Citation

Riedijk L, Harakeh Z. Emerg. Adulthood 2018; 6(4): 255-265.

Affiliation

Department of Interdisciplinary Social Science, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Society for the Study of Emerging Adulthood, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/2167696817722918

PMID

30443439

PMCID

PMC6195170

Abstract

This experiment examined whether emerging adults imitate the risky decision-making of peers and whether peer susceptibility functions as a moderator. Overall, 63 emerging adults participated with a confederate of the same gender. The participants were randomly assigned to the experimental (confederate engaged in risky decision-making) or control (confederate did not engage in risky decision-making) condition. Risky decision-making was measured with the Stop-Light Game task, and peer susceptibility was measured with a questionnaire. Linear regression analyses showed that the participants engaged in more risky decision-making when the peer displayed risky decision-making. Peer susceptibility was not found to be a significant moderator of this relationship. The findings showed that health education programs need to consider imitation to reduce the risky decision-making of emerging adults more effectively.

Language: en

Keywords

emerging adults; imitation; peer influence; peer susceptibility; risky decision-making