Agenda for March 2

1
Agenda for March 2

• Agenda for today
• Continue Overview of Emotion and Decision Making
• Presentation Elissa, Ada, Laine

2
New Approaches to Emotion Decision Making

• Three types of emotional inputs to decision
  making
• Expected Emotions (def.) What I expect to feel
  in the future in connection with a particular
  decision outcome.
• Two factors determine expected emotions (a)
  likelihood of outcomes (b) utility of outcomes
• Example feelings one might feel after moving
  savings to a risky investment fund

3
Second Type of Emotional Inputs to Decision
Making

• Anticipatory (Integral) Emotions (def.) What I
  feel right now as a result of contemplating the
  decision itself .
• Example Anxiety as moment of truth approaches

4
Sources of Anticipatory Emotion

• Vivid Mental Images
• Images are discrete, not much affected by
  probabilities
• Example mental image of what it would be like
  to experience a shock is the same regardless of
  whether there is a one in ten chance of receiving
  a shock or a one in ten-thousand chance of a
  shock.
• Physiological research on anticipation of shocks
  reveals that anticipation of a shock is
  sufficient to arouse participants, but the
  likelihood of being shocked has little impact on
  arousal level.
• Other Sources?

5
Third Type of Emotional Inputs to Decision Making

• Incidental Emotions (def.) What I happen to feel
  right now, which does not arise from the decision
  itself.
• Example good mood due to nice weather
• Note usually decision makers are not aware of
  their incidental affect

6
Sources of Incidental Emotions

• Weather
• Crowding
• Scents
• Traits
• Visual Images
• Health
• Others?

7
What Kind of Influence do Incidental Emotions
Have?

• Process Effects
• Emotions can affect depth of processing
• Content Effects
• Valence effects
• Emotion-specific effects

8
Under What Conditions to Incidental Emotions
Affect Decision Making?

• Next class