
Jakub TraczykSWPS University | SWPS · Faculty in Wroklaw
Jakub Traczyk
Ph.D.
About
64
Publications
22,841
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Introduction
Education
October 2009 - June 2013
University of Social Sciences and Humanities. Faculty in Wroclaw
Field of study
- decision-making under risk, risk perception, emotion
October 2004 - July 2009
University of Social Sciences and Humanities. Faculty in Wrocław
Field of study
- decision-making under risk, risk perception, emotion
Publications
Publications (64)
Statistical numeracy, defined as the ability to understand and process statistical and probability information, plays a significant role in superior decision making. However, recent research has demonstrated that statistical numeracy goes beyond simple comprehension of numbers and mathematical operations. On the contrary to previous studies that we...
The present study investigated skilled and adaptive strategy selection in risky decision making. We proposed that people with high objective numeracy, a strong predictor of general decision making skill, would have a broad repertoire of choice strategies and adaptively select these strategies depending on the importance of the decision. Thus more o...
We developed and validated intervention aimed at enhancing numeracy (the ability to understand and use the concept of probability and statistical information) and decision making. One hundred and twenty-two participants were randomly assigned to a Mental Number Line Training condition (MNLT) or an Arithmetic Training Active Control condition (ATAC)...
Numerical skills are essential to make informed decisions in our daily life. Unfortunately, many people lack basic numeracy, which limits their ability to accurately interpret risks (i.e., risk literacy). In this paper, we provide an overview of research investigating the role of numeracy in two prominent domains, where most research was concentrat...
The goal of the present study was to compare the relative contribution of different cognitive abilities and preferences to superior decision making. Additionally, we aimed to test whether skilled decision makers have better and more sophisticated long-term memory representations of personally meaningful risky situations. A large sample from the gen...
We introduce a brief instrument specifically validated for measuring positive and negative feelings about risks—the Berlin Emotional Responses to Risk Instrument (BERRI). Based on seven studies involving diverse adults from three countries (n = 2120), the BERRI was found to robustly estimate anticipatory affective reactions derived from subjective...
Numeracy, representing the ability to understand and process information related to probabilities and numbers, is crucial for accurate decision making. This study evaluates the replicability of eleven effects that underscore the pivotal role of numeracy in judgment and decision making, with successful replication defined as a statistically signific...
Numerical skills are essential to make informed decisions in our daily life. Unfortunately, many people lack basic numeracy, which limits their ability to accurately interpret risks (i.e., risk literacy). In this paper, we provide an overview of research investigating the role of numeracy in two prominent domains, where most research was concentrat...
A vast body of research has indicated that intensified deliberation on choice problems often improves decision accuracy, as evidenced by choices that maximize expected value (EV). However, such extensive deliberation is not always feasible due to cognitive and environmental constraints. In one simulation study and three well-powered fully incentivi...
Numeracy, representing the ability to understand and process information related to probabilities and numbers, is crucial for accurate decision making. This study evaluates the replicability of eleven effects that underscore the pivotal role of numeracy in judgment and decision making. Furthermore, the study explores the potential impact of employi...
A vast body of research has indicated that intensified deliberation on choice problems often improves decision accuracy, as evidenced by choices that maximize expected value (EV). However, such extensive deliberation is not always feasible due to cognitive and environmental constraints. In one simulation study and three well-powered fully-incentivi...
In an fMRI study, we tested the prediction that visualizing risky situations induces a stronger neural response in brain areas associated with mental imagery and emotions than visualizing non-risky and more positive situations. We assumed that processing mental images that allow for “trying-out” the future has greater adaptive importance for risky...
The aim of the present research was to investigate the involvement of mental imagery in people's choices under risk. We tested the general idea that decision makers can use visual mental images (visual mental simulations) to pre-experience how rewarding or threatening future outcomes of risky behavior will be and try out the potential consequences...
In three studies, we developed the Polish version of the Spontaneous Use of Imagery Scale (SUIS), which measures individual differences in people's spontaneous use of mental imagery in everyday situations. The SUIS-PL consists of nine items with very good internal consistency and validity. For example, it shows a moderate correlation with the vivid...
This paper introduces a conceptual synthesis of theoretical ideas investigating the relationship between decision making and mental imagery. We claim that the generation of mental images may play a pivotal role in decision making because imaginative foresight allows an event to be pre-experienced and consequences of different choice alternatives to...
The aim of the present research was to show that mental imagery is involved in people’s choices under risk. We tested the general idea that decision makers can use visual mental images (visual mental simulations) to pre-experience how rewarding or threatening future outcomes of a choice will be and try out the potential consequences of different ch...
