Risk Seekers May Be Antisocial After All

Sergio Da Silva

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: Undergraduates were given a battery of psychological tests to gauge their degree of antisocial personality traits (psychopathy, Machiavellianism and nihilism). The students also responded to questionnaires to assess their attitudes toward risk and intertemporal choice. Biological attributes of the respondents were also collected. We found a correlation between psychopathic, Machiavellian and nihilistic traits in the sample, and also that risk seekers were antisocial. Additionally, we found, on average, that younger subjects presented higher levels of psychopathy; atheists were more Machiavellian; and atheists who were anxious tend to be nihilists. Moreover, boys born from younger mothers were more risk seeking than girls born from older mothers. We also found older subjects to be less patient.

Keywords: Risk; Patience; Psychopathy; Machiavellianism; Nihilism; Biological attributes (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D03 D81 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014-10-30
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published in Clinical and Experimental Medical Sciences 3.2(2014): pp. 87-95

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pra:mprapa:60564

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