Decision Making and Affect

Intuition allows us to make quick decisions in an uncertain environment, not wasting too much time on analyzing possible consequences. Evaluative judgments and decisions are quite often influenced by intuitive feelings rather than analytical conclusions. A doctor in an emergency room, for instance, won't have the time to evaluate the benefits and risks of two similar treatments analytically. The emotion which helps us boost our decision process is called affect.

Affect is used as a cue when people define the positive or negative quality of a stimulus; it is experienced as a state and is used whenever quick assignments or attributions are needed to make decisions or judgments. Hence, affect is used as an umbrella term referring to states of valence and arousal; it sometimes ...