Are Women Who Are Shy Reluctant to Take Risks? Behavioral and Psychophysiological Correlates

Behavior and heart rate were measured during a gambling task designed to index risk taking in a sample of undergraduate women, some of whom self-reported high and low shyness. We found that high shy subjects were significantly more cautious in their gambling pick and exhibited a significantly greater increase in heart rate during the task compared with their low shy counterparts. We speculate that some women who are extremely shy may have a low threshold for arousal, reflected in increased autonomic activity, which may interfere with some decision-making processes.