All negative moods are not equal: Motivational influences of anxiety and sadness on decision making

Affective states of the same valence may have distinct, yea predictable, in fluences on decision processes. Results from three experiments show that, i n gambling decisions, as web as in job selection decisions, sad individuals are biased in favor of high-risk/high-reward options, whereas anxious indi viduals are biased in favor of low-risk/low-reward options, We argue that t hese biases occur because anxiety and sadness convey distinct types of info rmation to the decision-maker and prime different goals. While anxiety prim es an implicit goal of uncertainty reduction, sadness primes an implicit go al of reward replacement. We offer that these motivational influences opera te through an active process of feeling monitoring, whereby anxious or sad individuals think about the options and ask themselves, "What would I feel better about.,,?" (C) 1999 Academic Press.