Traffic fatalities accounted for 1.24 million lives lost in 2013 worldwide, and almost 33 thousand of those fatalities were in the U.S. in 2013. The southeastern region of the nation stands out for continuously having higher fatality rates per mile driven than the national average. If one can establish compelling relationships between various factors and fatality rates, then policies and investments can be targeted to increase the safety on the network by focusing on policies that mitigate those factors. In this research effort risk-taking characteristics are explored. These factors have not been as comprehensively reviewed as conventional factors such as vehicle and facility conditions associated with safety. The hypothesis assumes if a person exhibits risk-taking behavior, that risk-taking behavior is not limited to only one aspect of risk, but is likely to occur in multiple facets of the person's life. Some of the risk-taking characteristics explored include credit score, safety belt use, smoking and tobacco use, drug use, mental health, educational attainment, obesity, and overall general health characteristics. All risk-taking characteristics with the exception of mental health were found to have statistically significant correlations with fatality rates alone. However, when a regression model was formed to estimate fatality rates by risk-taking characteristics, only four risk-taking characteristics - credit score, educational attainment, overall poor health, and seat belt use were found to be statistically significant at an integrated level with other demographic characteristics such as unemployment levels and population born is state of residency. By identifying at-risk population segments, education, counseling, enforcement, or other strategies may be deployed to help improve travel safety.

Cette thèse étudie le secteur bancaire tunisien et pourquoi ce dernier se caractérise par des volumesimportants de prêts non performants. Sur un échantillon de 11 banques commerciales cotées durant lapériode 2009-2011, nous examinons l’impact de la structure de propriété et des caractéristiques duconseil d’administration sur le risque de crédit. Nos résultats des régressions sur données de panelrévèlent que ces mécanismes de gouvernance sont défaillants jusqu’à présent et qu’ils ont contribué àl’aggravation des prêts improductifs. A partir de l’apparition de nouvelles tentatives à expliquer lesdéfaillances bancaires par l’apport de la finance comportementale, nous concluons le rôle de l’excès deconfiance dans la gestion de risque de crédit imprudente des banques tunisiennes.Dans le but d’approfondir notre recherche, il nous semble intéressant de vérifier l’impact de l’excès deconfiance sur le comportement de prise de risque d’un responsable de crédits. Les régressionslogistiques multinomiales montrent que l’excès de confiance chez les responsables de crédit évolueavec l’expérience et influence négativement leurs prises de risque de crédit. / This thesis studies the Tunisian banking sector and why it is characterized by large volumes of nonperformantloans. Based on a sample of 11 commercial listed banks during 2009-2011, we examinethe impact of ownership structure and board characteristics on credit risk. Our results reveal thedeficiency of these governance mechanisms.From the appearance of new attempts to explain bank failures by the contribution of behavioralfinance, we try to identify the role of overconfidence in the reckless credit policy. Our results showthat overconfidence recent worsening Non Performants Loans of Tunisian banks.In order to deepen our research, it seems interesting to check the impact of overconfidence on bankers’risk-taking behavior. We extend our work with an experimental study to detect the impact ofoverconfidence on the banker’s risk-taking behavior. Our results of multinomial logistic regressionsshow that banker’s overconfidence evolves with experience and influences negatively his credit risktakingbehavior.

