The Effect of Induction of Emotions on Risky Decisions and Behavioral Inhibition

Abstract

In the present study, the effect of emotions on risky decision making and behavioral inhibition was investigated. The method of study was experimental. The research sample consisted of 60 male students with different educational degrees in Tehran University who were randomly assigned into two experimental groups and one control group (20 students in each group). In order to assess the risky decision-making and behavioral inhibition, two computerized tests, Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART) and Go/No-Go Task were used. Positive and negative emotions were induced via an emotion induction procedure into two experimental groups. The results of multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) showed that different levels of independent variable including positive, negative and lack of emotion induction had a significant difference in both risky decision making and behavioral inhibition (p< 0.05). Generally, the results of the study showed that induction of positive emotions compared to negative emotions and the control group, significantly increases the risky decisions rate and reduces behavioral inhibition

Keywords

• risky decision making
• behavioral inhibition
• emotion induction