Risk-Taking Propensity and Reward-Processing: Decision-Making Differences Between Binge Drinkers and Non-drinkers

Introduction: binge drinking is a pattern of alcohol consumption that impacts health and well-being, and it is associated with risky decision-making, including drunk driving and risky sexual behavior. Objective: this research aimed to contrast the performance in decision-making tasks between a control group of non-drinkers and a binge-drinking group, and to ascertain the behavioral measure of decision-making that most effectively distinguishes binge drinking behavior. Method: the sample was composed of 43 controls and 25 consumers. We used the following behavioral tasks: Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART), Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), Delay Discounting (DD), and the cold and hot versions of the Columbia Card Task (CCT-cold and CCT-hot), in order to measure decision-making. Results: significant differences between the groups were found with the BART and CCT-cold tasks. In addition, Pearson’s correlation analysis showed a negative correlation among BART, the CCT-hot and CCT-cold (low performance), and the quantity of alcohol use. The discrimination analysis showed that BART and CCT-cold tasks are the best predictors of binge drinking. Discussion and conclusions: the study finds significant decision-making differences between binge drinkers and controls, particularly in risk-related tasks. These insights suggest targeted interventions could mitigate the harmful effects of binge drinking by focusing on these cognitive vulnerabilities.