Abstract: This study with the questionnaire methods probed into the influences towards the risk propensities by the risky situations and personalities. The results show: (1) the two components of achievement motives, namely achievement motive and avoidance motive, might predict the risk propensities and the cognitive characteristics of individuals in risky situations; the achievement motive would be more sensitive for measuring the opportunity perceptions, meanwhile the avoidance motive would be a better predictor for measuring the threat perception. (2)The avoidance motive is the key variable to distinguish the risk propensities of individuals, which depends on the intensity of the avoidance motive. (3) This study verified the individuals at low avoidance motives tendency would be more risk-seeking in gain situation while more risk-averse in loss one; by contraries, the individuals at high avoidance motives tendency would be more risk-seeking in loss and more risk-averse in gain, when the goal for success as the reference point. The study manifested to discuss the response model of the individual’s risk propensity combining two kinds of variables would describe the behavior tendency and the cognitive characteristic more accurately. The conclusion provided a thought to explain the dispute between the Prospect theory and the threat-rigidity-model. In addiction, the main tends on samples between the managers and the students were relative consistent, but the differences were still there. So drawing a conclusion from the sample of students should be cautious.

Key words: risky situation, risk perception, risk propensity