Influence of incidental emotional content and emotional abilities on risk-taking propensity in the balloon analogue risk task (BART)

The present study aimed to examine the influence of incidental emotions on risk-taking propensity and investigate its relationship with Emotional Intelligence (EI) abilities. For this purpose, we developed a variant of the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART) in which balloons included a face with a specific emotional expression: happiness, fear, or neutral. Thus, although the emotional content was incidental, it was presented concurrently with the task, embedded within the balloon. To assess EI, we employed the MSCEIT, an assessment instrument based on the performance-based ability model of EI. The study consisted of a sample of 120 participants (Mage = 21.52; 80% women). The results revealed a higher risk-taking propensity in conditions displaying happy faces compared to the fear and neutral conditions. Moreover, participants who reported higher levels of EI were less risk prone across all conditions, but this relationship was particularly strong in the fear face condition. These findings confirm the effect of incidental emotions on risk-taking propensity and suggest the role of EI as a potential protective factor for risk engagement. Further research is needed to clarify the influence of EI on incidental emotions in risk contexts. Implications of the findings and suggestions for future research are discussed.