Published
2025-03-31
Section
Research Articles
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Junsu Park, Do-Yeong Kim

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
The journal adopts the Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0), which means that anyone can reuse and redistribute the materials for non-commercial purposes as long as you follow the license terms and the original source is properly cited.
Author(s) shall retain the copyright of their work and grant the Journal/Publisher rights for the first publication with the work concurrently licensed since 2023 Vol.8 No.2.
Under this license, author(s) will allow third parties to download, reuse, reprint, modify, distribute and/or copy the content under the condition that the authors are given credit. No permission is required from the authors or the publisher.
This broad license intends to facilitate free access, as well as the unrestricted use of original works of all types. This ensures that the published work is freely and openly available in perpetuity.
By providing open access, the following benefits are brought about:
- Higher Visibility, Availability and Citations-free and unlimited accessibility of the publication over the internet without any restrictions increases citation of the article.
- Ease of search-publications are easily searchable in search engines and indexing databases.
- Rapid Publication – accepted papers are immediately published online.
- Available for free download immediately after publication at https://esp.as-pub.com/index.php/ESP
Copyright Statement
1.The authors certify that the submitted manuscripts are original works, do not infringe the rights of others, are free from academic misconduct and confidentiality issues, and that there are no disputes over the authorship scheme of the collaborative articles. In case of infringement, academic misconduct and confidentiality issues, as well as disputes over the authorship scheme, all responsibilities will be borne by the authors.
2. The author agrees to grant the Editorial Office of Environment and Social Psychology a licence to use the reproduction right, distribution right, information network dissemination right, performance right, translation right, and compilation right of the submitted manuscript, including the work as a whole, as well as the diagrams, tables, abstracts, and any other parts that can be extracted from the work and used in accordance with the characteristics of the journal. The Editorial Board of Environment and Social Psychology has the right to use and sub-licence the above mentioned works for wide dissemination in print, electronic and online versions, and, in accordance with the characteristics of the periodical, for the period of legal protection of the property right of the copyright in the work, and for the territorial scope of the work throughout the world.
3. The authors are entitled to the copyright of their works under the relevant laws of Singapore, provided that they do not exercise their rights in a manner prejudicial to the interests of the Journal.
About Licence
Environment and Social Psychology is an open access journal and all published work is available under the Creative Commons Licence, Authors shall retain copyright of their work and grant the journal/publisher the right of first publication, and their work shall be licensed under the Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0).
Under this licence, the author grants permission to third parties to download, reuse, reprint, modify, distribute and/or copy the content with attribution to the author. No permission from the author or publisher is required.
This broad licence is intended to facilitate free access to and unrestricted use of original works of all kinds. This ensures that published works remain free and accessible in perpetuity. Submitted manuscripts, once accepted, are immediately available to the public and permanently accessible free of charge on the journal’s official website (https://esp.as-pub.com/index.php/ESP). Allowing users to read, download, copy, print, search for or link to the full text of the article, or use it for other legal purposes. However, the use of the work must retain the author's signature, be limited to non-commercial purposes, and not be interpretative.
Click to download <Agreement on the Licence for the Use of Copyright on Environmental and Social Psychology>.
How to Cite
Harnessing the benefits of combined implicit and explicit assessments for predicting risk attitudes and risky behavior: An exploratory approach
Junsu Park
Division of Convergence Management, Department of Business Administration, Dongguk University WISE, Gyeongju, South Korea
Do-Yeong Kim
School of Business, Ajou University, Suwon, South Korea
DOI: https://doi.org/10.59429/esp.v10i3.3370
Keywords: risk; attitudes; explicit measures; implicit measures; risky behavior
Abstract
In two studies investigating risk attitudes, we explored the benefits of combining self-reports (explicit) and automatic responses (implicit association test [IAT]). Study 1 compared MBA students (older group) and undergraduates (younger group), revealing no age differences on two explicit risk attitude measures. However, the older group had stronger negative risk attitudes on two parallel IATs. Furthermore, psychosocial maturity was a mediator in the inverse age-risk attitude relationship in the older group. Study 2 extended the utility of the two methods to finance, examining self-reported and implicitly measured financial risk attitudes among financial engineering majors. The results revealed that participants inclined toward exerting explicit control over future returns benefited from being more implicitly aggressive in stock investments, positively influencing stock return rates. Overall, these findings suggest the complementary nature of explicit and implicit assessments in understanding risk attitudes, revealing their significance across age-related and financial contexts.
