Receptiveness and Affective Responses to Counterfactual Information in Anxiety Open Access

Abstract

The current study focuses on understanding how anxiety influences counterfactual decision-making, receptiveness to counterfactual outcomes, and affective responses. Anxiety has been associated with aberrant decision-making and risk-aversion. During economic decision-making, individuals with anxiety exhibit persistent biases towards low-risk, low-reward options. There is evidence that suboptimal decision-making in people with anxiety may be mediated by both intolerance of uncertainty and regret sensitivity. These two manifestations of anxiety are potentially in competition to determine whether to receive or avoid information regarding the outcome of an unchosen option (i.e., counterfactual information). However, little is known about how intolerance of uncertainty and regret sensitivity influence decisions, affective responses, and receptiveness to counterfactual information. Here, we recruited 125 undergraduates to complete a modified Counterfactual Gambling Task (CGT) and self-report assessments of anxiety, intolerance of uncertainty, and regret sensitivity. One component of the CGT assesses gambling decisions and affective responses to received outcomes. A second component of the CGT included a novel experimental manipulation assessing preferences to receive or avoid counterfactual outcomes before measuring subsequent affective responses to counterfactual information. We found that higher anxiety is associated with more intense negative affective responses to negative feedback. In addition, higher intolerance of uncertainty is associated with increased willingness to view counterfactual information, and surprisingly, regret sensitivity is also associated with increased willingness to view counterfactual information. These findings help clarify how anxiety manifests in counterfactual decision-making, offering new insights into the processes underlying aberrant decision-making observed in individuals with anxiety. 

Table of Contents

1. Abstract……………………………………………………….………..1 

2. Introduction…………………………….……………………….….......2 

3. Methods...……………………………………………………….….......6 

4. Results......……………………………………….…………………....16 

5. Discussion...……………………………………………………....…..36 

6. List of Figures…………………………………….…......................…44 

7. References……………………………..…………………...........……46 

About this Honors Thesis

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School	Emory College
Department	Psychology
Subfield / Discipline	Clinical Psychology
Degree	B.A.
Submission	Honors Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Personality Psychology, Clinical
Keyword	Decision-Making Counterfactual Information Maximization Anxiety Social Anxiety Intolerance of Uncertainty Regret
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Michael Treadway, Emory University
Committee Members	Andrew Kazama, Emory University Philip Wolff, Emory University

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