A growing area of research has been to examine various psychological aspects of risk taking. Researchers typically run randomized experiments with a treatment and control group to ascertain the effect of different psychological factors that may be associated with risk taking. Thus, positive and negative feedback about past risk taking can affect future risk taking. In an experiment, people who were led to believe they are very competent at decision making saw more opportunities in a risky choice and took more risks, while those led to believe they were not very competent saw more threats and took fewer risks.[31] Another study showed that decision makers who feel highly capable are more likely to invest effort in an issue that is negatively, rather than positively, framed. Conversely, with low capability, they are more likely to invest effort in an issue that is positively, rather than negatively, framed. Interestingly, the study showed this occurred because of the differential focus on upside potential and risk taking among decision makers.[32] There are also studies that show that people's emotional states can affect their level of risk taking.[33][34][35] More recently, research has shown differences in risk taking between males and females.[36] Specifically, for decisions that are mainly driven by achievement of gains (e.g., investment decisions), men’s risk-taking propensity is more influenced by their levels of issue capability than women’s because the nature of the decision task is consistent with men’s agentic orientation focused on the self; conversely, for decisions that are mainly driven by avoidance of losses (e.g., insurance decisions), women’s risk taking is more sensitive to issue capability than men’s because the nature of such decisions is consistent with women’s communion orientation.