title: Anxious ultimatums: how anxiety disorders affect socioeconomic behaviour.
abstract: Although the role of emotion in socioeconomic decision making is increasingly recognised, the impact of specific emotional disorders, such as anxiety disorders, on these decisions has been surprisingly neglected. Twenty anxious patients and twenty matched controls completed a commonly used socioeconomic task (the Ultimatum Game), in which they had to accept or reject monetary offers from other players. Anxious patients accepted significantly more unfair offers than controls. We discuss the implications of these findings in light of recent models of anxiety, in particular the importance of interpersonal factors and assertiveness in an integrated model of decision making. Finally, we were able to show that pharmacological serotonin used to treat anxious symptomatology tended to normalise decision making, further confirming and extending the role of serotonin in co-operation, prosocial behaviour, and social decision making. These results show, for the first time, a different pattern of socioeconomic behaviour in anxiety disordered patients, in addition to the known memory, attentional and emotional biases that are part of this pathological condition.
authors: Department of Cognitive Science and Education, University of Trento, Trento, Italy. alessandro.grecucci@unitn.it
authors: Alessandro
authors: A
authors: Grecucci
authors: Cinzia
authors: C
authors: Giorgetta
authors: Paolo
authors: P
authors: Brambilla
authors: Sophia
authors: S
authors: Zuanon
authors: Laura
authors: L
authors: Perini
authors: Matteo
authors: M
authors: Balestrieri
authors: Nicolao
authors: N
authors: Bonini
authors: Alan G
authors: AG
authors: Sanfey
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000523:psychology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003657:Decision Making / Q000187:drug effects; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D017367:Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use; D012919:Social Behavior; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors
chemical_list: D017367:Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors