The influence of emotion on decision making.

• Main Author: Heng, Dionne.
• Other Authors: School of Humanities and Social Sciences
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2012
• Subjects: DRNTU::Humanities
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/48734
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

To date, research on decision making has generally paid lesser attention to the influence of emotions. Nonetheless, it is an undeniable fact that more often than not, decisions and behaviour are governed by emotions and this has an important impact on the quality of decisions made. Furthermore, in situations where there is the absence or the limited presence of clues to guide actions, how then does one decide on the best course of action? With these in mind, this review aims to shed light on the important role emotions play in decision making, by integrating previous research governing overlapping brain functioning as well as how people anticipate emotions in ambiguous situations and at times avoid making decisions. In addition, emphasis is placed on the desire to maintain a positive emotional state and its impact on decisional making outcome. Ultimately, this paper aims to provide answers regarding (1) the implications of the influence of emotions on the tendency for adolescents to engage in risk taking, (2) the desire for people to avoid negative emotions which lead to the decision of inaction and (3) to establish a direction for future research in this domain. The implications of this review run deep, as it addresses both attitudes and outcomes of decision making which can be used for directing constructive effort towards creating better decision making strategies and the designing of intervention plans.