Work

Being Emotional During Decision Making—Good or Bad? an Empirical Investigation

Year: 2007

Type: article

Abstract: This paper examines the link between affective experience and decision-making performance. In a stock investment simulation, 101 stock investors rated their feelings on an Internet Web site while making investment decisions each day for 20 consecutive business days. Contrary to the popular belief that feelings are generally bad for decision making, we found that individuals who experienced more intense feelings achieved higher decision-making performance. Moreover, individuals who were better able to identify and distinguish among their current feelings achieved higher decision-making performance via their enhanced ability to control the possible biases induced by those feelings.

Source: Academy of Management Journal

DOI: 10.5465/amj.2007.26279217

Authors: Myeong-Gu Seo, Lisa Feldman Barrett

Institutions: University of Maryland, College Park, Boston College

Language: English

Topic: Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics

Subfield: General Decision Sciences

Field: Decision Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funders: National Institute on Aging, National Institute of Mental Health

Awards: Emotional Granularity: A View From Multiple Levels, Neural Mechanisms of Affective Salience in Aging