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Gender Differences Across Age in Financial Positive-Skew Bias Under Dual-Task Cognitive Load

Poster Session A - Saturday, March 7, 2026, 3:00 – 5:00 pm PST, Fairview/Kitsilano Ballrooms

Sara Juneja¹ (sara.juneja@utdallas.edu), Kendra Seaman^1,2; ¹Behavioral and Brain Sciences, University of Texas at Dallas, ²Center for Vital Longevity

Positive-skew bias refers to a preference for high-upside, low-probability financial gambles. Older adults often show a stronger positive-skew bias in financial decision-making (Seaman et al., 2017), and men weigh positive evidence more than women (Karmarkar, 2023). Age-related changes in affective processing differ by gender, with women showing steeper declines in negative affect across adulthood (Liao, 2025). Under dual-task conditions, reduced executive resources may increase reliance on intuitive strategies, potentially altering age and gender-related differences in decisions. However, it remains unclear whether these differences change linearly or quadratically across adulthood. Secondary analysis was performed using a pre-existing dataset (N=116 adults, ages 25-85). After exclusions, the analytic sample included 65 participants, providing adequate power to detect medium-to-large effects. Participants completed skewed-gamble choices while performing a simultaneous numerical Stroop task that increased attentional load. Positive-skew bias was computed as the proportion of positively- minus negatively-skewed gambles chosen. Two confirmatory multiple-regression models were utilized, as pre-registered: (1) Gender × Age, and (2) Gender × Age + Gender × Age². Contrary to expectations, both regression models revealed no significant main effects of gender or age and no evidence of linear or nonlinear gender-by-age interactions. This implies that there was no reliable support that men and women differ in how they weigh positively versus negatively skewed options under cognitive load. Visual trends, model estimates, and confidence intervals suggest that any true moderation effects are small. Thus, any subtle gendered differences that influence older adults’ vulnerability to risky fraudulent schemes will require larger samples to detect.

Topic Area: THINKING: Decision making