Personality and decision-making in laboratory gambling tasks – Evidence for a relationship between deciding advantageously under risk conditions and perfectionism

Neuropsychological mechanisms of decision-making under ambiguity and risk were investigated with increasing interest in the last two decades by several working groups and with a wide range of patient populations. However, relatively little is known about individual differences in making decisions under ambiguity or risk conditions in healthy subjects. We investigated potential links between performing neuropsychological decision-making tasks, the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) measuring decisions under ambiguity, and the Game of Dice Task (GDT) assessing decisions under risk, and several personality traits in a sample of 58 healthy volunteers (30 males). We found correlations between performance on the GDT and specific core facets of perfectionism such as concern over mistakes and personal standards. Additionally, we observed an interaction effect of the latter two variables on GDT performance. Other personality traits assessed (behavioral inhibition and behavioral approach system, big five) were not significantly related to decision-making. IGT performance was not significantly related to perfectionism and other personality traits. We conclude that in risky situations in which explicit rules for rewards and punishments and probabilities are stipulated, perfectionism can influence decision-making, while other personality traits play a minor role in decisions with ambiguous information about the potential outcomes.