Morningness–Eveningness and Risk Taking

Abstract

Depending on individual differences in biological rhythms and diurnal preferences, people have long been described as either "larks" or "owls." Larks and owls differ greatly in personality aspects, but from the behavioral perspective it is unclear whether they have significant differences in terms of risky behaviors. Whether morning types or evening types are consistently more risk-taking or risk-averse in different domains remains unknown. This study adopted a general American adult sample to systematically investigate the relationship between chronotype and individuals' risky behaviors in different domains. By using different methods to measure risky behaviors in different domains, the current research obtained convergent results that morningness was negatively related only to financially risky behaviors for American adults. More specifically, by using the composite scale of morningness and the domain-specific risk attitude scale, Study 1 showed that for American adults, morning types were less likely than evening types to engage in financially risky behaviors (N = 212). In Study 2, after scenario-based methods were used to measure risky behavior, results showed that that participants engaged less in risky behaviors in the domains of gambling and investment (N = 187). A mediator test showed that the negative relationship between morningness and financially risky behaviors was partly mediated by individuals' self-control ability (self-control scale, Study 1).

Eveningness is associated with higher risk-taking in dangerous driving situations

“…Moreover, our results provide support for previous research showing a link between eveningness and risky behavior in domains other than driving, for example in the financial domain (Wang & Chartrand, 2015). We also show that inclination toward eveningness is associated with more selfreported alcohol use in terms of quantity and frequency, which is consistent with prior research showing that alcohol consumption is more prevalent among evening-type individuals (Adan, 1994;Prat & Adan, 2011;Wittmann et al, 2010).…”

“…Killgore (2007) found that morningness-eveningness scores were not correlated with the scores obtained at the Balloon Analog Risk Task (BART) designed to measure risk-taking in terms of monetary gains. Wang and Chartrand (2015) used a scenario-based risky behavior measurement and found that eveningness was associated with higher risk-taking in terms of investment and gambling, but not in terms of health. Therefore, not only the existing data on the relationship between morningnesseveningness and risk-taking behavior are scarce and inconsistent, but when a link is found it concerns only some specific domains of risk-taking.…”

“…Research shows that evening-type individuals have risk-related personality traits (Caci et al, 2004;Tonetti et al, 2010) and a higher propensity for risky behavior (Killgore, 2007;Ponzi et al, 2014;Wang & Chartrand, 2015). Most studies investigating the link between morningness-eveningness and risk are based on measures of self-reported propensity to take risks.…”

“…More recently, a growing body of research has shown that morningness-eveningness is associated with risk-taking behavior (Killgore, 2007;Ponzi et al, 2014;Wang & Chartrand, 2015).…”

“…For example, Killgore (2007) found that inclination toward eveningness is indeed associated with a higher self-reported propensity to adopt risky behavior. Wang and Chartrand (2015) studied this link in five specific domains (ethical, financial, health/safety, recreational and social) using the Domain-Specific Risk-Taking Scale (DOSPERT). An association between eveningness and self-reported propensity to adopt risky behaviors was found, but only in the financial domain (e.g.…”