How incidental emotions bias economic decisions

摘要

Our aim was to establish a mapping between incidental emotional states (happiness and sadness) and sensitivity to costs (delay, risk, effort) involved in economic choices. Emotional states were induced using text vignettes paired with music extracts and validated by both subjective reports and physiological measures. Computational modelling of economic decisions showed that the valence of emotional states biased choices by increasing the willingness to accept additional costs in order to obtain higher rewards.