Decision-making under uncertainty and certainty: Information use, deliberative and affective processes, and state/trait characteristics

Abstract

Background and aims: Although many studies have provided evidence of links between anxiety and risk avoidance processes, few have evaluated how anxiety and other psychological states (e.g., anxiety sensitivity and worry) and skills relate to different DM styles, and they usually study DM under Uncertainty (with an emphasis on risky conditions). Additionally, there is a focus on pathologies, leaving a space to explore how metacognitive skills such as dispositional mindfulness positively or negatively interfere with the DM process in different conditions and subtypes. This study aims to a) provide insight into differences and similarities in DM “under uncertainty” and “under certainty”, b) provide insight into information processing differences and styles between hot and cold risk-taking decision tasks, and c) explore the possible link between state/trait characteristics (e.g., state anxiety, impulsive behavior, emotional regulation) and metacognitive skills (dispositional mindfulness and cognitive reappraisal) in DM. Method: 118 Spanish-speaking adults (79.66% women; age: M = 27.09, SD = 10.562) a) performed three DM under-risk and ambiguity tasks, the Columbia Card Task (CCT) in one of two versions, either Cold or Hot, The Game of Dice Task (GDT), The Balls in the Bottle Task, and b) completed self-report instruments related to anxiety symptoms, state anxiety, anxiety sensitivity, emotional regulation, emotional dysregulation, worry trait, and dispositional mindfulness. Results: Our results suggest a link between moderate to high levels of dispositional mindfulness and primary forms of DM involving frequent risk-taking. We found that participants with minimal to moderate anxiety symptoms take more risks depending on the parameters and the conditions, taking more risks when the probability of loss was lower and in the Cold version. Our findings also suggest that specific emotional regulation strategies, especially expressive suppression (ES), could moderate or mediate DM performance in Uncertain conditions and should be considered for future research directions. Conclusion: The present data demonstrate that affective processes and emotions can influence decisions through multiple pathways and vary as a function of context and individual differences. Our study is the first to assess how metacognitive skills, such as dispositional mindfulness, interfere positively or negatively with the DM process under different contexts (Certain and Uncertain).