Decision-making and risk-taking under uncertainty in safety-critical systems: a study among aviation employees

Abstract Aviation employees operate in a dynamic, complex safety-critical system that is filled with uncertainty, requiring quick and correct expert decision-making. The purpose of this study is to investigate the decision-making indicators among aviation employees. Fifty-five technical engineers and air traffic controllers participated in this study by completing the Cambridge Gambling Task (CGT) at one of Iran’s airports. The CGT provides one of the most reliable and widely used decision-making assessment tasks and related indicators, including decision-making quality, risk-taking, delay aversion, deliberation time, risk adjustment and overall bet ratio. Higher risk adjustment, less deliberation time, and a lower delay aversion index resulted in better decision-making quality. Higher risk-taking does not necessarily mean lower self-control. No significant differences were observed between the studied groups, including between air traffic controllers (both Ground and Tower vs. RADAR and Approach) and between air traffic controllers and technical engineers in the CGT performance. The decision-making quality increased with age and work experience, which has important implications for training and selection processes.