Bakgrund: Långvarigt drogbruk leder till negativa fysiologiska och psykologiska konsekvenser. Samsjuklighet, stigmatisering och abstinens är några anledningar till att patientgruppen fortsätter sitt drogbruk. Droginjicering är en av orsakerna till att blodsmittor sprids i samhället. Sprututbytesprogrammet är riktat till personer med intravenöst drogberoende och erbjuder remittering, sprututbyte, samtalskontakt och antidotpreparat. Syfte: Syftet var att beskriva patienters upplevelse av skadereduktion och påverkan påriskbeteende genom deltagande på sprututbytesprogrammet. Metod: En allmän litteraturstudie utgjordes av tio kvalitativa originalartiklar som analyserades tematiskt. Resultat: Tre huvudteman och sex subteman identifierades. Minskat riskbeteende med subtema egenvårdsförmåga och hjälp från flera håll. Ökad relationsbyggnad med subtema hälsofrämjande verksamhet och vårdmötet. Begränsade resurser med subtema fortsatt stigmatisering och när drogberoendet tar överhand. Slutsats: Sprututbytesprogrammet ökarkunskapen om riskbeteende, egenvårdsförmågan och hälsofrämjande livsstilsförändringar. Behandling, utbildning och en känsla av trygghet är viktiga komponenter för konsekvent deltagande på Sprututbytesprogrammet. Verksamheten ökar självkänslan hos patientgruppen till skillnad från annan hälso- och sjukvård och bidrar till att minska sociala klyftor mellan patientgruppen och övriga samhället. Fortsatt stigmatisering och strukturella hinder gör patientgruppen skör vilket belyser behovet av vidare forskning och utbildning för att kunna möta deras vårdbehov. / Background: Addictive disorders lead to negative physiological and psychological consequences. Comorbidity, stigmatization and abstinence are reasons for continued drug use. Intravenous drug use contributes to the spread of blood-borne diseases. The needle-exchange program targets intravenous drug users and offers referrals, needle-exchange, counselling and naloxone. Aim: The purpose was to describe patients' experience of harm reduction and the impact on risk behavior through participation in the syringe exchange program. Method: A literature study based on ten original qualitative articles that were thematically analysed. Result: Three main themes and six sub-themes were identified. Positive life-style change with sub-themes self-care ability and help from different directions. Relationship building with sub-themes health-promotion operations and care meeting. Limited resources with sub-themes continued stigmatization and when drug addiction takes over. Conclusion: Needle-exchange increase patients’ knowledge of risk behaviour, self-care, and positive life-style changes. Treatment, education, and safety are components for continued participation. The program increases self-esteem, and helps reduce the social divide between people with drug addiction and the rest of society. Our research revealed that there are obstacles to consider. Continued stigma and structural barriers make the patients fragile, which highlights the need for continued research and education to be able to meet their care needs.

The second (index finger) to fourth (ring finger) digit length ratio (2D:4D) is known to be a putative marker of prenatal exposure to the testosterone. It has been reported that fetal testosterone may be critical for development of morphological and psychological traits such as quality of the cardiovascular system, visuo-spatial ability, risk-taking behavior and behavioral masculinity. Testosterone-driven attributes are associated with success in male-to- male physical competition, which may be proxied by ability in sports. Many studies have found that 2D:4D is sexually dimorphic and low (male-typical) 2D:4D ratio is associated with athletic performance. This study aims to investigate possible associations of performance in sport with 2D:4D ratio, personality characteristics (Big Five model), willing to take risks and training habits, in a sample of 57 top and 57 recreational snowboard racers. We did not find any associations between 2D:4D ratio and sport performance, no significant differences were found in 2D:4D ratio between samples. We found negative associations between agreeableness and sport performance; individuals with low agreeableness achieved higher results in the real competition of freestyle snowboarding. Low agreeableness used to be associated with aggressiveness, emulation and...

Background. In real life humans have been proven to be affected in different ways by music. In sports, music can be shown to be useful for better performance. Taking this into thought while playing video games could help players perform better as well as in real life. Objectives. This thesis aims to investigate whether music with varying tempos can influence individuals to take more risks during video game play, with the objective of improving their overall performance. Methods. Methods used were implementation, a game test, and also a questionnaire. The game engine Unity was used to create the game "Tempo Runner" where performance and risk-taking behavior were being tracked. The questionnaire was focused on questions about risk-taking behavior. Results. Even though the results were not pointing to successful research, they did reveal a promising result for improving performance through the use of music in some ways. Taking a closer look at this topic would be beneficial for future research. On the other hand, making people take more risks through music did not show any success at all. Conclusions. Additional research is essential to definitively establish the positive effects of incorporating changing music tempos into games for performance enhancement. A critical aspect of future investigations should involve recruiting a larger and more diverse pool of participants compared to the current study. This study involved a limited sample size of 19 participants. A larger sample, ideally around 100 individuals, would provide a more robust basis for determining the impact of changing music tempos on both performance and risk-taking.

