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Description: Lay theories posit young adults prioritize peer over parent relationships, especially when making decisions. However, no empirical work has directly evaluated how young adults weigh these relationships against one another. We conducted a pre-registered experiment where we pit outcomes for parents against outcomes for friends. Participants played one round of the Columbia Card Task in which gains benefited a parent and losses were incurred by a friend, then played another round where the opposite was true. We also varied the emotional salience of decision making, a moderating influence shown to affect how young adults make decisions. Results showed individuals were more likely to make decisions that benefited a parent at the expense of a friend, compared to the opposite. These results were driven by the low emotional salience condition, whereas individuals showed no preference in the high emotional salience condition. These findings help clarify popular lay theories of young adulthood.