Schulreich Stefan, Dandolo Lisa C, Schwabe Lars
Department of Cognitive Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Human Movement Science, Universität Hamburg, Hamburg 20146, Germany.
Department of Cognitive Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Human Movement Science, Universität Hamburg, Hamburg 20146, Germany; Department of Social Epidemiology, Institute of Public Health and Nursing Research, University of Bremen, Bremen 28359, Germany.
Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2022 Mar;137:105632. doi: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2021.105632. Epub 2021 Dec 15.
Rational choice should be guided solely by the prospects of available options. However, our decisions are often influenced by irrecoverable past costs, even when the current course of action turns out to be unfavorable, reflecting a cognitive bias known as the "sunk-cost effect". In everyday life, many decisions are made under stress or elicit stress themselves. Whether and how stress impacts the sunk-cost effect, however, is not known. Based on evidence suggesting that the sunk-cost effect critically depends on the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, which in turn is highly sensitive to stress, we hypothesized that stress may reduce the influence of past expenses on current decisions. Participants underwent a psychosocial stress manipulation or control procedure, before we assessed their sunk-cost tendency in a monetary investment task. Overall, participants showed a pronounced sunk-cost effect, particularly for options with low expected value. Acute stress reduced this tendency to invest in risky options with low probability of success following high prior investments. Moreover, the strength of this reduction of the sunk-cost effect was predicted by individual cortisol reactivity. These findings show that acute stress may reduce the impact of past expenses on current choice and that this effect may be mediated by glucocorticoid action.
理性选择应该仅仅由可得选项的前景来引导。然而，我们的决策常常受到不可挽回的过去成本的影响，即使当前的行动方案最终证明是不利的，这反映了一种被称为“沉没成本效应”的认知偏差。在日常生活中，许多决策是在压力下做出的，或者本身就会引发压力。然而，压力是否以及如何影响沉没成本效应尚不清楚。基于有证据表明沉没成本效应关键取决于背外侧前额叶皮层，而该区域又对压力高度敏感，我们推测压力可能会减少过去支出对当前决策的影响。在我们评估他们在货币投资任务中的沉没成本倾向之前，参与者接受了心理社会压力操纵或对照程序。总体而言，参与者表现出明显的沉没成本效应，尤其是对于预期价值较低的选项。急性压力降低了在先前高投资后投资成功概率低的风险选项的倾向。此外，这种沉没成本效应降低的强度由个体皮质醇反应性预测。这些发现表明，急性压力可能会减少过去支出对当前选择的影响，并且这种效应可能由糖皮质激素作用介导。
