Is investing as risky as bungee jumping? The sensitivity of risk perception by instrumental and stimulating risk takers

In real life, benefits are positively correlated with risks. In order to achieve high benefits people have to take risks. However, people sometimes engage in risky situations for other reasons, e.g. for excitement. We call this former tendency instrumental risk taking, and the latter - stimulating risk taking. It is assumed that individual differences can be described among people in their willingness to take one kind or another kind of risk. Here, we test the idea that instrumental risk takers, who have a more analytic style of thinking, show more sensitivity towards risk perception, i.e. they recognize greater differences between certain risk levels than stimulating risk takers do, who have a less sensitive risk evaluation. These hypotheses are supported herein by the results of the following empirical study. Additionally, we discuss gender differences in the relationship between risk propensity and risk perception sensitivity.