Research . . . Unconscious manipulation of visual attention can affect individual risk choices.

People's daily life is full of all kinds of risk decision-making, such as the choice of different investment and financial management, medical scheme.risk decision-making is closely related to human survival and development.previous studies have found that there is a correlation between visual attention and decision-making behavior.the longer or the last time an option is watched, the more likely it is to be selected. However, whether there is a causal relationship between visual attention and decision-making behavior is still controversial.to explore whether there is a causal relationship between visual attention and risk decision-making, Rao Lilin, a young distinguished researcher from Li Shu research group, Key Laboratory of behavioral science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, led the students to carry out relevant research.in this study, eye movement technique was used to investigate the effect of visual attention on risk decision-making.﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏.the researchers set the target options randomly in advance, and used the eye tracker to monitor the subjects' eye movement trajectory in real time. When the subjects' visual attention reached the trigger condition, the experimental stimulus disappeared and the selection interface was presented (Fig. 1).the results showed that visual attention manipulation based on options affected risk selection.the target option is more likely to be selected than the non target option (Figure 2a).analysis found that the reason was that eye movement manipulation made the subjects gaze at the target option longer, and eye movement manipulation made the subjects more likely to see the target option at last.researchers also found that subjects did not realize their visual attention was manipulated after the experiment.Fig. 1. Experimental stimulus and flow chart ﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏. Br / > when the subjects' eye movement stimuli were less than or equal to the length of the eye movement, the subjects' eyes were randomly selected and the subjects' eye movement conditions were observed.the results showed that dimension based visual attention manipulation could affect risk selection.compared with the non target dimension, the option that dominates the target dimension is more likely to be selected (Figure 2b).analysis found that the reason was that eye movement manipulation made the subjects gaze at the target dimension longer, and eye movement manipulation made the subjects more likely to see the target dimension finally.is the same as experiment 1. The subjects did not realize their visual attention was manipulated after the experiment. ﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏. Experiment 3 is similar to experiment 1, but there are two differences: one is that the expected value of options is quite different; the other is to ask the subjects whether to see the two options clearly after each choice. the results were similar to those in Experiment 1, and the target option was more likely to be selected than the non target option (Fig. 2C). the results verify the effectiveness and stability of visual attention manipulation. Fig. 2. The proportion of target and non target options in the selection process. In conclusion, this study found that option based and dimension based visual attention manipulation can affect individual risk selection. the results indicate a new direction for the development of risk decision-making theory. Future theories should consider dynamic models that can explain both option based and dimension based visual attention. in addition, the results of this study also reveal that people can help individuals make better decisions by monitoring individual attention allocation. the research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31671166; 71901126), the youth innovation promotion association of Chinese Academy of Sciences (2015067), and the young talent support project of China Association for science and Technology (yess20160143). the article has been published online in cognition: Sui, X. - Y. ා, Liu, H. - Z. ා, & amp; Rao, L. - L. * (online). The timing of gain continuous decision prompts influences risk choice. Cognition. Doi: 10.1016/j.recognition.2019.104077 source: Sui Xiaoyang, research group of Li Shu, Key Laboratory of behavioral science, Chinese Academy of Sciences