The Brain of Risk Takers

The brain of risk takers

Why do some people stay far away from the edge of a cliff, while others run, jump, and open their parachute a few seconds later?

An interesting article in the May issue of Outside magazine looks inside the brain of a BASE jumper.

Twenty-eight year old Ted Davenport is a little different. After about thirty trips to the emergency room, you might say he is a little reckless.

How are risk seekers different from the rest of us? This is the focus of Russell Poldrack’s group at UCLA. He describes risk-seeking as a combination of three factors: “sensation seeking”, not paying much attention to negative consequences (think emergency room trips), and impulsivity. Each is governed by distinct brain circuits. Ted Davenport? Check, check, check!

So, let’s look inside his brain. Ted and other risk seekers were given a simple game to play while being observed through fMRI. The game is simple: press one button, and a balloon starts expanding. The more it inflates, the higher your reward. The problem is: the balloon explodes at random times. You have a second button to lock in your gain before this happens. Here are Ted’s scans compared to a “normal” person.

[pic 1]

The brain of a "normal" person (left) next to Ted's

To the left, a control subject, to the right, Ted. The yellow circle marks the amygdala, an area activated when we experience fear. The black circle marks the ventral striatum, an area associated with pleasure.
When a “normal” person plays the game, their amydgala light up, and they are showing no signs of pleasure. When Ted does, the opposite happens.

This is of course only one experiment, and we cannot make too much out of it. But it points to differences in how people react to a given set of circumstances. Taken together with experiments on other risk takers, it tells us that the behavior has a physiological basis.

This article was first posted on a blog focused on managerial thinking errors. What is the lesson here for managers? Managers should be aware that different people will make different decisions in the same circumstances based on their risk-taking profiles. Thinking about how your team members think allows you to coach them, and achieve higher performance. The brain is malleable. People can be trained. The first step is to be aware of the differences amongst people.