BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Personality and Social Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1605528
The Moderating Role of Legal Emotions in the Relationship Between Sensation Seeking and Risk-Taking Behaviors Among College Students
Provisionally accepted
- 1Taizhou University, Taizhou, Zhejiang Province, China
- 2Wenzhou University, Wenzhou, China
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The dual-system model proposes that asynchronous maturation of the socioemotional and cognitive control systems underlies the high incidence of adolescent risk-taking. Although sensation seeking is strongly linked to such behaviors, the role of social emotions-particularly legal emotion-remains underexplored. In this study, 127 university students completed a sensation-seeking scale and the College Students' Legal Emotions Questionnaire. A subset of 110 participants with valid survey data then undertook an objective behavioral assessment of risk-taking (Balloon Analogue Risk Task). Results indicated that sensation seeking significantly and positively predicted risk-taking propensity, and that positive legal emotions attenuated this effect, whereas negative legal emotions showed no moderating impact. These findings highlight a novel intervention target: fostering positive legal emotions via school-based legal education may effectively reduce adolescent risk-taking behaviors.
Keywords: sensation seeking, legal emotions, Risk-taking behaviors, Legal education, college students
Received: 06 May 2025; Accepted: 03 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wang, Zhang and XU. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Shuhui XU, Wenzhou University, Wenzhou, China
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