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Decisions, decisions!
While some choices are easy to make, like what to eat for dinner, others are more difficult. Think: anything related to moving, relationships or work.
Now, science has narrowed down exactly which life decisions people consider the riskiest — and the top ones surprisingly don’t include whether you should text your ex.
A new, large-scale study published last month in the journal Psychological Science found that some of life’s toughest questions have a consistent theme.
Rather than selecting between hypothetical scenarios presented to them by researchers, more than 4,000 participants were asked to list recent tough decisions they had made.
Categorizing what participants wrote down using word clouds and then curating the top 100 risky choices, the study authors noted that certain life categories appeared more frequently than others.
Decisions revolving around work and career ruled the chart.
The riskiest choice, regardless of age or gender, was whether or not to take a new job, immediately followed by quitting a job. The fifth-largest decision was whether someone should become self-employed.
Meanwhile, the third-riskiest life decision was investing money. Study participants frequently named stocks, cryptocurrency and trading in their responses.
And while it may seem mundane, choosing to drive was the fourth-biggest decision participants had to make, especially while fatigued, distracted, during bad weather or while intoxicated, according to the study.
While getting behind the wheel is a choice people make every day, it’s not surprising that it’s considered risky, given that more than 40,900 people died in US motor vehicle crashes in 2023.
The sixth-riskiest decision people make? Buying a home, with the words “new purchase,” “invest” and “buying property” appearing often.
Rounding out the top 10 biggest life decisions, the last four choices fell into the health and social categories of life.
Deciding to get surgery or get vaccinated were the seventh and ninth risks people take, respectively.
With public distrust for vaccinations growing — especially under Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — flu vaccinations are down, according to recent government data.
And finally, the eighth and 10th spots were related to social aspects of life, with participants naming marriage or moving to a new country, respectively.
What surprised researchers most was that the top answers didn’t involve health or social activities, like dating or traveling alone. Rather, their findings were reversed.
“That was quite an interesting find, but according to our data, it seems to be a bit like vice-versa,” said study coauthor Renato Frey, a professor of psychology at the University of Zurich. “First and foremost, people think of occupational risky choices.”
The one difference in the study was how researchers phrased the questions to participants, leaving the term “risky” vague, as it can have different meanings to different people. For some, risk is associated with gambling, while others associate it with impactful or consequential decisions.
Age also played a role in some decisions. Older people believed accepting a new job was risky while younger adults saw quitting a job as high-risk.
Regardless, researchers believe these findings can help provide different groups with better support to make decisions.
“These more nuanced patterns help us understand essentially which subgroups of the population are exposed to which risky choices,” Frey explained.
