Neural underpinnings underlying the influence of peer competition on risk-taking behavior among adolescent girls: An event-related potentials (ERPs) study

Peers play an important role in adolescent risk-taking. Existing studies have examined the effects of peer competition on adolescent risk-taking behavior, but the temporal neural underpinnings underlying this effect remain unclear. To fill this gap, this study employed an Event related potentials technique to investigate the effects of peer competition on adolescent risk-taking behaviors and its neural process. Twenty-four early female adults (M_age = 19.83 years, SD = 1.49) completed the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART) under single and peer competition conditions, while simultaneously undergoing ERP recordings to capture the neural responses associated with their BART responses and feedback. ERPs were used to record the nuanced neural process when participants were working on the BART. Behavioral results revealed that participants showed more risk aversion in peer competition condition than in single condition. ERP results showed that during the decision-making phase, the N2 component was elicited more negatively in competition condition than in single condition. During the feedback evaluation phase, a larger P300 was observed in single condition than in competition condition, while a higher amplitude of the feedback-related negativity (FRN) difference wave was observed in peer competition condition than in single condition. These findings provide a new scope for future research and suggest that peer competition have an adaptive effect on risk-taking behavior among early female adults. The current study also indicated that risk-avoidance effect under peer competition appears to be driven by cognitive conflict during decision making and individuals’ tendency to avoid potential loss feedback. Copyright © 2025 The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.