The role of gender in association between inhibition capacities and risky decision making

BACKGROUND: Research on the association between decision making and inhibition abilities has exhibited fundamental controversies. Some authors claim that inhibition abilities are an integral part of the decision-making process, whereas others suggest that the decision-making process does not operate in close association with inhibition abilities. Can gender explain variations in risky decisions via inhibition influences? PURPOSE: The purpose of the present study was to explore the associations between response inhibition, reflection inhibition, interference inhibition, and decision-making processes in men and women. METHODS: To this end, 46 women and 46 men were assessed by the Go/NoGo task, a measure of response inhibition, by the Matching Familiar Figure Test, a measure of reflection inhibition; and by the Stroop task, a measure of interference inhibition. RESULTS: No differences were detected in these measures between groups. The net score of the performance on the last section of the Iowa Gambling Task choices did not correlate with the inhibition measures in the two groups. We did not discover any significant main effects of gender on the association between these measures. CONCLUSION: These findings do not support the hypothesis that risky decisions are due to impaired inhibitory control. Further studies are needed to identify the cognitive mechanisms involved in the tendency to make risky decisions.