Unlucky in love? Singles take more risks!

Unlucky in love, lucky in the game. Not so. US scientists at the University of Michigan in the United States have tested this and it appears that ” target=”_blank”>as a single person you take greater risks when it comes to gambling. If you’re lucky in love, you are also luckier in the game because you take less risky decisions and therefore lose less. This is the surprising conclusion of a study done amongst single volunteers.

singles take bigger risks

Psychologist Joshua Ackerman did a number of experiments under single heterosexual volunteers to see if there was a link between the expected success in love and taking risky financial decisions and this turned out to be the case. The question is of course how Ackerman investigated this.

The first group of volunteers got some pictures showing men and women between 18 and 35 years who were supposedly living in the area. Some participants got to see more men, some more women. After this, the researchers asked how many women and men they had seen. This was followed by the question: “Would you prefer 10 scratch cards for $ 1 each, with a 10 times chance of winning $ 1,000? Or would you prefer 1 scratch card for $ 10, with a single chance to win $ 10,000?”


 

 


Primal instincts determine willingness to take risks

The results were striking: participants who had seen fewer photos of the opposite sex, often opted for the scratch card of 10 dollars. Less likely, on a bigger prize. Ackerman relates this back to evolutionary principles which make a man more willing to take greater risks if the chances of finding a mate is smaller.

The second experiment was reading a newspaper article by the volunteers on the demographic developments in their region. There were statements as “there are born more boys than girls”. Or that more girls than boys were born. Then the participants were given various shareholdings and they had to choose where they would like to invest in. Again, the outcome was surprising: Participants who had read in the newspaper article that fewer potential partners in their region were born, chose the riskier equities.

Singles take more risks

Riskier choices can cause you to lose everything, but it can also also ensure that you rise above the competition, for example in wealth and status. When the chances of finding a mate are smaller your primal instincts make you more willing to take bigger risks. Just so you know.