The current study examined the extent to which financial risk-taking (FRT) and religiosity influence how people perform on financial decision-making tasks when they experience risk and/or uncertainty. A total of 37 adults participated in the study. Participants completed questionnaires that asked about their attitude towards FRT and religiosity. They also completed four decision-making tasks, including the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART), the Iowa Gambling Test (IGT), the Mixed-Gamble Loss-Aversion Task (MGLAT), and the MGLA Success Task (MGLAST). Electro-encephalogram (EEG) data were collected as participants completed these tasks.
FRT and religiosity did not significantly influence IGT and MGLA/MGLAST performance. The findings from the BART showed that performance was influenced by FRT and religiosity. In particular, very religious, risk-neutral participants tended to engage in more extreme behaviours during the task in situations with high uncertainty. Physiological reaction towards feedback could also be distinguished between religious and non-religious participants using EEG data.
