How does anxiety affect decision making?
These are the ways in which anxiety influences our way of reasoning and deciding.
Anxiety is often described as a phenomenon belonging to the realm of emotions; a set of psychological processes that leads us to feel anguish, stress at possible sources of danger, and even nervousness at the thought of making a good first impression when meeting someone. None of these assessments is very misguided, but by themselves, they only explain part of what it really means to be anxious.
Anxiety goes beyond the emotional: it also affects how we think, how we make decisions and, ultimately, how we reason. What we call "reason" is not a part of our mind that is totally separate from our feelings and state of mind, no matter how many metaphors there are about the struggle between "the brain and the heart".
When it comes down to it, elements such as anxiety are totally intertwined with our way of stringing together thoughts and drawing conclusions from what we know about the world and ourselves. That is why, in this article, we are going to focus on how anxiety affects people's decision making. people's decision making.
- Related article, "Are we rational or emotional beings?"
The interaction between anxiety and reason
Anxiety is, above all, a product of certain mechanisms of adaptation to the environment that were developed by our ancestors in response to the need to survive in changing and potentially dangerous environments. Virtually all animals with complex nervous systems have the capacity to experience anxiety, unlike plants or those that barely move (such as anemones).Unlike plants or those that barely move (such as anemones), because in order to exist they need to be able to react quickly to signals that they are at risk.
Today, our well-being as human beings does not depend so much on the avoidance of physically dangerous situations as on not missing opportunities to maintain or improve our standard of living, materially and psychologically through self-realization. However, the capacity to feel anxiety is still there, the capacity to feel anxiety is still there, leading us to be aware of those problems or risks that need to be taken care of as soon as possible..
And since anxiety is a response to situations that require us to take action quickly, it cannot be said to be a problem, or an unpleasant experience; in most cases, it is much more than that, and it is useful to us. For example, it is part of those things that motivate us to hurry so as not to be late for a job interview, or to study for an exam, and so on.
Thus, it is not surprising that anxiety goes hand in hand with decision making and our way of thinking, generating new knowledge or hypotheses from which to behave. This psychological and emotional element orients us towards certain values or towards others, influences when deciding our priorities, leads us to have a more or less optimistic view of our abilities and aptitudes, etc. Let's see it in more detail below.
How does a high level of anxiety influence our decisions?
Anxiety interacts with our way of reasoning and decision making in many ways, especially considering that each individual experiences this experience somewhat differently from the rest of humanity. But, if we broaden the focus and focus on general and habitual behavioral patterns, we observe that the most frequent interactions between anxiety and decision making are the following.
1. It leads us to focus on short-term problems.
Anxiety makes it easier for our attention to be focused on what can happen to us in minutes, hours or days, leaving aside the issues that can affect us in the time scale of months and years.
This is so because it predisposes us to be in a state of alertness to signs that we can do something quickly to avoid a certain situation (missing an important phone call, not escaping from a place on time, etc.).
2. It predisposes us to remain in doubt.
Anxiety is mostly based on the avoidance of harm or loss, and therefore, when we are very anxious it can be very difficult for us to make an important decision, because that could lead us to suffer a failure..
It is common for us to postpone again and again the moment of choosing one of the options we are considering and move from ideas to action.
3. It makes it easier for us to think about our shortcomings
Anxiety leads us to focus on our insecurities, so that we do not trust ourselves and relax.. This causes that many times we undervalue ourselves, or that we even behave assuming that we are bad at what we are trying to do.
4. It makes us prefer to avoid losses rather than have a chance of winning.
Usually, when we are very anxious, we adopt a conservative mentality, content with the idea of not losing.. Therefore, in this state (and in comparison with other less anxious people) we tend to reject opportunities to win a lot at the risk of also losing a lot.
5. We prefer to think alone
When we are very anxious, social interactions are often bothersome to us, as they "overload" us in a situation that is already in a situation that already overwhelms us emotionally. Therefore, when anxiety is high, we usually prefer to think alone, without having to reach a consensual conclusion with others (which does not mean that we do not ask them for advice from time to time).
What to do?
Here are some tips that can help you tips that can help you with anxiety:
- Make sure you sleep enough hours to be able to face the challenges of everyday life with your nervous system at 100%.
- Do not drink caffeinated beverages after mid-afternoon.
- Structure your tasks and responsibilities by assigning them hours of the day.
- Exercise regularly.
- Practice Mindfulness.
- If you feel that the situation is getting the better of you, go to psychotherapy.
Do you want professional psychological support?
If you are interested in psychological or psychotherapeutic assistance, please contact us and ask about our face-to-face sessions (in our center in Barcelona) or online by video call.
In Psicotools we attend people of all ages, as well as couples, and we also offer personalized Mindfulness trainings and psychopedagogy services, neuropsychology, job/professional coaching or expert reports.
(Updated at Apr 15 / 2024)