Ferrara Michele, Bottasso Anna, Tempesta Daniela, Carrieri Marika, De Gennaro Luigi, Ponti Giovanni
Department of Life, Health and Environmental Sciences, University of L'Aquila, L'Aquila, Italy.
Department of Economics, University of Genova, Genova, Italy.
PLoS One. 2015 Mar 20;10(3):e0120029. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0120029. eCollection 2015.
Excessive working hours--even at night--are becoming increasingly common in our modern 24/7 society. The prefrontal cortex (PFC) is particularly vulnerable to the effects of sleep loss and, consequently, the specific behaviors subserved by the functional integrity of the PFC, such as risk-taking and pro-social behavior, may be affected significantly. This paper seeks to assess the effects of one night of sleep deprivation on subjects' risk and social preferences, which are probably the most explored behavioral domains in the tradition of Experimental Economics. This novel cross-over study employs thirty-two university students (gender-balanced) participating to 2 counterbalanced laboratory sessions in which they perform standard risk and social preference elicitation protocols. One session was after one night of undisturbed sleep at home, and the other was after one night of sleep deprivation in the laboratory. Sleep deprivation causes increased sleepiness and decreased alertness in all subjects. After sleep loss males make riskier decisions compared to the rested condition, while females do the opposite. Females likewise show decreased inequity aversion after sleep deprivation. As for the relationship between cognitive ability and economic decisions, sleep deprived individuals with higher cognitive reflection show lower risk aversion and more altruistic behavior. These results show that one night of sleep deprivation alters economic behavior in a gender-sensitive way. Females' reaction to sleep deprivation, characterized by reduced risky choices and increased egoism compared to males, may be related to intrinsic psychological gender differences, such as in the way men and women weigh up probabilities in their decision-making, and/or to the different neurofunctional substrate of their decision-making.
在我们这个全天候运转的现代社会，过长的工作时间——甚至是夜间工作时间——正变得越来越普遍。前额叶皮层（PFC）特别容易受到睡眠不足的影响，因此，前额叶皮层功能完整性所支持的特定行为，如冒险行为和亲社会行为，可能会受到显著影响。本文旨在评估一夜睡眠剥夺对受试者风险偏好和社会偏好的影响，这可能是实验经济学传统中研究最多的行为领域。这项新颖的交叉研究招募了32名大学生（性别均衡），他们参与了2次平衡的实验室实验，在实验中他们执行标准的风险和社会偏好诱导方案。一次实验是在在家中经历一夜无干扰睡眠之后进行的，另一次是在实验室经历一夜睡眠剥夺之后进行的。睡眠剥夺会导致所有受试者困倦感增加、警觉性降低。与休息状态相比，睡眠不足后男性会做出更冒险的决策，而女性则相反。睡眠剥夺后女性的不公平厌恶感也会降低。至于认知能力与经济决策之间的关系，认知反思能力较高的睡眠剥夺个体表现出较低的风险厌恶和更利他的行为。这些结果表明，一夜睡眠剥夺会以一种性别敏感的方式改变经济行为。女性对睡眠剥夺的反应，其特点是与男性相比风险选择减少、利己主义增加，这可能与内在的心理性别差异有关，比如男女在决策时权衡概率的方式，和/或与他们决策的不同神经功能基础有关。
