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Abstract

While in most lab studies of exploration behaviour, the only potential downside to exploration is forgoing rewards, in
real life, there can be actual risks to exploration, making Safe Exploration strategies important to avoid catastrophic out-
comes. In the present study, we contrast exploration behaviour in safe with exploration behaviour in risky environments,
i.e. in environments where reckless exploration can lead to the loss of all previously acquired rewards. Using computa-
tional modelling, we show that while people tend to use the same general strategy in both environments, they become
more averse to uncertainty in risky environments compared to safe ones. We further investigate individual differences
in exploration behaviour and show that while most types of anxiety and depression-related traits were associated with
increased subjective uncertainty, there seemed to be two distinct strategies in dealing with this uncertainty: While sub-
jects with high trait somatic anxiety decreased their exploration in risky environments, subjects high on depression and
worry-related traits showed increased exploration and decreased aversion to uncertainty in risky environments. Our
results reveal different aspects of exploration behaviour in a more ecologically valid task and show how this relates to
transdiagnostic psychiatric traits, thereby illuminating potential disease mechanisms.