A Touch Of Risk

Original source: SimoleonSense.com .

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Introduction (Via Jonathan Levav Columbia Ideas At Work)

“A mere pat on the back makes people feel more secure — and increases their appetite for risk.”

The effect of maternal touch appears to be so fundamental that it can be observed even in spiderlings, which venture farther afield the more contact they have with their mothers. Developmental psychologists have found that infants across the animal kingdom are healthier, more responsive to sights, sounds and smells, and more likely to explore the farther bounds of their environments the more they have experienced their mother’s touch. Some psychologists have suggested that feelings of security engendered by touch — and maternal touch in particular — prompt infants to feel safe enough to take on the unfamiliar. For babies, security facilitates risk taking.

But does the same hold true for adults? Researchers have not explored that question, but evidence increasingly suggests that decisions once thought to be driven by rational processes — such as those with financial implications — appear to be guided as much or more by subjective, emotional processes — many of which decision makers are often not aware of.

Professor Jonathan Levav, whose past research has explored some of the connections between emotion, judgment and decision making, worked with Jennifer J. Argo of the University of Alberta to design a series of experiments aimed at learning whether touch intensifies feelings of security in adults. “For adults, a common form of risk is in financial decisions,” Levav says. Would physical contact make people more likely to make riskier financial choices?

Excerpts (via Jonathan Levav Columbia Ideas At Work)

“For example, certain new products are often perceived as more risky,” Levav says. “Can you prompt people to consider a new product they otherwise would have overlooked, simply by making them feel more secure?”

The findings also provide insight on what it takes to reassure people. It doesn’t take a lot, Levav says. “It’s very subtle — a lot of people didn’t remember being touched. You can make people feel secure with very little effort.”

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