Quitting a job. Buying a house. At some point, everyone faces risky choices that could alter their life paths. In today’s world, characterized by rapid globalization and technological advancements, these choices are increasingly complex and abundant. This evolving landscape presents a challenge for researchers striving to understand how people navigate risk and uncertainty.
A study published in 2025 in Psychological Science delves into this issue, moving beyond laboratory settings to gather real-world data. Researchers sought to identify which aspects of risky decision-making are most pertinent and challenging in modern society, aiming to strengthen the foundation of behavioral and decision-making research.
Exploring Real-Life Risky Choices
“Our basic goal was really to try to tap people’s actual experiences from real life,” said Renato Frey, a coauthor of the study and professor of psychology at the University of Zurich. Traditionally, risk and decision-making research has been conducted in a “top-down manner,” where researchers devise scenarios they deem risky. However, Frey noted, “there’s the risk that we study outdated phenomena” due to reliance on decades-old theories and paradigms.
To construct an inventory of contemporary risky choices, Frey and his colleagues recruited participants from Switzerland, ensuring a diverse sample in terms of gender and age. They surveyed over 4,380 individuals, asking them to report a single risky choice they or someone in their social circle had encountered. The phrasing of the question varied to capture a broad spectrum of choices, including those involving riskier or safer options.
Defining Risk in Modern Terms
The term “risky choice” was left intentionally broad to encompass two types of decisions. The first involves randomness, such as gambling, known as “decision under risk.” The second involves unknown outcomes, like starting a business, termed “decision under uncertainty.” The study’s researchers analyzed these choices to identify unique instances and classify them into a comprehensive list of 100 common risky choices faced by modern-day Swiss citizens.
“The result is an instrument that researchers can use to dig into bigger questions,” Frey explained.
Insights from the Pandemic Era
The timing of the study allowed researchers to assess shifts in risky choices before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Frey noted that “by and large, the distributions of these risky choices to different life domains stay fairly constant,” indicating a surprisingly stable “ecology or landscape of risk.”
Occupational risks, such as starting or quitting a job, were consistently the most cited, followed by health-related, financial, social, traffic-related, and recreational choices, like solo travel. “That was quite an interesting finding,” Frey said, highlighting a potential mismatch between researchers’ focus and actual public concerns.
Demographic Patterns in Risk-Taking
The study also uncovered gender- and age-related patterns. Younger adults frequently cited job-quitting as a risky choice, while older individuals were more concerned about accepting new job offers. “These more nuanced patterns help us understand essentially which subgroups of the population are exposed to which risky choices,” Frey explained. This insight could help policymakers provide targeted support or decision aids to specific demographic groups.
Implications for Future Research
This inventory of choices offers a valuable resource for future research, providing a foundation for developing and calibrating new measurement tools related to risk and uncertainty. Frey emphasized the importance of balancing theory-driven lab research with real-world data collection. “I think this [study] could serve as kind of a blueprint for how, at least every once in a while, we should probably reach out and do this more discovery-oriented, data-driven, bottom-up research,” he said. “We really need both parts in psychological science.”
The study, authored by Frey and Oliver Fischer, titled “Mapping the Ecology of Risk: 100 Risky Choices of Modern Life,” underscores the importance of understanding the everyday experiences of people in the evolving landscape of modern life.
