Going With Your Gut: How Does Believing Emotions are Helpful Versus Harmful Shape the Decision-Making Process?
Year: 2019
Type: dissertation
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: What we believe about emotions shapes how we approach emotions in our lives. I propose that individuals vary in their beliefs about whether emotions are helpful versus harmful for decisions and that these beliefs shape how individuals make decisions: those who believe emotions are helpful should be more likely to listen to their emotions when making decisions. I first validated a scale to assess these beliefs (Study 1) and then tested my hypotheses (Studies 2-4). People who believe emotions are helpful were more likely to habitually listen to their emotions when making decisions (Study 2), they had a stronger link between habitually seeking pleasure and impulsive decisions (Study 3), and a stronger link between feeling distressed and prosocial decisions (Study 4). These data suggest that people’s beliefs may be an important driver of how they make decisions: for people who believe emotions are helpful, the emotions they experience during decisions were stronger drivers of their actual decisions.
Source: TSpace (University of Toronto)
Author: Arasteh Gatchpazian
Language: English
Subfield: General Decision Sciences
Field: Decision Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W3114197671