Emotion and Choice

It is increasingly recognized that emotions can have an important impact on judgment and decision making. However, in many respects, it remains an undeveloped area of judgment and decision making, particularly in medicine. First, emotions are difficult to characterize or define. Second, the causal mechanisms by which emotions influence decisions—independent of purely cognitive interactions—are poorly understood. Third, the circumstances in which emotions are most important in changing decisions are only partially understood. Finally, most of the well-controlled empirical data on emotions and decision making are outside the field of medicine, rarely involving physicians and patients. Each of these limitations is important when describing the role emotions play in medical decision making, so the sections that follow address each of these points in turn.