References
[1]. 1.Małecka M. The normative decision theory in economics: a philosophy of science perspective. The case of the expected utility theory. Journal of Economic Methodology. 2020; 27(1): 36–50. https://doi.org/10.1080/1350178X.2019.1640891
[2]. 2.Ruggeri K, Alí S, Berge ML, Bertoldo G, Bjørndal LD, Cortijos-Bernabeu A, et al. Replicating patterns of prospect theory for decision under risk. Nature Human Behaviour. 2020; 4(6): 622-633. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-020-0886-x
[3]. 3.Huber C, Schlager T. Testing the risk as feeling and risk as analysis perspective for insurance: The antecedents of purchasing unit-linked life insurance products. Journal of Financial Services Marketing. 2018; 23: 25–37. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41264-018-0040-2
[4]. 4.Zou X, Scholer AA, Higgins ET. Risk preference: How decision maker’s goal, current value state, and choice set work together. Psychological Review. 2020; 127(1): 74–94. https://doi.org/10.1037/rev0000162
[5]. 5.Bromiley P, Rau D. Some problems in using prospect theory to explain strategic management issues. Academy of Management Perspectives. 2019; 36(1): 125-141. https://doi.org/10.5465/amp.2018.0072
[6]. 6.Gawronski B, Hahn A. Implicit measures: Procedures, use, and interpretation. In: Blanton H, LaCroix JM, Webster GD (editors). Measurement in Social Psychology. Taylor & Francis; 2018. pp. 29-55.
[7]. 7.Van Dessel P, Cummins J, Hughes S, Kasran S, Cathelyn F, Moran T. Reflecting on 25 years of research using implicit measures: Recommendations for their future use. Social Cognition. 2020; 38(Supplement):s223-s242. https://doi.org/10.1521/soco.2020.38.supp.s223
[8]. 8.Cronan TP, Mullins JK, Douglas DE. Further understanding factors that explain freshman business students’ academic integrity intention and behavior: plagiarism and sharing homework. Journal of Business Ethics. 2015; 147(1): 197–220. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-015-2988-3
[9]. 9.Greenwald AG, McGhee DE, Schwartz JLK. Measuring individual differences in implicit cognition: The implicit association test. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 1998; 74(6): 1464-1480. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.74.6.1464
[10]. 10.Stieger S, Göritz AS, Hergovich A, Voracek M. Intentional faking of the single category implicit association test and the implicit association test. Psychological Reports. 2011; 109(1): 219-230. https://doi.org/10.2466/03.09.22.28.PR0.109.4.219-230
[11]. 11.Greenwald AG, Poehlman TA, Uhlmann EL, Banaji MR. Understanding and using the Implicit Association Test: III. Meta-analysis of predictive validity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 2009; 97(1): 17–41. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0015575
[12]. 12.Kurdi B, Seitchik AE, Axt JR, Carroll TJ, Karapetyan A, Kaushik N, et al. Relationship between the implicit association test and intergroup behavior: A meta-analysis. American Psychologist. 2019; 74(5): 569-586. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000364
[13]. 13.Ronay R, Kim D-Y. Gender differences in explicit and implicit risk attitudes: A socially facilitated phenomenon. British Journal of Social Psychology. 2006; 45(2): 397-419. https://doi.org/10.1348/014466605X66420
[14]. 14.Traczyk J, Zaleskiewicz T. Implicit attitudes toward risk: the construction and validation of the measurement method. Journal of Risk Research. 2015; 19(5): 632-644. https://doi.org/10.1080/13669877.2014.1003957
[15]. 15.Greenwald AG, Lai CK. Implicit social cognition. Annual Review of Psychology. 2020; 71: 419-445. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-010419-050837
[16]. 16.Arnett JJ. Emerging adulthood: A theory of development from the late teens through the twenties. American Psychologist, 2000; 55(5): 469-480. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.55.5.469
[17]. 17.Steinberg L, Cauffman E, Woolard J, Graham S, Banich M. Are adolescents less mature than adults?: Minors’ access to abortion, the juvenile death penalty, and the alleged APA “flip-flop”. American Psychologist, 2009; 64(7): 583–594. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0014763
[18]. 18.Mamerow L, Frey R, Mata R. Risk taking across the life span: A comparison of self-report and behavioral measures of risk taking. Psychology and Aging. 2016; 31(7): 711-723. https://doi.org/10.1037/pag0000124
[19]. 19.Kellen D, Mata R, Davis-Stober CP. Individual classification of strong risk attitudes: An application across lottery types and age groups. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review. 2017; 24: 1341-1349. http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/s13423-016-1212-5
[20]. 20.Perugini M, Hagemeyer B, Wrzus C, Back MD. Dual processes models of personality. In: Rauthmann J (editor). The Handbook of Personality Dynamics and Processes. Elsevier; 2021, pp. 551-577.
