Incidental emotions
Incidental emotions are the emotions that are not related to the decision at hand but they are the emotions that decision makers might be experiencing while making decisions. Although these emotions are not produced from the process of decision making, they can distort an individual’s perception about various decisions. For instance, a pivot set of studies found out that people who read a happy article make more optimistic judgements about risk of future consequences of an irrelevant subject than people who read a sad article (41). Several studies have found that when people try to predict their future feelings they project their current feelings and consequently their current emotions influence how they feel about various …show more content…
When people are in a “cold” state, for instance, not hungry or not craving a cigarette, they underestimate what it feels like to be in a “hot” state in future and how they may react in that situation. Similarly, when people are in a “hot” state, for instance, feeling angry or disgusted, they overestimate what it feels like to be in a “cold” state and how their behaviour might change in the cold state. In the literature, this gap between “hot” and “cold” states is called hot and cold empathy gap (36,42,43). This gap makes it difficult for people to predict their future emotions and behaviors when exposed to various situations. Hot and cold empathy gaps have been documented for several emotions/situations such as hunger (44), curiosity (42), anxiety (42), sexual arousal (46) and embarrassment (45). Hot and cold empathy gap plays a vital role in health decision making as people usually make healthy decision while in one of these states. For instance, people decide to go on a diet while full, or they decide to quit smoking while filled with nicotine. There is little research on which strategies are more beneficial for filling this empathy gap in health intervention planning (42). Most of these strategies are utilized in the domain of addiction (47) and obesity prevention (48). However, considering this hot and cold empathy gap in other health interventions …show more content…
So emotionally charged people become less sensitive to probabilities. Affective images have been shown to be strong predictors of adolescents’ decisions to take part in health-promoting or health-threatening behaviours (55,56). Research in health interventions suggested that images can play an important role in the success of interventions by addressing heuristic and reactive processes in decision making. Considering the new findings regarding the role of mental images in provoking immediate emotions, we understand the underlying mechanisms that make mental images an influential factor in health decisions. Several studies in health domain have shown the influence of mental images on decision making (57,58,59). For instance, series of studies have demonstrated that by reducing the favorability of the image of a typical person who sun bathes or uses a tanning booth, the willingness of being exposed to UV ways was reduced for people in the beach (57). In another similar study, researchers investigated the role of images in changing sun protection behaviors among a very high risk group: male road maintenance crews. This study examined the images of men in their age who use sunscreen and found that these images were relatively negative (i.e. not very masculine or self-confident) (58). Increases in the favorability of this image produced by
Incidental emotions are the emotions that are not related to the decision at hand but they are the emotions that decision makers might be experiencing while making decisions. Although these emotions are not produced from the process of decision making, they can distort an individual’s perception about various decisions. For instance, a pivot set of studies found out that people who read a happy article make more optimistic judgements about risk of future consequences of an irrelevant subject than people who read a sad article (41). Several studies have found that when people try to predict their future feelings they project their current feelings and consequently their current emotions influence how they feel about various …show more content…
When people are in a “cold” state, for instance, not hungry or not craving a cigarette, they underestimate what it feels like to be in a “hot” state in future and how they may react in that situation. Similarly, when people are in a “hot” state, for instance, feeling angry or disgusted, they overestimate what it feels like to be in a “cold” state and how their behaviour might change in the cold state. In the literature, this gap between “hot” and “cold” states is called hot and cold empathy gap (36,42,43). This gap makes it difficult for people to predict their future emotions and behaviors when exposed to various situations. Hot and cold empathy gaps have been documented for several emotions/situations such as hunger (44), curiosity (42), anxiety (42), sexual arousal (46) and embarrassment (45). Hot and cold empathy gap plays a vital role in health decision making as people usually make healthy decision while in one of these states. For instance, people decide to go on a diet while full, or they decide to quit smoking while filled with nicotine. There is little research on which strategies are more beneficial for filling this empathy gap in health intervention planning (42). Most of these strategies are utilized in the domain of addiction (47) and obesity prevention (48). However, considering this hot and cold empathy gap in other health interventions …show more content…
So emotionally charged people become less sensitive to probabilities. Affective images have been shown to be strong predictors of adolescents’ decisions to take part in health-promoting or health-threatening behaviours (55,56). Research in health interventions suggested that images can play an important role in the success of interventions by addressing heuristic and reactive processes in decision making. Considering the new findings regarding the role of mental images in provoking immediate emotions, we understand the underlying mechanisms that make mental images an influential factor in health decisions. Several studies in health domain have shown the influence of mental images on decision making (57,58,59). For instance, series of studies have demonstrated that by reducing the favorability of the image of a typical person who sun bathes or uses a tanning booth, the willingness of being exposed to UV ways was reduced for people in the beach (57). In another similar study, researchers investigated the role of images in changing sun protection behaviors among a very high risk group: male road maintenance crews. This study examined the images of men in their age who use sunscreen and found that these images were relatively negative (i.e. not very masculine or self-confident) (58). Increases in the favorability of this image produced by