Does cognitive control mediate the relationship between peer presence and adolescent risk‐taking? An ERP study

Peer presence influences risk‐taking behavior, particularly in adolescence. Based on the dual system model, this event‐related potential study examined whether and how the presence of a peer displayed a preference for risky behavior would increase adolescents' risk‐taking by disrupting their cognitive control processes in either emotional or non‐emotional contexts. A sample of 106 adolescents (17–19 years of age) completed two Stoop tasks and a Balloon Analog Risk Task under three peer presence conditions. Results revealed that compared to other conditions, the presence of a risk‐averse peer caused adolescents to make safer decisions through improving their conflict monitoring (more negative N200‐diff), whereas a risk‐preference peer's presence led adolescents to more risky decisions through disrupting their conflict resolution (more positive N450‐diff) but they were only observed on the Emotional Stroop task. These findings suggest that different peer presence contexts could increase or decrease adolescents' risk‐taking behaviors by influencing their cognitive control under an emotional context rather than in a non‐emotional context.