[21]. 21.MacCrimmon KR, Wehrung DA. Characteristics of risk taking executives. Management Science. 1990; 36(4): 422-435. https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.36.4.422
[22]. 22.Vroom VH, Pahl B. Relationship between age and risk taking among managers. Journal of Applied Psychology. 1971; 55(5): 399–405. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/h0031776
[23]. 23.Rutledge RB, Smittenaar P, Zeidman P, Brown HR, Adams RA, Lindenberger U, Dayan P, Dolan RJ. Risk taking for potential reward decreases across the lifespan. Current Biology. 2016; 26(12): 1634-1639. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2016.05.017
[24]. 24.Meisel SN, Fosco WD, Hawk LW, Colder CR. Mind the gap: A review and recommendations for statistically evaluating dual systems models of adolescent risk behavior. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience. 2019; 39: 100681. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2019.100681
[25]. 25.Herman AM, Critchley HD, Duka T. Risk-taking and impulsivity: The role of mood states and interoception. Frontiers in Psychology. 2018; 9: 1625. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01625
[26]. 26.Duffy KA, McLaughlin KA, Green PA. Early life adversity and health-risk behaviors: proposed psychological and neural mechanisms. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 2018; 1428(1): 151-169. https://doi.org/10.1111/nyas.13928
[27]. 27.Martinez JL, Hasty C, Morabito D, Maranges HM, Schmidt NB, Maner JK. Perceptions of childhood unpredictability, delay discounting, risk-taking, and adult externalizing behaviors: A life-history approach. Development and Psychopathology. 2022; 34(2): 705-717. https://doi:10.1017/S0954579421001607
[28]. 28.Icenogle G, Steinberg L, Duell N, Chein J, Chang L, Chaudhary N, et al. Adolescents’ cognitive capacity reaches adult levels prior to their psychosocial maturity: Evidence for a “maturity gap” in a multinational, cross-sectional sample. Law and Human Behavior. 2019; 43(1): 69–85. https://doi.org/10.1037/lhb0000315
[29]. 29.Greenwald AG, Banaji MR. Implicit social cognition: Attitudes, self-esteem, and stereotypes. Psychological Review. 1995; 102(1): 4–27. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.102.1.4
[30]. 30.Kim D-Y. The implicit life satisfaction measure. Asian Journal of Social Psychology. 2004; 7(3): 236-262. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-839X.2004.00148.x
[31]. 31.Barratt ES. Impulsiveness and aggression. In: Monahan J, Steadman HJ (editors). Violence and Mental Disorder: Developments in Risk Assessment. University of Chicago Press; 1994. pp. 61-79.
[32]. 32.Costa PT, McCrae RR. Normal personality assessment in clinical practice: the NEO personality inventory. Psychological Assessment. 1992; 4(1): 5-13. https://doi.org/10.1037/1040-3590.4.1.5
[33]. 33.Pletzer JL. Why older employees engage in less counterproductive work behavior and in more organizational citizenship behavior: Examining the role of the HEXACO personality traits. Personality and Individual Differences. 2021; 173: 110550. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2020.110550
[34]. 34.Paulhus DL. Assessing self-deception and impression management in self-reports. In Robinson JP, Shaver PR, Wrightsman LS (editors). Measures of Personality and Social Psychological Attitudes. Academic Press; 1988, pp. 37-43.
