Acute stress impairs decision-making at varying levels of decision complexity

Abstract

Acute stress triggers a cascade of physiological and psychological changes, including heightened perspiration, cortisol levels, and anxiety. Currently, little is known about the effects of acute stress on the quality of higher-order decision-making, with existing studies unable to disentangle decision-making capacity from subjective preferences. To address this gap, we conducted a within-participants laboratory experiment in which university students (n = 42) made objective decisions of varying complexity (computational hardness) under both acutely stressful and control conditions. We find that higher cortisol levels, induced via the Trier Social Stress Test, leads to lower decision quality ..