitive load condition was significantly higher than that under low cognitive load condition,but the main effect of cognitive load under BART task was not significantly different(BART value: F(1,152)=0.025,p=0.874,number of balloons blown: F(1,152)=0.044,P=0.835).There was no significant difference in interaction between social exclusion and cognitive load.The results showed that people may rely on different systems when making risk decisions under different tasks.In BART and other tasks with uncertain risk probability,the intuition-experience system is mainly relied on,which is not affected by cognitive load.When determining tasks with risk probability such as GDT,it mainly relies on the rational-decision system.Affected by cognitive load,risky behaviors under high cognitive load are significantly higher than those under low cognitive load.