Trait anxiety affects decision-making differently in healthy men and women: Towards gender-specific endophenotypes of anxiety

The role of ambiguity tolerance in career decision making

“…In non-clinical samples research has also revealed the association of ambiguity intolerance with worry, obsessions/compulsions, and panic sensations (Buhr & Dugas, 2006;Dugas, Gosselin, & Ladouceur, 2001). Excessive worry and anxiety has been found to be the risk factor for impaired decision-making as it results in attention, memory, and interpretation biases, depletion of cognitive resources, and loss of emotional control (De Visser et al, 2010;Miu, Heilman, & Houser, 2008). Thus, one could expect that ambiguity intolerance would be associated with career decision-making in a negative way.…”

Ansiedad y toma de decisiones en la Iowa Gambling Task

“…Según esta hipótesis, cuando se toma una decisión las señales corporales constituyen un patrón fisiológico específico -marcador somático-para cada una de las opciones de respuesta y sus posibles resultados. En este sentido, la ansiedad es una emoción adaptativa que permite guiar la respuesta del individuo a estímulos o situaciones amenazantes, aunque niveles elevados de ansiedad pueden ser desadaptativos (De Visser et al, 2010). En este estudio observamos que, en población normal, una disposición temperamental de miedo/ansiedad parece asociarse con una toma de decisiones desventajosa, quizá explicada por la falta del desarrollo del marcador somático apropiado ante las opciones desventajosas.…”

Impulsivity in anxiety disorders

“…These results tend to confirm that anxious subjects could be prone to subtypes of state impulsivity, in particular to its disinhibitional/disattentional forms. Supporting this assumption, there are some recent evidences that suggest a possible relationship between anxiety and disturbances in specific executive functions, such as attention, inhibitory control and task shifting (see Ansari et al (Ansari and Derakshan 2011) and Eysenck et al (Eysenck, Derakshan et al 2007) for reviews) as well as a possible relationship between anxiety and complex decision-making (Miu, Heilman et al 2008;de Visser, van der Knaap et al 2010). …”

“…Two recent studies conducted by Miu et al. (Miu, Heilman et al 2008) and de Visser et al (de Visser, van der Knaap et al 2010) investigated the effects of high levels of trait anxiety on decision-making of subjects playing Iowa Gambling Task. Both studies reported that participants with high levels of trait anxiety showed a higher tendency to risk taking behaviour when compared to normal participants.…”