Peers' Choices Influence Adolescent Risk‐taking Especially When Explicit Risk Information is Lacking

Anaïs Osmont (1) , Anaëlle Camarda (2) , Marianne Habib (3) , Mathieu Cassotti (4, 5)

1 PsyCLÉ - Centre de Recherche en Psychologie de la Connaissance, du Langage et de l'Émotion
2 CGS i3 - Centre de Gestion Scientifique i3
3 DysCo - Fonctionnement et Dysfonctionnement Cognitifs : Les âges de la vie
4 UFR Psychologie UPCité - UFR Institut de psychologie [Sociétés et Humanités] - Université Paris Cité
5 LaPsyDÉ - UMR 8240 - Laboratoire de psychologie du développement et de l'éducation de l'enfant

This study examines the impact of peers’ previous cautious versus risky choices on adolescents’ risk-taking depending on the level of information about the risk. Adolescents completed an adaptation of the BART that manipulated social influence (cautious and risky) and risk information (i.e., informed, noninformed). Results showed that social influence impacts adolescents’ decisions on the noninformed BART but not on the informed BART. In the noninformed BART, the peers’ cautious choices strongly decreased risk-taking and led to greater performance. The peers’ risky choices increase adolescents’ risk-taking, but this effect is limited to situations involving minimal risk. Thus social experience may be a specific social context that represents a valuable source of information during adolescence, especially in situations with high uncertainty.

Mots clés: BART; adolescent; information level; peer influence; risk-taking

Domaines: Psychologie

Anaïs Osmont, Anaëlle Camarda, Marianne Habib, Mathieu Cassotti. Peers' Choices Influence Adolescent Risk‐taking Especially When Explicit Risk Information is Lacking. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 2021, 31 (2), pp.402-416. ⟨10.1111/jora.12611⟩. ⟨hal-03250289⟩