Decision making
How do emotions and bodily awareness affect impulsive choices?
Open access · cc by · source: Europe PMC
While long-term personality traits predict distinct types of impulsive and risky choices, a person's current emotional state and awareness of their bodily signals do not.
How this study connects
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Current emotional states and self-reported interoceptive awareness do not predict risk-taking or impulsivity tasks, which are instead driven by stable personality traits.
Evidence for the claim as stated.
Study at a glance
- Design
- Cross-sectional — Online mood, impulsivity, and risk-taking questionnaires
- N
- N=574 · 603 completers; analysis restricted to ages 18–45 (121 men)
- Population
- Mostly young adults, including psychology students taking part for course credit
- Outcome
- Self-reported risk-taking and impulsivity as a function of mood state
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How do emotions and bodily awareness affect impulsive choices?
These passages occur verbatim in the stored paper text. They support the points listed below; they do not verify every statement in the explanation.
574 participants in the final sample size
Therefore, the final sample size was constrained to 574 (121 males; age 18–45, 22.83 ± 6.06).
Approximately 20 minutes to complete the study
The completion of the study took approximately 20 min (based on a pilot study during which participants completed the study uninterrupted).
Key findings
Personality traits associated with impulsivity successfully predicted a person's tendency to choose immediate small rewards over larger delayed ones, as well as their tendency to make hasty decisions. However, risk-taking behavior was predicted by reward sensitivity rather than general impulsivity. Surprisingly, neither current negative emotions nor self-reported body awareness predicted performance on any of the decision-making tasks.
Methodology
Researchers recruited a sample of 574 participants aged 18 to 45 to complete a 20-minute online study. Participants completed self-report questionnaires assessing personality traits, current emotional states, and awareness of internal bodily signals. They also performed three distinct behavioral tasks to measure temporal impulsivity, reflection impulsivity, and risk-taking.
Limitations
Because the research relied on correlational data collected from an online survey, it cannot prove that personality traits directly cause impulsive or risky behaviors. The researchers also lacked direct physical control over the environments where participants completed the tasks, which may have introduced external distractions. Additionally, the study's sample was heavily skewed, consisting mostly of female participants and lacking representation from older age groups.
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