@article{ref1,
title="Acute effects of exercise on risk-taking: different responses in males and females",
journal="Research quarterly for exercise and sport",
year="2020",
author="Thomson, Cynthia J. and Gaetz, Michael and Rastad, Michael",
volume="ePub",
number="ePub",
pages="ePub-ePub",
abstract="In recent years there has been great interest in the effects of exercise on cognition, but few have investigated whether physical activity influences risk-taking. <br><br>PURPOSE: To investigate the effects of acute moderate to vigorous exercise on risky decision-making. <br><br>METHODS: Healthy (free of psychological or neurological conditions), recreationally active males and females (n = 20, 50% females, mean age = 22.4 years, sd = 2.48) performed either a 30-min bout of cycling at 50% to 60% of their maximal power output or watched a neutral film over the course of two laboratory visits (repeated measures, randomized crossover design). Following the interventions, participants completed computerized behavioral tasks: the Balloon-Analogue Risk Task (BART), the Risky Gains Task, and the STOP-IT task and provided saliva samples (pre and post) to measure changes in cortisol. <br><br>RESULTS: There was a significant interaction between sex and condition (p = .01, ηp2 = .3) for one of the risk-taking outcomes of the BART (number of explosions). Females exploded fewer balloons post-exercise. Performance on the other tasks did not change significantly between conditions (all p > .05). Cortisol increased significantly following exercise and responses did not differ between males and females. Considering cortisol change post-exercise similarly resulted in a significant sex by condition interaction (p = .005, ηp2 = .44), with males exploding more balloons and females exploding fewer post-exercise. <br><br>CONCLUSION: Acute exercise appears to have differing effects on males and females. Exercise resulted in risk seeking in males and risk aversion in females as measured by the BART.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0270-1367",
doi="10.1080/02701367.2020.1822984",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02701367.2020.1822984"
}