[35]. 35.Greenwald AG, Nosek BA, Banaji MR. Understanding and using the Implicit Association Test: I. An improved scoring algorithm. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 2003; 85(2): 197–216. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.85.2.197
[36]. 36.Wilson T, Smith TH. Implicit environmental attitudes: Critique and technique to promote awareness. IAFOR Journal of Psychology and the Behavioral Sciences. 2017; 3(1): 11-22. https://doi.org/10.22492/ijpbs.3.1.02
[37]. 37.Bault N, Coricelli G, Rustichini A. Interdependent utilities: How social ranking affects choice behavior. PLoS ONE. 2008; 3(10): e3477. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0003477
[38]. 38.Viscusi WK, Phillips OR, Kroll S. Risky investment decisions: How are individuals influenced by their groups? Journal of Risk and Uncertainty. 2011; 43(2): 81–106. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11166-011-9123-3
[39]. 39.Cooper DJ, Rege M. Misery loves company: Social regret and social interaction effects in choices under risk and uncertainty. Games and Economic Behavior. 2011; 73(1): 91-110. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geb.2010.12.012
[40]. 40.Su L, Tanner EC, Marquart NA, Zhao D. (2022). We are not all the same: the influence of personal cultural orientations on vulnerable consumers’ financial well-being. Journal of International Marketing. 2022; 30(3): 57-71. https://doi.org/10.1177/1069031X221096637
[41]. 41.Evans JSBT. Bounded rationality, reasoning and dual processing. In: Viale R (editor). Routledge Handbook of Bounded Rationality. Routledge; 2021. pp. 185-195.
[42]. 42.Hofmann W, Gschwendner T, Friese M, Wiers RW, Schmitt M. Working memory capacity and self-regulatory behavior: Toward an individual differences perspective on behavior determination by automatic versus controlled processes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 2008; 95(4): 962-977. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0012705
[43]. 43.Eastwick PW, Eagly AH, Finkel EJ, Johnson SE. Implicit and explicit preferences for physical attractiveness in a romantic partner: A double dissociation in predictive validity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 2011; 101(5): 993-1011. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0024061
[44]. 44.Perugini M. Predictive models of implicit and explicit attitudes. British Journal of Social Psychology. 2005; 44(1): 29-45. https://doi.org/10.1348/014466604X23491
[45]. 45.Régner I, Thinus-Blanc C, Netter A, Schmader T, Huguet P. Committees with implicit biases promote fewer women when they do not believe gender bias exists. Nature Human Behaviour. 2019; 3(11): 1171–1179. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-019-0686-3
[46]. 46.Moscardino U, Miconi D, Carraro L. Implicit and explicit self-construals in Chinese-heritage and Italian nonimmigrant early adolescents: Associations with self-esteem and prosocial behavior. Developmental Psychology. 2020; 56(7): 1397-1412. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000937
[47]. 47.Cheng PYK. Improving financial decision making with unconscious thought: A transcendent model. Journal of Behavioral Finance. 2010; 11(2): 92-102. https://doi.org/10.1080/15427560.2010.482877
[48]. 48.Wu T, Dufford AJ, Mackie MA, Egan LJ, Fan J. The capacity of cognitive control estimated from a perceptual decision making task. Scientific Reports. 2016; 6(1): 34025. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep34025
[49]. 49.Nordgren LF, Bos MW, Dijksterhuis A. The best of both worlds: Integrating conscious and unconscious thought best solves complex decisions. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. 2011; 47(2): 509-511. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2010.12.007
[50]. 50.Dijksterhuis A, Strick M. A case for thinking without consciousness. Perspectives on Psychological Science. 2016; 11(1): 117–132. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691615615317
[51]. 51.Newell BR, Shanks DR. Unconscious influences on decision making: A critical review. Behavioral and Brain Sciences. 2014; 37(1): 1–19. https://doi:10.1017/S0140525X12003214
[52]. 52.Gawronski B, Hofmann W, Wilbur CJ. Are “implicit” attitudes unconscious?. Consciousness and Cognition. 2006; 15(3): 485-499. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2005.11.007
[53]. 53.Ebrahim Y, Brett, Molloy O. The link between individual predictors of risk and risky flight behavior: a systematic review. The International Journal of Aerospace Psychology. 2023; 33(1): 35-60. https://doi.org/10.1080/24721840.2022.2139700
