Keep the Problems at Home: Emotional Anxiety Harms Decision-Making in Work Environment

It might not come as much of a surprise that keeping your emotions in check can help out when making important decisions. Yet if you regularly encounter heavy amounts of anxiety, whether it be due to a behavioral disorder or a highly demanding job, a new study shows that this problem can greatly affect your ability to make complicated decisions. 

The study shows that understanding the source and relevance of emotions can influence how much leeway they have over individuals' decision-making and can actually affect their willingness to take risks.

"People often make decisions that are influenced by emotions that have nothing to do with the decisions they are making," Stephane Cote, a professor at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management said, via a press release. He co-wrote the study with lead researcher Jeremy Yip of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. "Research has found that we all fall prey to this at times."

Cote points out that frustrating or worrisome problems experienced earlier in the day may alter decision-making steps that come into the office or work environment, even if they have nothing to do with what's currently happening.

The study shows how participants with lower levels of emotional understanding created greater levels of anxiety, which greatly influenced decision-making skills.

"The findings suggest that an emotionally intelligent approach to making decisions is if you're feeling anxious because of something unrelated to the decisions, to not make the decisions right away," Cote added.

Of course, this seems so simple, but for many of us, we wear and carry our emotions on our sleeves.

The findings obviously suggest that individuals should calm themselves in order to prevent emotional influence from affecting their decision-making. But as we said before, this may be easier said than done.

More information regarding the study can be found via the journal Psychological Science.