A recent neurobiology study showed that monkeys systematically prefer risky targets in a visual gambling task. We set a similar experiment with preschool children to assess their attitudes toward risk and found the children, like the monkeys, to be risk seeking. This suggests that adult humans are not born risk averse, but become risk averse. Our experiment also suggests that this behavioral change may be due to learning from negative experiences in their risky choices. We also showed that though emotional states and predetermined prenatal testosterone can influence children’s preferences toward risk, these factors could not override learning experiences.

“Da Silva, Moreira and Matsushita focus on risk-seeking behaviour among pre-school children. Based on research with monkeys, which were found to prefer risky choices in a gambling task, they propose that humans initially prefer risky choices but eventually learn by experience to avoid them. To explain this they conducted a study with 100 4–6-year-olds, finding a similar tendency to prefer risky choices but also an ability to learn to avoid risky choices in subsequent tasks. In a more general sense the findings suggest that individual differences in the preference for risky choices may depend upon previous opportunities (and ability) to learn about the respective consequences of risky vs. non-risky choices. Thus, differences in this respect may relate to pathological gambling and similar behaviours.” Flemming Hansen, Peter Kenning, Hilke Plassmann (2010) Contributions to Decision Neuroscience, Journal of Economic Psychology, doi:10.1016/j.joep.2010.03.001