Self-determination and risk: the role of life goals and causality orientation in domain-specific risk propensity

A growing body of risk research shows that risk is content specific. Accordingly, various studies have highlighted some factors that could explain why people’s risk propensity may arise in certain domains of risk (e.g. the financial domain) but not in other domains (e.g. the recreational domain). Until now, no research has examined motivation as a possible correlate of domain-specific risk propensity. On the basis of self-determination theory (SDT), we examined the role of both extrinsic life goals (i.e. superficial goal striving, including fame, money, and physical attraction) and control-orientated personality style (i.e. feeling that one’s behaviors are governed by external contingencies) in the propensity to take risks in various domains (social, ethical, recreational, financial, and health/safety). A community sample of 197 participants completed measures scaled to assess extrinsic life goals, controlled orientation, and domain-specific propensity (DOSPERT). The results showed that pursuing extrinsic goals and being control oriented increased the propensity to take ethical, recreational, financial, and health/safety risks but decreased the propensity to take social risks. In addition, to corroborate that risk propensity is domain specific, these results indicate that superficial life aspiration and sensitivity to social pressures are highly predictive of instrumental risks (e.g. ethical and financial), moderately predictive of health risks, and negatively predictive of ego-threatening risks (e.g. social risk). The results are discussed in light of the domain-specific risk literature and in the perspective of interventions based on SDT.