How Stress Influences Judgement and Decision Making

This article explores the influence of stress on judgement and decision making. It discusses how stress can cloud judgement and lead to biased decision making. The effects of stress on rational thinking and the importance of managing stress are also examined.

How Stress Influences Judgement and Decision Making 1
How Stress Influences Judgement and Decision Making
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Table of Contents
How Stress Influences Judgement and Decision Making ...................................................3
Stress and Judgement and Decision Making.......................................................................3
References............................................................................................................................5

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How Stress Influences Judgement and Decision Making
Stress is one of the fastest growing mental health issues all around the world. With
growing pressure to perform and lead a well-matched life, both personally and professionally it
has become increasingly difficult to manage one's emotions. This inability to manage emotions
converts to frustration and hormonal imbalances which together give rise to stress.
Stress affects a major chunk of our lives, and hence, it is important to control it as soon as
first signs appear. In this paper, we will analyze how stress affects our judgement and ability to
think and make decisions in life.
Stress and Judgement and Decision Making
Not many people realize this but stress is an important factor which is to be weighed in
when evaluating a decision. The decision making cycle often starts with understanding the
situation well and then weighing its pros and cons before coming to a judgement. Now how does
stress play a role here? Stress has the ability to blind a person to obvious biases. When a person
is under stress he or she can barely realize what’s right and what’s wrong (Gok & Atsan, 2016).
For them, it soon becomes about getting out of the situation as soon as possible. This is what we
call clouded judgement since they prefer choosing a situation or a person based on how
comfortable they are with them, irrespective of the facts of its right or not. These are times of
conflicts for a person, and often, these people have no hold over the situation or their own self.
There are several factors because of which stress can intensify and start affecting the decision

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making process. The two most important factors in this case are: the perceived threat of danger
and uncertainty about the alternatives.
When the intensity of situation is taken into account, the effects of stress multiply. This
situation is often the most dreaded one since in this situation the person in focus completely loses
their ability to think straight. Even the simple act of choosing between regular drinking water and
iced drinking water requires a lot of mental calculation for them. Cognitive stress has a lot of
power over rational thinking so much so that that irrational biases that crop up in us, which favor
previous rewards, may guide our behavior during times of stress (APA, 2010).
Once the judgement is affected, the decision making sinks by itself. It is impossible to
expect a rational decision to come from a stressed mind since the brain of that person has lost all
the ability to discriminate between what’s right and what’s wrong, and hence, any decision
which comes from it is unrealizable to a great extent (Pabst, Brand, & Wolf, 2013). The social
situations and the paradigm in which the person lives affects his judgment and level of stress to a
great extent. These are after all additions to this frivolous thinking and do more harm than they
do good. A stressed person in contact with people will listen to hundreds of different views and
will pick on them for long. This is where the beginning of bias is and thus, results in a decision
which is flawed to the core. Such a decision cannot survive the test of time and eventually falls
apart. Finding good in this situation then becomes difficult and eventually the person falls apart
(Jones & Roelofsma, 2000).

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A stressful situation often redesigns our perception towards the entire situation, and
hence, the results too are biased. This improper decision making has its effect on the team as
well. Often, under such decision making the team has to suffer and eventually falls apart in many
cases. Thus, this is how stress manages to ruin a lot of things, human mind being just one of
them. Under such circumstance sit is best advised to not take decisions and take some time off to
make proper evaluation. While in some situations the damage is not big and can be managed, in
other situations the damage can be critical which is not good for the greater good.
References
APA. (2010). Under Pressure: The Impact Of Stress On Decision Making. Retrieved from
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/09/090915174459.htm
Gok, K., & Atsan, N. (2016). Decision-Making under Stress and Its Implications for Managerial
Decision-Making: A Review of Literature. International Journal of Business and Social
Research, 6(36).
Jones, P. E., & Roelofsma, P. H. (2000). The potential for social contextual and group biases in
team decision-making: biases, conditions and psychological mechanisms. Ergonomics,
43(8).
Pabst, S., Brand, M., & Wolf, O. T. (2013). Stress effects on framed decisions: there are
differences for gains and losses. Front. Behav. Neurosci.,.

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