The following will explore the operation of evolved mechanisms connected with cycling fertility. I first address strategic shifts in women’s behavior near ovulation and hypothesize that certain behavioral shifts at high fertility reflect an increase in women’s intrasexual competition tactics when conception is most probable. A simulated, online shopping program was designed to track women’s spending patterns (at varying budgets) on clothing, undergarments, shoes, jewelry, and other fashion accessories – items that likely enhance a woman’s ability to attract a high quality mate and effectively compete with same-sex rivals. Additionally, a laboratory task was created to assess women’s likelihood of incurring a risk to appear more attractive and have access to more resources than same-sex peers. Studies 1-3 will explore the effect of fertility on women’s consumer behavior and the influence of same-sex peers on fertility-induced motivation to appear more attractive. Study 4 will further examine fertility-induced shifts in women’s intrasexual competitiveness by measuring context-specific risks women take to gain a positional advantage over same-sex peers. The current studies present new data that provide novel insights into human adaptations to cycling fertility and highlight important decision-making processes that guide women’s social competition within a variety of domains. / text

The economic development in Sweden in recent years has led to increased financial savings in Swedish households. Financial savings have mostly increased on bank accounts with low interest rates, since private individuals generally have a more cautious position on stocks and stock trading. The reason for this passive position is believed to be due to the fact that decisions that benefit most economically often challenge the feeling of being in control. At the same time, cautious position that a particular individual possess is affected by the risk-tolerance. As a consequence, the risk tolerance of private individuals affects the investment decision and hence the development of the stock market. Savings and investment are two important factors that affect a nation's economic growth, which makes it important to study underlying factors to what affects an individual when making a financial decision. When talking about risk tolerance in everyday life, previous research has revealed that there are four different aspects that affect this complex concept, namely the economic aspect, physical aspect, social aspect and ethical aspect. As investment decisions are affected by financial risk tolerance and the four aspects in turn, affect risk tolerance, the issue becomes how these aspects affect a private investor's financial risk tolerance when investing in stocks. The purpose of this study has been to explain the four aspects of a person’s risk tolerance when investing in stocks. The study has been conducted using a quantitative method and deductive approach. The selection group that the study turned to is Swedish stock investors and the data collection has been done by a survey that was answered by 232 people. The underlying factors for the four aspects tested in the study are income, gender, age, education, marital status and ethical character. The study shows that all four aspects together have a combined impact on private individuals' financial risk tolerance. The study has also shown that all the four aspects, each one separately, are linked to financial risk tolerance, by the underlying factors, income level, gender, marital status and ethical character. / De senaste årens ekonomiska utveckling i Sverige har lett till ett ökat finansiellt sparande i de svenska hushållen. Detta sparande har mestadels ökat på bankkonton med låga räntor då privatpersoner i allmänhet har ett mer försiktigt ställningstagande till aktie och börshandel. Anledningen till detta passiva ställningstagande tros bero på att beslut som gynnar mest ekonomiskt ofta utmanar känslan av att ha kontroll. Samtidigt påverkas ställningstagandet av den risktoleransnivå som en viss individ besitter. Följden av detta blir att privatpersoners risktolerans påverkar investeringsbeslutet och därmed även utvecklingen av aktiemarknaden. Sparande och investering är två viktiga faktorer som påverkar en nations ekonomiska tillväxt vilket gör det viktigt att studera bakomliggande faktorer till vad som påverkar en privatperson när ett finansiellt beslut ska tas. När det pratas om risktolerans i vardagslivet har tidigare forskning delgett att det finns fyra olika aspekter som påverkar detta komplexa begrepp, nämligen den ekonomiska aspekten, fysiska aspekten, sociala aspekten och etiska aspekten. Då investeringsbeslut påverkas av den finansiella risktoleransen och risktoleransen i sin tur påverkas av de fyra aspekterna blir problemfrågan hur dessa aspekter påverkar en privatpersons finansiella risktolerans vid investering i aktier.  Syftet med denna studie har varit att förklara de fyra aspekterna för privatpersoners finansiella risktolerans vid aktieinvestering. Studien har genomförts med hjälp av en kvantitativ metod och deduktiv ansats. Den urvalsgrupp som studien vänt sig till är svenska aktieinvesterare och datainsamlingen har gjorts med hjälp av en enkätundersökning som besvarats av 232 personer.  De bakomliggande faktorerna för de fyra aspekterna som har testats i studien är inkomst, kön, ålder, utbildning, civilstånd och etisk karaktär. Studien visar att alla fyra aspekter tillsammans har sammantagen påverkan på privatpersoners finansiella risktolerans. Studien har även visat att alla de fyra aspekterna har en koppling till den finansiella risktoleransen, var och en för sig, genom de underliggande faktorerna inkomstnivå, kön, civilstånd och etisk karaktär.