Recent studies have illustrated that individuals with higher numeracy are more likely to make adaptive choices than individuals with lower numeracy. Highly numerate individuals can consistently make normatively superior choices by maximizing expected value (EV) in meaningful choice problems (high-payoff condition). However, in trivial problems (low...
Recent studies have illustrated that individuals with higher numeracy are more likely to make adaptive choices than individuals with lower numeracy. Highly numerate individuals can consistently make normatively superior choices by maximizing expected value (EV) in meaningful choice problems (high-payoff condition). However, in trivial problems (low...
Test anxiety is an obstacle that may influence education and professional life. Currently, the remote form of learning is widespread. Thus, a need for measuring test anxiety in an online setting appeared. The paper describes a validation process of a Polish adaptation of the Online Test Anxiety Inventory (OTAI). Three hundred thirty-nine students p...
We conducted pre-registered replications of 15 effects in the field of judgment and decision making (JDM). We aimed to test the generalizability of different classical and modern JDM effects, including, among others: less-is-better, anchoring, and framing to different languages, cultures, or current situations (COVID-19 pandemic). Replicated studie...
A vast body of research has indicated that individuals with higher statistical numeracy, in comparison to individuals with lower statistical numeracy, make superior decisions by employing more deliberative processes leading to selecting options with the highest expected value (EV). However, it is not feasible to deliberate every time we make a choi...
A vast body of research has indicated that individuals with higher statistical numeracy, in comparison to individuals with lower statistical numeracy, make superior decisions by employing more deliberative processes leading to selecting options with the highest expected value (EV). However, it is not feasible to deliberate every time we make a choi...
We introduce a brief instrument specifically validated for measuring positive and negative feelings about risks—the Berlin Emotional Responses to Risk Instrument (BERRI). Based on seven studies involving diverse adults from three countries (n = 2120), the BERRI was found to robustly estimate anticipatory affective reactions derived from subjective...
In the present study, we used a neuroimaging technique (fMRI) to test the prediction that visualizing risky behaviors induces a stronger neural response in brain areas responsible for emotions and mental imagery than visualizing neutral behaviors. We identified several brain regions that were activated when participants produced mental images of ri...
In an fMRI study, we tested the prediction that visualizing risky situations induces a stronger neural response in brain areas associated with mental imagery and emotions than visualizing non-risky and more positive situations. We assumed that processing mental images that allow for “trying-out” the future has greater adaptive importance for risky...
We conducted pre-registered replications of 15 effects in the field of judgment and decision making (JDM). We aimed to test the generalizability of different classical and modern JDM effects, including, among others: less-is-better, anchoring, and framing to different languages, cultures, or current situations (COVID-19 pandemic). Replicated studie...
The main goal of this research was to investigate whether people exhibit algorithm aversion-a tendency to avoid using an imperfect algorithm even if it outperforms human judgments-in the case of estimating students' percentile scores on a standardized math test. We also explored the relationships between numeracy and algorithm aversion and tested t...
The ongoing pandemic of COVID-19 has already had serious worldwide health, socio-economic, political, and educational consequences. In the present study, we investigated what factors can motivate young adults to comply with the recommended preventive measures against coronavirus infection. Even though young people are less likely to suffer severe m...
This paper contributes to the debate concerning determinants of willingness to take entrepreneurial risks and proposes a new approach to this issue. Our theoretical model predicts that entrepreneurs differ from non-entrepreneurs in their willingness to accept business risks because the former produce more vivid and more positive mental images of th...
Celem artykułu jest dokonanie przeglądu modeli teoretycznych oraz badań empirycznych nad rolą zdolności numerycznych (tj. zdolności umysłowych w przetwarzaniu informacji numerycznych) w podejmowaniu decyzji w warunkach ryzyka i niepewności. Badania prowadzone w ostatniej dekadzie wskazują, że zdolności numeryczne są jednym z najważniejszych predykt...
Processing information about probabilities is an integral part of decision making under risk. Even when objective probabilities are explicitly provided, people tend to distort them, which is reflected by an inverted S-shaped probability weighting function. Such distortions depend on different factors such as numeracy and affect. The present study c...
In this chapter, we discuss how theorizing about the role of emotions in financial decision making has changed over the years and review results that indicate the impact of feelings on different stages of the decision process. We show that views on how emotions influence and modify financial decision making have switched from a notion that they are...
This book reviews the latest research from psychology, neuroscience, and behavioral economics evaluating how people make financial choices in real-life circumstances. The volume is divided into three sections investigating financial decision making at the level of the brain, the level of an individual decision maker, and the level of the society, c...
This book reviews the latest research from psychology, neuroscience, and behavioral economics evaluating how people make financial choices in real-life circumstances. The volume is divided into three sections investigating financial decision making at the level of the brain, the level of an individual decision maker, and the level of the society, c...
