people prefer defined risks over ambiguous risks

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the following was posted by DemfromCt to fluwiki

the following is an abstract from a recent Science article.

Making Uncertain Decisions

Research shows that people are more comfortable making choices with defined risks than they are making choices when the risks are ambiguous. In a Report in the 9 Dec 2005 Science, Hsu et al. ( http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/short/310/5754/1680 ) investigated the neural distinctions between these two types of decision-making. The researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to monitor the brains of subjects during a gambling task that required making decisions based on varying levels of uncertainty. The results show that distinct areas of the brain, including the amygdala and the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), are more active during ambiguous than risky decision making. These areas have both been implicated as emotion-processing centers. On the other hand, risk was found to activate a brain region called the dorsal striatum, which has previously been implicated in predicting reward. Interestingly, another component of the study revealed that patients bearing lesions in the OFC do not distinguish between degrees of uncertainty and show no aversion to ambiguity. As noted in an accompanying Perspective by A. Rustichini ( http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/short/310/5754/1624 ), “[e]lucidating the neural processes underlying decision-making may help us understand important economic differences between ambiguity and risk.â€