Emotion Regulation And Decision Making Under Risk And Uncertainty
Emotion
2010, Vol. 10, No. 2, 257–265
© 2010 American Psychological Association
1528-3542/10/$12.00 DOI: 10.1037/a0018489
Emotion Regulation and Decision Making Under Risk and Uncertainty
Renata M. Heilman and Liviu G. Cris¸an
Daniel Houser
Babes¸-Bolyai University
George Mason University
Mircea Miclea and Andrei C. Miu
Babes¸-Bolyai University
It is well established that emotion plays a key role in human social and economic decision making. The recent literature on emotion regulation (ER), however, highlights that humans typically make efforts to control emotion experiences. This leaves open the possibility that decision effects previously attributed to acute emotion may be a consequence of acute ER strategies such as cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression. In Study 1, we manipulated ER of laboratory-induced fear and disgust, and found that the cognitive reappraisal of these negative emotions promotes risky decisions (reduces risk aversion) in the Balloon Analogue Risk Task and is associated with increased performance in the prehunch/hunch period of the Iowa Gambling Task. In Study 2, we found that naturally occurring negative emotions also increase risk aversion in Balloon Analogue Risk Task, but the incidental use of cognitive reappraisal of emotions impedes this effect. We offer evidence that the increased effectiveness of cognitive reappraisal in reducing the experience of emotions underlies its beneficial effects on decision making.
Keywords: emotion regulation, cognitive reappraisal, expressive suppression, decision making, risk aversion we find that the decision effects of emotion vary according to the way in which a person regulates the emotion experience.
Various theoretical approaches have indicated that, contrary to traditional thinking in psychology and economics (Neisser, 1967;
Simon, 1956), emotions play an active role in some forms of decision making. Regardless of whether they have been assimilated to the “goodness” or “badness”
2010, Vol. 10, No. 2, 257–265
© 2010 American Psychological Association
1528-3542/10/$12.00 DOI: 10.1037/a0018489
Emotion Regulation and Decision Making Under Risk and Uncertainty
Renata M. Heilman and Liviu G. Cris¸an
Daniel Houser
Babes¸-Bolyai University
George Mason University
Mircea Miclea and Andrei C. Miu
Babes¸-Bolyai University
It is well established that emotion plays a key role in human social and economic decision making. The recent literature on emotion regulation (ER), however, highlights that humans typically make efforts to control emotion experiences. This leaves open the possibility that decision effects previously attributed to acute emotion may be a consequence of acute ER strategies such as cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression. In Study 1, we manipulated ER of laboratory-induced fear and disgust, and found that the cognitive reappraisal of these negative emotions promotes risky decisions (reduces risk aversion) in the Balloon Analogue Risk Task and is associated with increased performance in the prehunch/hunch period of the Iowa Gambling Task. In Study 2, we found that naturally occurring negative emotions also increase risk aversion in Balloon Analogue Risk Task, but the incidental use of cognitive reappraisal of emotions impedes this effect. We offer evidence that the increased effectiveness of cognitive reappraisal in reducing the experience of emotions underlies its beneficial effects on decision making.
Keywords: emotion regulation, cognitive reappraisal, expressive suppression, decision making, risk aversion we find that the decision effects of emotion vary according to the way in which a person regulates the emotion experience.
Various theoretical approaches have indicated that, contrary to traditional thinking in psychology and economics (Neisser, 1967;
Simon, 1956), emotions play an active role in some forms of decision making. Regardless of whether they have been assimilated to the “goodness” or “badness”