*While 57% of white adults in the U.S. are married, only 33% of black adults are. Existing research attributes this gap largely to the male-female ratio, but this study examines economic prospects as a key factor. By exploiting heterogeneity in discretionary state-level minimum wage hikes, we identify their impact on marriage rates among low-paid workers of marriageable age. States with wage increases show a 2 percentage point reduction in the racial marriage gap compared to others. Black workers maintain or increase work hours, improving economic prospects while reducing time spent on homeownership, volunteering, religious activities, and acquiring goods and services.

**Uncertainty is a part of life and has been widely studied in neuroscience and economics. However, we still know very little about how human and other animals cope with very rare (probability below 2%) but extreme (very strong consequences) events (REEs). What happens when we face events that are both rare (you can’t predict its occurrence, too surprising) and extreme in their consequences (positive, Jackpot JP - or negative, Black Swan BS) ? How do we respond to such events? To explore these questions, our study, in humans and rats, employs a four-armed bandit task with exposure to stochastic gains and losses, some of which are exceptionally REEs. Our previous research on rats highlighted their sensitivity to REEs, with two main strategies:  a total BS avoidance and a partial JP seeking. In this study, we introduce two tasks for humans, differing in their entry method: one through training (implicit learning) and the other through a partial description of outcomes (explicit learning). Our findings show that humans have similar strategies in both task and similars to the ones found in rats: they strongly avoid BS and partially seek JP, with individual differences in the strength of these strategies. Interestingly, there is an asymmetric reactions to REE (gambling fallacy): participants avoid BS because they are certain another one will happen (and they fear it), whereas when they have a JP most of them tended to go to safer choices thinking that JP would not occur again. Individuals that exhibit differences in decision-making phenotypes and sensitivity have also different exposures and reactions to rare and extreme events.