Economic risk tolerance
Holt–Laury switch point
Preference over lotteries, usually measured with Holt–Laury or similar choice lists.
Risk tolerance in the lab is not the same as 'lives dangerously'. Holt and Laury (2002) gave the field a replicable multiple-price list. Hormonal links to that list are mixed; income and gender composition of the sample matter more than most Twitter threads admit.
Also called risk aversion, lottery convexity.
Connected relationships
Observational · Moderate
Disposable income↔Economic risk tolerance
Higher Disposable income moves Economic risk tolerance only in some conditions. Read the mechanism.
Holt–Laury measures the preference. Income changes the budget. Do not call either 'testosterone'.
Randomized trial · High confidence
Expansive posture (power pose)→Economic risk tolerance
A rise in Expansive posture (power pose) does not identify a change in Economic risk tolerance.
Expansive posture is not a Holt–Laury intervention. The later RCTs are nulls on the gambling choice.
Randomized trial · Contested
Testosterone→Economic risk tolerance
The atlas has not yet labeled the sign from Testosterone to Economic risk tolerance.
Large randomized trials do not show that a testosterone dose moves lottery risk. A preregistered study of 1,000 men found no effect of a single nasal dose. Four weeks of testosterone in 200 postmenopausal women also left risk attitudes unchanged.
Cases
Sources
- C. A. Holt et al. (2002). Risk aversion and incentive effects
- D. R. Carney et al. (2010). Power Posing: Brief Nonverbal Displays Affect Neuroendocrine Levels and Risk Tolerance
- E. Ranehill et al. (2015). Assessing the Robustness of Power Posing: No Effect on Hormones and Risk Tolerance in a Large Sample of Men and Women
- E Barel et al. (2024). The effects of power posing on neuroendocrine levels and risk-taking.
- A Dreber et al. (2025). Investigating the effects of single-dose intranasal testosterone on economic preferences in a large randomized trial of men.
- N Zethraeus et al. (2009). A randomized trial of the effect of estrogen and testosterone on economic behavior.
- SJ Stanton et al. (2021). The effect of testosterone on economic risk-taking: A multi-study, multi-method investigation.
- A Nadler et al. (2024). Does a single dose of testosterone increase willingness to compete, confidence, and risk-taking in men? Evidence from two randomised placebo-controlled experiments.
- O Vartanian et al. (2023). Effect of exogenous testosterone in the context of energy deficit on risky choice: Behavioural and neural evidence from males.
- SJ Stanton et al. (2011). Low- and high-testosterone individuals exhibit decreased aversion to economic risk.
- S Huang et al. (2026). Opposing Roles of Testosterone and Cortisol in Prosocial Risk-Taking.