Self-presenting in Front of a Friendly Female Audience Increases Young Men Risk-taking in the Iowa Gambling Task

• Published in: Adaptive human behavior and physiology Vol. 10; no. 3-4; pp. 406 - 418
• Main Authors: Ponzi, Davide, Kraft, Jacob, DeMond, Grant
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 01-12-2024; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Anthropology; Audiences; Behavioral Sciences; Biological Psychology; Cognitive ability; Decision making; Evolutionary Biology; Feedback; Females; Gambling; Heterosexuality; Human Physiology; Mental task performance; Neurosciences; Physiology; Questionnaires; Self esteem; Social Sciences; United States > US; Iowa; Mating; Iowa gambling task; Self presentation; Trier social stress tests; Mixed-sex interaction
• DOI: 10.1007/s40750-024-00252-3
• EISSN: 2198-7335

Purpose
During intersex interactions heterosexual men show a temporary cognitive impairment and an increase in risky behaviors. These effects have been interpreted as caused by the negative emotion and stress experienced by men attempting to produce a positive impression of themselves. Under this line of reasoning men’s cognitive performance during a heterosexual interaction is maladaptive and perhaps it could be improved when the audience or target of men’s public performance express positive, supportive feedback.
Methods
Fifty-eight heterosexual young males were asked to provide a self-presentation and to perform a difficult arithmetical task in front of two female confederates. One group of men interacted with a negative unsupportive audience while the other group interacted with a friendly and supportive audience. We tested men’s decision making in the Iowa Gambling Task after they engaged in this public performance task.
Results
We found that men self-presenting in front of a friendly female audience engaged in more risky decision making during the last two blocks of the Iowa Gambling Task. There were no differences in parameters of cardiovascular reactivity and no differences of perceived judge’s attractiveness between the two groups. Men exposed to the unfriendly female audience perceived the female judge as more interested in them.
Conclusion
When heterosexual men self-present and perform in front of a supportive and friendly female audience their risk-taking in the Iowa Gambling Task increases but the exact mechanism leading to this behavior requires further study.