Neil: Hello and welcome to 6 Minute
English, I'm Neil and joining me today is Rob.
Rob: Hello.
Neil: So Rob, what’s the most dangerous thing
you’ve ever chosen to do?
Rob: Mmm. Tricky question. I've done
many risky things but probably the most
risky thing is bungee jumping in
New Zealand.
Neil: Oh wow, bungee jumping. You'd
never catch me doing that. Did you enjoy it?
Rob: No, not really. I won't do it again!
Neil: OK, well today our topic is risk and
how different people react to different
levels of risk in different ways.
For example, would you be happy to be in a
driverless car?
Rob: Absolutely not! No, I don't trust
anybody's driving even a computer so no,
I wouldn't go in a driverless car.
Neil: OK, I won't offer you a lift! Driverless
cars are the topic of today’s quiz.
The question is: When was the first driverless
car demonstrated on a public road? Was it:
a) 1970s, b) 1950s, or c) 1920s.
Rob: I think they are quite modern, so I’m
going to say 1970s.
Neil: OK, well we’ll find out if you’re right at
the end of the programme.
Joe Kable is an Associate Professor of
Psychology at the University of
Pennsylvania. In a recent
BBC science programme, All in the Mind,
he talked about the psychology
of risk and whether there was anything
physically in our brains that could predict
how much risk we are prepared to accept.
Here he is, first talking about a number
of different ways people see risk. How
many different types does he describe?
Joe Kable: Some people are quite
risk-averse and
really don’t want to take any decisions
where there’s risk involved at all, whereas
others are fairly risk-tolerant and in some
cases even risk-seeking so, they seek out
decisions that have an aspect
of risk to them.
Neil: How many different types of people
did he mention, when it comes to
attitudes to risk?
Rob: Well there were three. The first group
was those who are risk-averse. If you are
averse to something, you are against it,
you don’t like it. So risk-averse people
don’t like to take risks.
Neil: The second group are those who are
risk-tolerant.
If you are tolerant of something, you
accept it, you don’t mind it, it’s not a
problem for you. So someone who is risk-
tolerant is not worried by an element of
risk in what they choose to do.
Rob: The third group he mentioned are
those who are risk-seeking. If you seek
something, you actively look for it,
you try to find it.
So risk seekers are those who enjoy risk
and what to take risks in their life.
Neil: Associate Professor Kable carried
out research on risk-taking and
discovered that there were
differences in brain structure and the way
parts of the brain worked together
between those who are risk-averse and
those who are risk-tolerant or
risk seekers.
Rob: So it seems as if this is something
that could be measured. You could put
someone in a brain scanner and tell if
they like risk or not.
I wonder how useful that would be though,
is there any practical application for this
knowledge?
Neil: Good question and one that was put
to Kable.
What area does he say this could be
applied to?
Joe Kable: Definitely something that I can
see coming out of this is using these
associations to help develop better
assessments of who’s likely to take risks
versus not. This is exactly the thing that
financial advisors want to assess when
you come to them and say ‘I want to put
my money away for retirement.’
Exactly the aspect of your personality that
they want to know is what’s your
tolerance for taking risk?
Neil: In which area does he say
knowledge of someone’s attitude to risk
might be useful?
Rob: Financial planning. He says that
financial advisors, who are people that
give advice on what to do with our money,
would find this information very useful.
It would help them to assess what to do
with your money, which means it would
help them to decide, to make an
intelligent decision about your money in
certain situations.
Neil: For example if you are planning for
your retirement. Retirement is the time
when are able to or you have to stop working.
Rob: He also used an interesting
expression there: to put your money away,
which means 'save your money', 'put it
somewhere where you can’t spend it and
where it can grow'.
You know I think my financial planner
could just ask me about how I feel about
risk rather than giving me a brain scan.
I heard brain scans can be risky!
Neil: Mmm, not sure that’s true but
anyway, what is true is the answer to this
week’s quiz question. I asked you when
the first driverless car was demonstrated
on a public road. The options were
a) the 1970s, b) the1950s and c) the 1920s.
What did you say Rob?
Rob: I said the 1970s.
Neil: And you were wrong I'm afraid.
Apparently it was the 1920s so a long
time ago. Well done if you got that right.
Now before we drive off into the sunset,
let’s recap today’s vocabulary.
Rob: Yes right, first we had three words
describing different attitudes to risk.
There was risk-averse, for people who
don’t like risk.
Neil: People who don’t mind risk are
risk-tolerant.
Rob: And people who like risk and want
risk are risk seekers.
Neil: Next we had the verb to assess.
This means 'to make a judgement or a
decision based on information'.
Rob: A phrase meaning 'to save money' is
to put money away.
Neil: And finally we had retirement. That
time of life when you are too old to work
anymore or you have enough money that
you don’t need to work anymore. Are you
looking forward to your retirement Rob?
Rob: Cheeky. I’m neither old enough nor
rich enough to even think about that Neil.
Neil: Same here. Well that’s all from us
today, and you don’t have to be a risk seeker
to find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram
and YouTube, and of course on our
website bbclearningenglish.com!
Thank you for joining us and goodbye.
Rob: Bye!