PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY BULLETIN Peters, Slovic / THE SPRINGS OF ACTION The Springs of Action: Affective and Analytical Information Processing in Choice

Affective processes were predicted to play a critical role in choices among complex stimuli. As hypothesized, self-report measures of individual differences in affective information processing were associated with choices in a task designed by Bechara, Damasio, Damasio, and Anderson to mimic the gains, losses, and uncer-tainties of real life decisions. The results were stronger when the processing of losses was considered separately from the processing of gains. Greater negative affectivity was associated with more avoidance of high-loss options; greater positive affectivity was associated with more choices from high-gain options. Both mea-sures of affectivity added unique explanatory power to the predic-tion of choices among the decks over and above conscious knowl-edge about the decks. Affect appears to play an important role in guiding decisions and judgments. wo growing bodies of research have demonstrated the influence of affect (feelings or emotions about a specific object) and individual differences in affective informa-tion processing on judgments, decisions, and behavior