Can your genes predict your risk-taking behavior?

Methods

Summary

Participants will be recruited through the Department of Psychology SONA system. They will sign up for an appointment with a trained research assistant who they will meet in the Cognitive Science Laboratory on the day of their scheduled appointment. At the appointment time, participants will receive an informed consent document in which participants will be told about the fact that the study occurs in multiple parts. The first part of the study is an online questionnaire. The first page of the survey provides a "Participant Information" detailing information in the typical informed consent form. 

Participants who chose to participate will first complete a set of online questionnaires asking about demographics, social relationships, personality, and behavior. At the end of this session participants will provide two samples of saliva for later analyzation. One sample will be provided via passive drool to measure baseline cortisol; one sample will be provided via buccal cell swab to measure OXTR rs53576 genotype. Then, participants will engage in the Trier Social Stress Task (Kirschbaum et al 1993). Participants in the experimental group will be asked to prepare a five minute presentation for a job interview, and then asked to count backwards from 1,022 in increments in 13. This task is designed to understand how hormones in saliva (cortisol) are related to social interactions. Next, participants will complete a second set of online questionnaires asking about social relationships, personality, and behavior. At the end of this session participants will provide one sample of saliva via passive drool for later analyzation. After the second saliva sample has been collected we will have participants engage in the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART; Leujez et al., 2002). Lastly, participants will complete a two sets of online questionnaires asking about social relationships, personality, and behavior. In between sessions, participants provide one sample of saliva via passive drool for later analyzation.

Challenges

Because of the nature of the Trier Social Stress Task, we anticipate that we might have some participants who experience mild discomfort during the duration of the social task. Participation in the study is voluntary and participants are free to leave at any time during the experiment. For participants wishing to exit the study due to stress exposure. For all participants, we will provide through debriefing and will provide resources for on- and off-campus counselling resources.