Relative social status strongly regulates human behavior, yet this factor has been largely ignored in research on risky decision-making. Humans, like other animals, incur risks as they compete to defend or improve their standing in a social group. Among men, access to culturally important resources is a locus of intrasexual competition and a determinant of status. Thus, relative status should affect men's motivations for risk in relevant domains. Contrasting predictions about such effects were derived from dominance theory and risk-sensitive foraging theory. Experiments varied whether subjects thought they were being observed and evaluated by others of lower, equal, or higher status, and whether decisions involved resources (status relevant) or medical treatments (status irrelevant). Across two experiments, men who thought others of equal status were viewing and evaluating their decisions were more likely to favor a high risk/high gain means of recouping a monetary loss over a no risk/low gain means with equal expected value. Supporting predictions from dominance theory, this motivation for risk-taking appeared only in the equal status condition, only for men, and only for resource loss problems. Taken together, the results support the idea that motivational systems designed to negotiate a status-saturated social world regulate the cognitive processes that generate risky decision-making in men.

中文翻译：

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相对地位调节关于男性资源的风险决策：动机和认知共同进化的证据

相对社会地位强烈地调节着人类的行为，但在风险决策的研究中，这一因素在很大程度上被忽视了。与其他动物一样，人类在竞争捍卫或提高自己在社会群体中的地位时也会面临风险。在男性中，获得具有重要文化意义的资源是性内竞争的场所和地位的决定因素。因此，相对地位应该会影响男性在相关领域的风险动机。关于这种影响的对比预测来自优势理论和风险敏感觅食理论。实验各不相同，受试者是否认为自己正在被较低、同等或较高地位的其他人观察和评估，以及决策是否涉及资源（与地位相关）或医疗（与地位无关）。在两次实验中，认为其他具有同等地位的人正在查看和评估他们的决定的男性更有可能偏爱高风险/高收益方式来弥补金钱损失，而不是具有相同预期价值的无风险/低收益方式。支持支配理论的预测，这种冒险动机只出现在平等地位的条件下，只出现在男性身上，也只出现在资源损失问题上。综上所述，这些结果支持了这样一种观点，即旨在协商一个地位饱和的社会世界的动机系统调节了在男性中产生风险决策的认知过程。这种冒险的动机只出现在平等地位的情况下，只出现在男人身上，也只出现在资源损失问题上。综上所述，这些结果支持了这样一种观点，即旨在协商一个地位饱和的社会世界的动机系统会调节导致男性做出危险决策的认知过程。这种冒险的动机只出现在平等地位的情况下，只出现在男人身上，也只出现在资源损失问题上。综上所述，这些结果支持了这样一种观点，即旨在协商一个地位饱和的社会世界的动机系统会调节导致男性做出危险决策的认知过程。