[54]. 54.Sharma MK, Anand N, Tadpatrikar A, Marimuthu P, Narayanan G. Effectiveness of multimodal psychotherapeutic intervention for internet gaming disorder. Psychiatry Research. 2022; 314: 114633. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2022.114633
[55]. 55.Mai R, Dickel P. What we say = what we think? How implicit beliefs shape nascent entrepreneurial behavior. Journal of Small Business Management. 2021; 61(6): 2986–3026. https://doi.org/10.1080/00472778.2021.1956505
[56]. 56.Park J, Kim D-Y, Oh S. Explicit and implicit stock investment: Differences in psychological characteristics and risky behavior between college students majoring in financial engineering or business. Current Psychology. 2020; 39(6): 1954-1969. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-019-00555-9
[57]. 57.Yao Z, Rabbani AG. Association between investment risk tolerance and portfolio risk: The role of confidence level. Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance. 2021; 30: 100482. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbef.2021.100482
[58]. 58.Cornil Y, Hardisty DJ, Bart Y. Easy, breezy, risky: Lay investors fail to diversify because correlated assets feel more fluent and less risky. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. 2019; 153: 103-117. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2019.06.001
[59]. 59.Kumar RR, Stauvermann PJ, Samitas A. An application of portfolio mean-variance and semi-variance optimization techniques: A case of Fiji. Journal of Risk and Financial Management. 2022; 15(5): 190. https://doi.org/10.3390/jrfm15050190
[60]. 60.Lampenius N, Zickar MJ. Development and validation of a model and measure of financial risk-taking. Journal of Behavioral Finance. 2005; 6(3): 129-143. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15427579jpfm0603_3
[61]. 61.Hayes AF, Coutts JJ. Use Omega rather than Cronbach’s alpha for estimating reliability. But…. Communication Methods and Measures. 2020; 14(1): 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/19312458.2020.1718629
[62]. 62.Schröder‐Abé M, Rudolph A, Wiesner A, Schütz A. Self‐esteem discrepancies and defensive reactions to social feedback. International Journal of Psychology. 2007; 42(3): 174-183. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207590601068134
[63]. 63.Wiers RW, Beckers L, Houben K, Hofmann W. A short fuse after alcohol: Implicit power associations predict aggressiveness after alcohol consumption in young heavy drinkers with limited executive control. Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior. 2009; 93(3): 300-305. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pbb.2009.02.003
[64]. 64.Van Goethem AAJ, Scholte RHJ, Wiers RW. Explicit- and implicit bullying attitudes in relation to bullying behavior. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology. 2010; 38(6): 829-842. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-010-9405-2
[65]. 65.Spohn DL, Devore‐Suazo IF, Bernarding ML, Güss CD. The role of social context in risky decision‐making: Presence of friend and low resistance to peer influence increase risky decision‐making. International Journal of Psychology. 2022; 57(6): 717-726. https://doi.org/10.1002/ijop.12864
[66]. 66.Deutsch R, Strack F. Changing behavior using the reflective-impulsive model. In: Hagger MS, Cameron LD, Hamilton K, Hankonen N, Lintunen T (editors). Handbook of Behavior Change. Cambridge University Press; 2020. pp. 164–177.
[67]. 67.Niemand T, Mai R. Cold rationale and hot associations in product piracy consumption: The joint impact of implicit and explicit attitudes. In: Rindfleisch A & Burroughs J (editors). Marketing Theory and Applications. Annual American Medical Association winter marketing educators’ conference proceedings. Las Vegas, NV, USA. American Marketing Association; 2013. Vol. 24, pp. 476-485.
[68]. 68.Kim DY, Sarason BR, Sarason IG. Implicit social cognition and culture: Explicit and implicit psychological acculturation, and distress of Korean–American young adults. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology. 2006; 25(1): 1-32. https://doi.org/10.1521/jscp.2006.25.1.1
[69]. 69.Shleifer A, Vishny, RW. The limits of arbitrage. The Journal of Finance. 1997; 52(1): 35-55. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6261.1997.tb03807.x
[70]. 70.Forscher PS, Lai CK, Axt JR, Ebersole CR, Herman M, Devine PG, Nosek BA. A meta-analysis of procedures to change implicit measures. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 2019; 117(3): 522-559. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspa0000160
[71]. 71.Charlesworth TE, Banaji MR. Patterns of implicit and explicit attitudes: IV. Change and stability from 2007 to 2020. Psychological Science. 2022; 33(9): 1347-1371. https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976221084257