Objective: To examine the relationship between hope, core self-evaluations, physical function, emotional well-being, health risk behaviors, and academic performance in freshman enrolled in their first year of college. Participants: Freshman (N = 495) attending a large public university in the Northeast completed an online survey between February 1 to February 13, 2017. Methods: Cross sectional descriptive survey. Linear regression, path analysis, and structural equation modeling procedures were performed. Results: Core self-evaluations mediated the relationship between hope and emotional well-being and academic performance. Contrary to the hypotheses, higher hope predicted more sexual risk taking behaviors and alcohol use. Conclusions: Core self-evaluations is an important component of hope theory. Hope Theory is useful for predicting emotional well-being, and academic performance, but not as useful for predicting drug use, alcohol use, and sexual risk taking. Hope and core self evaluations interventions are needed to improve academic performance and emotional well-being in university freshman.

On-the-job injuries that occur even after implementing safety interventions highlight the need for identifying the limitations in them and for making future safety interventions and technological advances more effective. One possible reason for this lower-than-expected-safety returns is the latent side-effect of safety interventions, known as risk compensation. This dissertation aimed to provide empirical evidence and theoretical considerations of risk compensation effect in the construction industry. Accordingly, a multi-sensor immersive mixed-reality environment consists of a virtual projection of the environment and passive haptics of a roof was developed to study risk compensation among residential roofers. Simulating height, environmental factors (wind and sound), passive haptic, and virtual falls stimulated sufficient Sense of Presence to trigger subjects' behavioral changes while installing shingles on a 27-degree sloped roof under three levels of safety interventions (i.e., with no fall-safety intervention, with an injury-reducing fall-safety intervention—i.e., fall-arrest system—and with an injury-preventing fall-safety intervention— i.e., a fall-arrest system and a guardrail). The baseline demographic, psychographic, and cognitive measures combined with real-time tracking and wearable sensors provided an opportunity to track the worker's motions, localize his/her position, obtain real-time musculoskeletal data, and monitor the his/her behavioral and physiological responses. The collected data is then translated into information about the risk perception and risk-taking behavior of the worker. The results yielded unequivocal evidence of risk compensation—the lower perceived risk associated with the situation (lower levels of stress) and the false sense of security among roofers when they were provided with safety interventions apparently encouraged them to be less cautious by leaning over the edge, stepping closer to the roof edge, spending more time exposing themselves to fall risk, over-relying on the safety equipment through different facing directions and choices of posture stability. As a result, they also experienced more near-misses (close calls). This behavioral adaptation was more pronounced when they were provided with an injury-preventing safety intervention (e.g., guardrail). The findings also suggested that the productivity and safety benefits of safety interventions can be negated due to risk compensation, which identifies vital information for the construction-safety community to consider during the design and implementation of more effective safety interventions and technological advances. Roofers with high risk tolerance and sensation seekers were identified as high-risk groups who are more likely to be involved in risk-compensatory behaviors; various behavioral interventions are suggested in this dissertation to counteract excessive risk-taking and to reduce risk compensation. The findings of this study shed light on the question of why injury rates have remained at worrisome levels despite advances in protective measures and interventions. In the long-term, a better understanding of risk compensation will translate into fundamental knowledge about how the construction industry should approach and maintain controls after safety interventions. / Doctor of Philosophy / While researchers have dispensed considerable efforts to reduce the risk of occupational injuries by implementing safety interventions, the large number of safety incidents