“Risk-Taking and Air Pollution: Evidence from Chess”, Joris Klingen, Jos van Ommeren2021-11-16 (chess psychology)⁠:

Medical research suggests that particulate matter (PM) increases stress hormones, therefore increasing the feeling of stress, which has been hypothesised to induce individuals to take less risk.

To examine this, we study whether PM₁₀ increases the probability of drawing in chess games using information from the Dutch club competition.

We provide evidence of a reasonably strong effect: A 10μg increase in PM₁₀ (33.6% of mean concentration) leads to a 5.6% increase in draws. We examine a range of explanations for these findings.

Our preferred interpretation is that air pollution causes individuals to take less risk.

[Keywords: air pollution, particulate matter, decision-making, risk-taking]