Decision-making styles during stressful scenarios: The role of anxiety in COVID-19 pandemic

Mariana Castro Marques da Rocha; Leandro Fernandes Malloy-Diniz; Marco Aurélio Romano-Silva; Rui Mateus Joaquim; Alexandre Luiz de Oliveira Serpa; Alexandre Paim Diaz; Jonas Jardim de Paula; Danielle Souza Costa; Antônio Geraldo da Silva; André Luiz de Carvalho Braule Pinto; Débora Marques de Miranda

doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1105662

Decision-making styles during stressful scenarios: The role of anxiety in COVID-19 pandemic

Front Psychiatry. 2023 Apr 5:14:1105662. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1105662. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Mariana Castro Marques da Rocha^{1

2}, Leandro Fernandes Malloy-Diniz^{1

3}, Marco Aurélio Romano-Silva³, Rui Mateus Joaquim¹, Alexandre Luiz de Oliveira Serpa¹, Alexandre Paim Diaz¹, Jonas Jardim de Paula^{1

3}, Danielle Souza Costa¹, Antônio Geraldo da Silva^{1

2}, André Luiz de Carvalho Braule Pinto^{1

2}, Débora Marques de Miranda^{1

4}

Affiliations

¹ SAMBE - Instituto de Saúde Mental Baseada em Evidências, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
² Post Graduation Department in Molecular Medicine, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
³ Department of Psychiatry, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
⁴ Department of Pediatrics, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil.

Abstract

Introduction: Decision-making is not purely rational but highlighted by the influence of intuitive and emotional processes. Recently, researchers have focused more attention on understanding which environmental and personal features influence decision-making processes, and how.

Objective and methods: On this study, we investigate whether Trait Anxiety moderates the impact of Post-Traumatic Stress (PTS) symptoms reported during COVID-19 pandemic on decision-making styles.

Results: The study included 1,358 Brazilian participants (80% women) aged between 20 and 74 (M = 41.11; SD = 11.23) who responded to an online survey between May and August of the year 2021 of COVID-19 pandemic to The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, The Decisions Styles Scale, The Impact of Event Scale - Revised and questions related to COVID-19. Through moderation analysis, we observed that experiencing PTS is associated with a higher tendency to biased/heuristic decision-making processes.

Discussion: Trait Anxiety seems to influence how people respond to PTS symptoms on decision-making related processes. Subjects with higher Trait Anxiety reported lower tendency to appeal to rationality, especially under higher reported levels of PTS. Meanwhile, lower Trait Anxiety subjects exhibited more reason-based decision-making under higher rates of PTS. This work contributes to a deeper understanding of the interplay among environmental and individual differences on decision-making styles and helps to identify factors of vulnerability for poorer cognitive functioning on stressful scenarios.

Keywords: COVID-19; decision making; decision strategies; post traumatic symptoms; psychological distress; trait anxiety.