Acute stress affects risk taking but not ambiguity aversion.
Economic decisions are often made in stressful situations (e.g., at the trading floor), but the effects of stress on economic decision making have not been systematically investigated so far. The present study examines how acute stress influences economic decision making under uncertainty (risk and ambiguity) using financially incentivized lotteries. We varied the domain of decision making as well as the expected value of the risky prospect. Importantly, no feedback was provided to investigate risk taking and ambiguity aversion independent from learning processes. In a sample of 75 healthy young participants, 55 of whom underwent a stress induction protocol (Trier Social Stress Test for Groups), we observed more risk seeking for gains. This effect was restricted to a subgroup of participants that showed a robust cortisol response to acute stress (n = 26). Gambling under ambiguity, in contrast to gambling under risk, was not influenced by the cortisol response to stress. These results show that acute psychosocial stress affects economic decision making under risk, independent of learning processes. Our results further point to the importance of cortisol as a mediator of this effect.
Department of Psychology, Goethe University Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
Magdalena
M
Buckert
Department of Economics, University of Heidelberg Heidelberg, Germany.
Christiane
C
Schwieren
Department of Psychology, University of Regensburg Regensburg, Germany.
Brigitte M
BM
Kudielka
Department of Psychology, Goethe University Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt am Main, Germany ; IDeA Center for Individual Development and Adaptive Education, Goethe University Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt am Main, Germany ; Donders Center for Cognition, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen Nijmegen, Netherlands.
Christian J
CJ
Fiebach
ambiguity; cortisol; decision making; gain/loss domain; risk; stress; uncertainty