1. Lecture 8 Emotions & embodied cognition

2. Summary in three slides
Hsee & Rottenstreich: Music, Pandas, and Muggers: On the Affective Psychology of Value
Summary in three slides

3. Aim of the paper Shows that there are two ways of valuation:
Valuation by calculation
Valuation by feeling
There are scope effects for calculation, but not for feeling

4. Affect-poor Affect-rich

5. Several experiments Madonna How much to work Pandas
Calculation / feeling manipulated with priming questions (emotional / math)
How much to work
Calculation / feeling by prize (music book / cash)
Pandas
Calculation / feeling by stimulus (image / dots)
Sentencing a Mugger
Calculation / feeling by empathy suggestion (yes / no)

6. Bechara & Damasio: The somatic marker hypothesis: An neural theory of economic decision

7. Discuss the following statements
Anna just broke up with her boyfriend. She saw an advertisement of a wonderful car. She is hesitating whether to buy the car or not.
Jack is playing at local Casino. He is hesitating whether to bet on high risk gamble or not.
Jack feels very happy. His favorite football team just won a game. He decides to celebrate the winning at local Casino.
Ashley needs to fire two persons from her team at work. Her boss gives her an advice: “Base your decision on rational criteria, ignore your emotions”.
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8. What are emotions? Theory of Emotions
Emotions are biologically based action dispositions that have an important role in the determination of behavior
Emotions comprise three components:
subjective experience (e.g. feeling angry),
expressive component (e.g. severe frown)
physiological component (e.g. heart rate)
Positive emotions are associated with approach and negative emotions with withdrawal

9. Valence-Arousal Circumplex Model of Emotions
Happy
Satisfied
Sad
Dissatisfied
Disappointed
Aroused
Alert
Excited
Inactive
Idle
Passive
Angry
Aggressive
Fearful
Anxious
Frustrated
Relaxed
Calm
Arousal
Pleasure
Displeasure
Tired
Bored
Dull
Helpless
Energetic
Peppy
Joyful
Enthusiastic
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10. Functional role of emotion
Decision confidence
A non-conscious “auto pilot”
Steering us toward (away from) options with potentially favorable (unfavorable) outcomes
Relatedly, aids in self-control
Learning how to manage emotions to our benefit
Context/ content reframing
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11. Individuals and emotions
Individuals differ in terms of the sensitivity of their emotional circuitry
Emotions play an important role in
Resolving trade-off conflicts
Yielding committed decisions, confidence is an important characteristic of good decisions
More muted decision makers are more likely to vacillate compared to emotionals and also end up making less committed decisions

12. Confidence in decision-making
Confident vs. non-confident leader
Confidence increases
Wanting
Engagement
Effort
From a company’s point of view
a non-confident customer high maintenance
a confident customer loyalty, positive word of mouth
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13. The story of Phineas Gage
An american railroad construction foreman who survived from an accident in 1948 in which a large iron rod was driven completely through his head destroying his brain’s left prefrontal cortex
After the accident he was able
to speak and walk and he
seemed fully recovered
in his body and mind
However, Gage became
impulsive and indecisive,
inable to learn from mistakes
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14. Patients with damaged VMF
The case of Gage is not unique
Other patients with a damaged VMF
Repeat mistakes and don’t learn from success
Exhibit impulsivity
Cannot make up their minds, i.e. lack the ability to make committed decisions
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15. Iowa Gambling Task 4 decks of cards: A, B, C, D
A and B yield high immediate gain but larger furture loss – net loss (Bad Decks)
C and D yield lower immediate gain but a smaller future loss – net gain (Good Decks)
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16. Short video on the IGT
(from 4:00)

17. Iowa Gambling Task
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19. Iowa Gambling Task
Average gambling task performance following neutral vs. emotional imagery
Emotions are integral to the decision making task at hand
Emotions that are unrelated to a decision task might be harmful
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20. Somatic Marker Hypothesis - definitions
Emotion = Emotions comprise three components: subjective experience (e.g. feeling angry), the expressive component (e.g. severe frown) and the physiological component (e.g. heart rate)
Somatic state = A physiological response to an emotionally-competent stimulus
Somatic states can be induced from
Primary inducers = Innate or learned stimuli that automatically and obligatorily elicit a somatic response; e.g. encounter of a snake
Secondary inducers = Stimuli generated by a recall of a personal or hypothetical event, i.e. ”thoughts” of the primary inducer; e.g. the memory of encountering a snake
Normal development of secondary inducers is contingent upon the normal development of primary inducers
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21. Somatic marker hypothesis – working mechanism
Over time, emotions and their corresponding somatic markers become associated with particular situation and their outcome
Somatic markers consciously or unconsciously guide our decision-making when a similar situation is encountered
Two distinct pathways activate somatic marker response:
“Body loop”; e.g. encountering a snake may cause fear
“as-if body loop”; e.g. imagining an encounter with snake may cause fear
The brain can anticipate expected physiological changes
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22. Emotions related (unrelated) to the task
The somatic marker hypothesis concerns emotions that are integral to the decision making task at hand
However, the induction of somatic states that are unrelated to the current decision task might be harmful
Presence of unrelated emotions shifts decisions to short-term goals with disadvantegous long-term rewards
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23. Direct vs. indirect influence on behavior
For example, anger may make a person to say or do something that will be regretted later
Emotions may occasionally have direct influence on behavior, but not normally
Cognition and self-regulation control direct influence
Indirect influence
Emotional feedback system (Somatic Marker Hypothesis)
Any time an emotion is experienced, all objects, thoughts, etc. in working memory get tagged with the emotion
The memory of the emotions may arise after the event and help to guide future behavior
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24. Current vs. anticipated emotional states
Current emotional states
Folk wisdom: emotions produce irrational behavior
People avoid making decisions under intense emotional states
Anticipated emotional states
The feedback system theory suggests that anticipated emotion may play a beneficial role in the decision making process
Not what a person feels right now, but what he/ she anticipates feeling as a result of a particular behavior
For example, without the anticipation of feeling guilty, people may perform immoral or antisocial acts
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25. Example
Lottery with two payoffs in €: A: 0.9 * * 1 B: 0.9 * * 100 Most of the respondents A , even though A has better expected value Reason may be that the respondents anticipated a higher level of regret if they chose A and earned only 1€
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26. Example Moral decision-making fMRI study (Greene et al. 2001)
Participants were asked to make decisions with moral and non-moral dilemmas
Result:
participants’ brain areas that are often engaged with emotions were more activated with moral dilemmas than with non-moral dilemmas
The activation was greater when the moral decision involves negative consequences for another person, compared to when it involves no negative consequence for another person
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27. Factors that turn off emotions
If you start the process with price
If you foster analytical thinking
If you are fearful of making mistake
Type I mindset: fear of making mistake
Type II mindset: fear of losing an opportunity
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28. Conclusions
Decision-making process is not only logical but also emotional
Research on neuroscience suggests that emotions are beneficial, but there are some contexts where emotions can harm decision-making
Emotions that are related vs. unrelated to the task at hand
Direct vs. indirect influence
Current vs. anticipated emotions
What is the goal of the decision?
When the goal is to be decisive and make confident decision, emotions can help
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