occurring each year in the construction industry. It is hypothesized that the latent effect of safety interventions, known as risk compensation, might be a possible reason why many of the safety interventions and technological advances have not fully achieved their safety objectives. This dissertation aimed to empirically examine the changes in workers' productivity, risk perception, risk-taking behaviors as a function of different safety interventions in place. To study this within a risk-free setting, an immersive mixed-reality environment simulating roofing task was developed. Then, the reactionary behavioral responses of participants were monitored using real-time tracking sensors and qualitative sources of data while they were completing a roofing task under three counterbalanced levels of safety interventions (i.e., with no fall-safety intervention, with an injury-reducing fall-safety intervention—i.e., fall-arrest system—and with an injury-preventing fall-safety intervention— i.e., a fall-arrest system and a guardrail). The findings indicated that the reduced perceived risk and the desire for increased productivity may skew risk analysis and strongly bias workers toward presuming invulnerability when safety interventions are in place. According to risk compensation theory, workers' risk tolerance and perceptions of risk influence their risk-taking behavior—as the perceived risk associated with the situation decreases, individuals take more risks to achieve a level of risk they can comfortably tolerate. Therefore, the workers might become less cautious by leaning over the edge, stepping closer to the roof edge, spending more time exposing themselves to fall risk, over-relying on the safety equipment through different facing directions and choices of posture stability. This result does not necessarily imply the safety innovations are completely ineffective, but rather demonstrates dangers users face when they misperceive the effectiveness of a safety intervention. Furthermore, roofers with high risk tolerance and a high sensation-seeking disposition were identified as high-risk groups who are more likely to be involved in risk-compensatory behaviors. This research represented a substantive departure from the status quo by proposing novel pathways for proactive incident prevention due to risk compensation in the construction industry. The contribution of this study is especially significant because a better understanding of risk compensation will translate into fundamental knowledge about how the construction industry should approach and maintain controls after safety interventions.

L’objectif majeur de cette thèse a été d’appréhender les conséquences de la comparaison sociale sur l’auto-évaluation implicite et explicite en termes de prudence, les affects et les comportements à risque. Les participants ont été exposés à un standard de comparaison prudent (standard haut) ou imprudent (standard bas) en matière d’alcool. Les résultats montrent que les sujets confrontés au standard haut se perçoivent implicitement plus imprudents et ressentent plus d’anxiété que les sujets exposés au standard bas. En revanche, le standard de comparaison n’influence pas l’auto-évaluation explicite et les comportements contrôlés. Ces résultats témoignent en faveur d’une dissociation entre les processus automatiques (implicites) et contrôlés (explicites) en jeu dans la comparaison sociale. Au niveau appliqué, nos données suggèrent que dans une campagne de prévention il serait potentiellement plus efficace de mettre en scène un standard prudent plutôt que de montrer un preneur de risque. / The main goal of this PhD research was to study the consequences of social comparison on implicit and explicit self-evaluation in terms of cautiousness, on affect and on risk-taking behavior. In a series of studies, participants were exposed to a comparison standard who displayed either cautious (high standard) or reckless (low standard) drinking behavior. Results show that participants confronted with the high standard implicitly perceive themselves as more reckless and experience higher levels of anxiety than participants exposed to the low standard. On the other hand, the comparison standard does not influence explicit self-evaluation and controlled behaviors. These results indicate that there might be a dissociation between automatic (implicit) and controlled (explicit) processes involved in social comparison. On an applied level, regarding alcohol prevention campaigns, our findings suggest that it could be more effective to show a cautious standard rather than a reckless one.