Why do researchers often prefer safe over risky projects? Explaining risk aversion in science

A mathematical framework that builds on the economic theory of hidden-action models provides insight into how the unobservable nature of effort and risk shapes investigators' research strategies and the incentive structures within which they work, according to a study published August 15 in PLOS Biology by Kevin Gross from North Carolina State University, U.S., and Carl Bergstrom from the University of Washington, U.S.