Risk-taking, resilience, and state anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic: a coming of (old) age story

The current COVID-19 pandemic has created an unprecedented hostile psychological environment for individuals. Against the backdrop of this exogenous shock and applying a Cumulative Prospect Theory framework, we examined a relationship between risk-taking, trait resilience, and state anxiety, wherein age moderates the relationship between trait resilience and risk-taking, on state anxiety during the pandemic. We assess risk-taking using a behavioral measure and assess trait anxiety, big five personality traits, and other demographic factors in a sample of 515 individuals in the United States. Regression analysis revealed that age moderates the relationship between risk-taking and state anxiety and that highly resilient, risk-tolerant individuals experience lower state anxiety than less resilient risk-averse individuals. In contrast, older, more resilient, risk-averse individuals experience lower state anxiety than their younger, more resilient, risk-averse counterparts. Study limitations are noted, and additional research is suggested.