Defining a Role for Affect in Decision-Making

<p>Recent theories of decision-making have hinted that affect might be useful during some decision-making processes. I propose a model, the affective evaluation model, which defines the role of affect in decision-making as helpful when affect is decision-relevant and unhelpful when it is not. In three studies, I manipulate the decision-relevance of affect to test this central component of the affective evaluation model. Study 1 demonstrates that emphasizing decision-relevant affective signals facilitates optimal decision-making as compared to emphasizing purely cognitive evaluations. Study 2 tests the hypothesis that creating the expectation that affect is useful can facilitate decision-making. Finally, Study 3 tests the hypothesis that creating the expectation that affect is useful during decision-making can selectively improve decision making when affect is decision-relevant but not when it is decision-irrelevant, and demonstrates that instructing individuals to rely purely on cognitive evaluations can increase risk aversion. Together these studies find moderate support for a central tenet of the affective evaluation model that it is decision-relevance that determines whether affect is helpful or hurtful during decision-making and examines ways in which training or framing can optimize the decision-making process.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Year dc:date.available

2016

Author dc:creator

• Zarolia, Pareezad Cyrus

Contributors dc:contributor

• Kateri McRae, Ph.D.
• Max Weisbuch
• Timothy Sweeny
• Jeremy Reynolds
• Mahammad Mahoor

• Affect
• Decision-making
• Economic decision-making
• Emotion
• Risk-aversion
• Cognition and Perception
• Psychology

Statement dc:rights

• <p>Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.</p>

Language dc:language

en

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd/1177

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.du.edu:etd-2177