The impact of stress on the risk decision‐making process

Abstract The effect of stress on risk‐taking or risk‐averse behavior in decision‐making has been inconclusive in previous research, with few studies revealing the underlying neural mechanisms. This study employed event‐related potentials technique and combined a social cold pressor assessment test with a mental arithmetic task to induce stress responses, aiming to investigate the influence of exogenous stress on the risk decision‐making process. Stress induction results indicated that, in addition to raising heart rate and blood pressure, stress responses were accompanied by enhanced negative emotions, diminished positive emotions, and alterations in neural activity. The outcomes of risk decision‐making showed that stress did not significantly affect risk preference or time of choice but did reduce the feedback‐related negativity/reward positivity, with a particularly significant effect observed for large outcomes. Stress also altered the amplitude of the P3 component, with stress decreasing the P3 value for winning outcomes relative to losing outcomes. The study suggests that understanding how stress affects risk preference should consider the emotional valence induced by stress. Contrary to the reward sensitivity hypothesis, stress weakened reward sensitivity. Stress led to changes in the allocation of cognitive resources for outcome evaluation: compared to negative outcomes, stress reduced cognitive resources for positive outcomes, which might be related to the enhanced negative emotions induced by stress. The study highlights the importance of focusing on the subjective emotional experience induced by stress in future research on stress and risk decision‐making.