Fear affects women

MADRID (EFE).— Women may prefer an immediate reward over a greater long-term reward, if before deciding they have felt an emotion linked to fear, a circumstance that does not seem to affect men, according to a study published “ “Plos.”

Research from the University of Padua (Italy) analyzed how emotions such as fear and joy affect men and women in decision-making, which is a complex process and is not yet fully understood, especially when weighing benefits or short and long term costs.

The phenomenon known as “delay discounting” describes the common tendency to prefer an immediate reward over a later one, even if it is significantly larger.

“Women are more likely to choose immediate rewards when they are in an emotional state of fear than when they are happy. “Our research highlights the importance of gender as an influential factor in the interaction between emotions and decision-making processes,” the authors indicated.

The study was carried out with 308 participants (6% women and 37% men) recruited through a survey on social networks, who were divided into three groups.

Each group had to watch a standardized and validated video, intended to induce an emotional state: for the fear group it was a horror movie, a positive documentary with themes such as forests and waterfalls for the joy group, and the control group a neutral one. regarding cities. Next, hypothetical questions linked to achieving a reward were asked, for example, if they preferred to have 20,000 euros today or 40,000 in 3 years.

Women in the fear group were “significantly more likely” to use delay discounting, selecting the smallest immediate amount, compared to men in the fear group or women in the happy or neutral movie groups, Plos says. ”.

However, “there were no significant differences between men and women in decisions made in the happy or neutral movie groups,” and men’s decision making regarding financial rewards “did not appear to be affected by their emotional state.” The authors believe that these results may be due to differences in evolutionary strategies around safety from risk or approaches to emotion regulation in stressful situations.

The sample size and range of emotions studied were relatively small compared to the real world. The authors suggest that this aspect should be studied further.