Risk, learning, and culture

The ways in which humans respond to risk, both in our day-to-day decisions and in our long-term plans, vary considerably both within and across individuals, as well as across socioeconomic strata and cultures. We review the main factors that contribute to this variation across evolutionary, developmental, and cultural timelines. We emphasize that risk tolerance is not a fixed individual trait, but rather an emergent disposition that arises from the combination of evolutionary pressures towards risk-aversion, lived experiences—particularly in critical developmental periods—and cultural transmission within and across generational cohorts. We aim to show how, in an uncertain world, people adjust their behaviors towards risky prospects by relying on evolved social learning strategies, as these provide general-purpose mechanisms for interpreting environmental conditions across different causally-opaque domains. We introduce an integrative theoretical framework that explicitly details how each of these factors—personal and environmental conditions, development, cultural history, and evolutionary trajectories—contribute to our attitudes, perceptions, and behaviors regarding risk. Our framework delineates clear relationships between risk, learning and culture, including explicit, testable predictions.