Risk-Taking Behavior

Attributes of Risk-Taking Behaviors

Risk-taking behaviors can be classified by their attributes. Attributes are the ingredients that make up a behavioral domain. For example, unprotected sex (with a nonmonogamous partner) is made up of a number of characteristics: it is a private behavior that may or may not be addictive (the American Psychological Association does not consider sexual addiction a true addiction) that is enacted under conditions of high arousal and can negatively impact the self and a known other. Driving recklessly is a (typically) public behavior that is nonaddictive and can impact multitudes of known and unknown others (in the case of a multicar crash).

There is no research that has precisely determined a set number of attributes that make up risk-taking behaviors. However, the attribute-centered approach for understanding health behaviors, developed by Rajiv Rimal and colleagues, suggests that defining behaviors by their attributes will aid in developing more effective interventions to target such risky behaviors. Some of the attributes that have been shown to be important in distinguishing risk-taking behaviors are (1) public versus private (is the behavior enacted in private or public?), (2) costs (does the behavior cost one emotionally or financially?), (3) benefits (does the behavior benefit oneself or others or no one?), (4) addiction (is the behavior addictive?),

(5) regulation (is the behavior regulated?), and (6) stigma (is the behavior stigmatized?). Albert Bandura's social cognitive theory assumes that behaviors be observable in order for others to engage in observational learning. From this, one can derive that a key behavioral attribute is whether the behavior is enacted in the presence of other people or in private. Public behaviors may create group norms and are therefore modifiable by the use of norms-based intervention strategies. Private risk-taking behaviors (e.g., bulimic behaviors, unprotected risky sex) are more difficult to develop norms around. Behaviors that are enacted in privacy are not publicly scrutinized, therefore, they are more difficult to change and require a high level of individual motivation.

However, when risky behaviors are enacted publicly (or via the media, which offers a sense of being “public”) it may communicate a sense of normality to the viewers. In fact, when viewers repeatedly and consistently see violent behaviors via the media (e.g., horror movies, video games) they may normalize these behaviors and become desensitized to them.

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