BONN, Germany, Sept. 19 (UPI) -- German researchers have found that tall people are more willing to take risks than short ones, men than women and the young than the old.
The study by the Institute for the Study of Labor, the University of Bonn and the German Institute for Economic Research also discovered that risk-takers are more content than the risk averse.
Risk-taking behavior was measured in 20,000 subjects by a combination of interviews and self-assessment, asking subjects how they would deal with situations. The researchers also tested 450 people with a real-life game of chance in which they could choose between participating in a lottery with a prize of 300 euros or getting 10, 50, 150 or 200 euros.
"The experimental findings tally very well with the interview data," said Armin Falk, who teaches at the University of Bonn and the Institute for the Study of Labor. "Those who claim in the interview to be willing to take risks also show a high degree of willingness to take risks in the experiment, where a relatively large sum of money is at stake."
