Does stress lead to bad decision making?

Introduction

The relationship between stress and decision-making is a critical area of research, given that many decisions are made under stressful conditions. Understanding how stress impacts decision-making processes can provide insights into both everyday choices and high-stakes scenarios.

Key Insights

Impaired Decision-Making Under Stress:
- Stress often leads to impaired decision-making by causing individuals to offer solutions before considering all alternatives and to scan alternatives in a nonsystematic fashion .
- Stress deteriorates overall decision-making performance, making decisions more disadvantageous, reward-seeking, and risk-taking .
Stress and Risk-Taking:
- Stress increases risk-taking behavior, particularly in financial decision-making, where individuals exhibit stronger behavioral biases under stress .
- Stress modulates risk-taking by influencing basic neural circuits involved in reward processing and learning, biasing decisions towards habitual responses.
Variability Based on Context and Individual Differences:
- The impact of stress on decision-making can vary depending on the specific task or situation, with some scenarios showing no significant effects .
- The type of stressor (processive vs. systemic) and individual characteristics (e.g., gender) can influence the extent to which stress affects decision-making .
Stress and Moral Decision-Making:
- Stress does not significantly alter everyday moral decision-making, although there is a correlation between cortisol responses and egoistic decision-making in high-emotional situations.
Prosocial Behavior Under Stress:
- Stress can promote prosocial decisions, particularly when the target's need is salient, suggesting that stress can lead to altruistic actions under certain conditions.

Conclusion

Stress generally impairs decision-making by causing individuals to make hasty and less systematic choices, increasing risk-taking and reward-seeking behaviors. However, the effects of stress can vary based on the context, type of stressor, and individual differences. Interestingly, stress can also promote prosocial behavior in situations where the need for altruistic action is clear. Overall, while stress often leads to poorer decision outcomes, it can also drive adaptive and altruistic responses in specific scenarios.

Does stress lead to bad decision making?

Summary

Consensus Meter

Introduction

Key Insights

Conclusion

Sources and full results

Decision making under stress: A selective review

Stress affects decision making, with its impact depending on the specific task or situation and the role of mediating and moderating variables.

Effects of stress on decisions under uncertainty: A meta-analysis.

Stress deteriorates overall decision-making performance, leading to more disadvantageous, reward-seeking, and risk-taking decisions, depending on the decision situation and type of stressor, but not individual characteristics.

"Effects of Stress on Decisions Under Uncertainty: A Meta-Analysis": Correction to Starcke and Brand (2016).

Stress deteriorates overall decision-making performance, leading to more disadvantageous, reward-seeking, and risk-taking decisions, depending on the decision situation and type of stressor.

Decision making under stress: Scanning of alternatives under physical threat

Under stress, individuals tend to offer solutions before considering all decision alternatives, leading to deficient decision making and affecting the quality of solutions.

Does stress alter everyday moral decision-making?

Stress does not directly cause more egoistic decision-making in everyday moral dilemmas, but cortisol responses are positively correlated with egoistic decision-making in high-emotional situations.

Acute Stress Modulates Risk Taking in Financial Decision Making

Acute stress modulates risk taking in financial decision making, potentially exacerbating behavioral biases and promoting automatic reactions to risk.

Decision making under stress: scanning of alternatives under controllable and uncontrollable threats.

Decision making under stress is significantly impaired by a failure to systematic consider all relevant alternatives, leading to premature solution offering and nonsystematic scanning of alternatives.

Stress and decision making: effects on valuation, learning, and risk-taking

Stress exposure influences human decision making by impacting valuation, learning, and risk-taking, with potential implications for decision-making strategies and interventions.

Decision-Making Styles and Stress

Avoidant and Dependent decision-making styles are associated with higher perceived stress and poorer sleep quality, while Rational decision-making is beneficial at the Tax board.

Stress leads to prosocial action in immediate need situations

Stress can promote prosocial decisions, serving others at a temporary cost to self, through mechanisms like emotional contagion and offspring care mechanisms.

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