BBC 6分钟英语 Why do we take risks?

English from BBC, learning English. Hello, and welcome to Six Minute English.

I'm Neil,

and joining me today is Rob.

Hello. So Rob, what's the most dangerous thing you've ever chosen to do?

Hmm, tricky question. I've done many risky things, but probably the most risky thing is bungee jumping in New

Zealand. Oh, wow. Bungee jumping. You never catch me doing.

Did you enjoy it? Not really.

No. I won't do it again.

Okay, well, today our topic is risk and how different people react to different levels of risk in a different ways.

E.g., would you be happy to be in a driverless car?

Absolutely not. No. I don't trust anybody's driving even a computer, so I won't go to driverless car.

OK? I won't offer you a lift.

Driverless cars are the topic of today's quiz.

The question is, when was the 1st driverless car demonstrated on a public road?

Was it A, the 1970s? B the 1950s, or C the 1920s?

Well, I think they're quite modern, so I'm going to say 1970s.

OK, well, we'll find out if you're right at the end of the program.

Joe Cable is an Associate professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania.

In a recent BBC science program, 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 1st talking about a number of different ways people see risk.

How many different types does he describe?

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.

How many different types of people did he mention when it comes to attitudes to risk?

Well, there were three. The 1st group was those who are risk averse.

If you are averse to something, you're against it.

You don't like it. So risk averse people don't like to take Risksthe 2nd group of 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.

The 3rd group he mentioned at 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 want to take risks in their life.

Associate Professor Cable carried out research on risk taking and discovered that there were differences in brain structure, in the way parts of the brain work together, between those who are risk averse and those who are risk tolerant or risk seekers.

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?

Good question. And one that was put to cable.

What area does he say this could be applied to?

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 risk versus not.

This is exactly the thing that that financial advisers 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?

In Which area does he say knowledge of someone's attitude to risk might be useful financial planning?

He says that financial advisers, 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, e.g.

if you're planning for your retirement, retirement is the time when you are able to or you have to stop working.

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.

Hmm, not sure that's true. But anyway, what is true is the answer to this week's quiz question.

I asked you When the 1st driverless car was demonstrated on a public road, the options were A, the 1970s, B, the 1950s, and C, the 1920s.

What did you say, rob? I said the 1970s.

And you were wrong. I'm afraid Apparen'tly, 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. Yes, right? 1st, we had three words describing different attitudes to risk.

There was risk averse for people who don't like risk, people who don't mind risk are risk tolerant, and people who like risk and want risk are risk seekers.

Next, we had the verb to assess this means

to make a judgment or a decision based on information.

A phrase meaning to save money is to put money away.

And finally, we had retirement, that time of life when you were 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 or cheeky? I'm neither old enough nor rich enough to even think about that now.

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, bbc learningenglish dot com.

Thank you for joining us. And good bye, bye.

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