The Role of Affect in Naturalistic Decision Making

Abstract

The field of naturalistic decision making (NDM) assumes a “cold” cognitive model in that nonemotional, valence-neutral cues and information are predicted to influence decision making in identifiable ways. Judgment and decision-making research over the past 10 to 15 years, however, has greatly enhanced knowledge of the ways in which affect that is present at the time of decision making influences how people make decisions—specifically, how they process information, how they respond to risk, and which outcomes they prefer. The purpose of this article is to review relevant aspects of the literature on affect and decision making and to present the argument that NDM researchers need to be cognizant of the potential impact of affect on decision processes to adequately describe and predict expert decision making.