Background:
According to decision by sampling theory, people store relative frequencies of events in memory, and these values constitute subjective representations of events. Because fear is a natural response to the threat of death, we hypothesized that case fatality rate (CFR) statistics, which represent how deadly a disease is, would be positiv...
People with low statistical numeracy have difficulties understanding numerical information. For instance, they often misunderstand the probability of experiencing side effects, which could reduce adherence to medical treatments. We investigated whether presenting information about probability using a method based on the direct experience of events...
We conducted preregistered replications of 28 classic and contemporary published findings with protocols that were peer reviewed in advance to examine variation in effect magnitudes across sample and setting. Each protocol was administered to approximately half of 125 samples and 15,305 total participants from 36 countries and territories. Using co...
Research suggests that people are less sensitive to variations in probability in affect‐rich compared with affect‐poor risky choices. This effect is modeled by a more curved probability weighting function (PWF). We investigated the role of different numeric competencies and the effectiveness of several intervention strategies to decrease this affec...
The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of numeracy and the emotion of fear on the decision-making process. While previous research demonstrated that these factors are independently related to search effort, search policy and choice in a decision from experience task, less is known about how their interaction contributes to processing i...
In this study, we aimed to explore the relationships between intuitive abilities, intelligence (explicit cognitive ability) and personality. We found that intuition is not homogenous and there are three types of intuitive ability: Coherence & Insight, Implicit Learning and Subjective Intuitive Abilities that showed different patterns of relationshi...
In a series of three experiments, we aimed to determine whether cognitive or emotional factors have the greatest influence on the amount one is willing to pay to insure oneself against a disaster. We designed an original experimental task mimicking a real-life insurance situation in a laboratory setting. Participants were instructed to build a hous...
The anchoring heuristic refers to phenomena when an arbitrary number affects subsequent numerical estimations. Oppenheimer, LeBoeuf and Brewer (2008) showed that it is not necessary for the anchor to be a numerical value (i.e., the act of drawing lines of different length effectively shifts numerical estimations), yet current models describing the...
Expected utility theory posits that our preferences for gambles result from the weighting of utilities of monetary payoffs by their probabilities. However, recent studies have shown that combining payoffs and probabilities is often distorted by affective responses. In the current study, we hypothesized that affective response to a lottery prize mod...
Recent research has documented that affect plays a crucial role in risk perception. When no information about numerical risk estimates is available (e.g., probability of loss or magnitude of consequences), people may rely on positive and negative affect toward perceived risk. However, determinants of affective reactions to risks are poorly understo...
Methods that are typically used to examine individual differences in risk attitudes (e.g. lotteries, dilemmas, questionnaires) require participants to explicitly declare their willingness to take risk. Therefore, they may be biased by the need for self-presentation or situational characteristics such as time pressure and cognitive constraints that...
The present study provides evidence that the activation strength produced by emotional stimuli must pass a threshold level in order to be consciously perceived, contrary to the assumption of continuous quality of representation. An analysis of receiver operating characteristics (ROC) for attentional blink performance was used to distinguish between...
This paper investigates how affect-laden imagery that evokes emotional stress influences risk perception and risk taking in real-life scenarios. In a series of three studies, we instructed participants to imagine the consequences of risky scenarios and then rate the intensity of the experienced stress, perceived risk and their willingness to engage...
This paper investigates how affect-laden imagery that evokes emotional stress influences risk perception and risk taking in real-life scenarios. In a series of three studies, we instructed participants to imagine the consequences of risky scenarios and then rate the intensity of the experienced stress, perceived risk and their willingness to engage...
The study investigated whether the strength of the relationship between attentional and implicit-memory biases for threat-related material can be moderated by individual differences in temperament and personality. A spatial cueing task, where task-irrelevant angry, happy, and neutral faces acted as spatial cues preceding a target, was immediately f...
When making decisions, people tend to overweight small and underweight moderate and high probabilities. This bias is stronger for the affect-rich outcomes. In the current research, we investigated the influence of object-irrelevant affect on distortions of probabilities. Subjects participated in two independent tasks. In the first one, participants...
Here, we explore the sensitivity of different awareness scales in revealing conscious reports on visual emotion perception. Participants were exposed to a backward masking task involving fearful faces and asked to rate their conscious awareness in perceiving emotion in facial expression using three different subjective measures: confidence ratings...
Attention-driven bias for threat-related stimuli in implicit memory. Preliminary results from the Posner cueing paradigm
An implicit memory advantage for angry faces was investigated in this experiment by means of an additional cueing task. Participants were to assess the orientation of a triangle's peak, which side of presentation was cued informa...