Effects of Emotional State on Decision Making Time

The study sought to investigate the effects of being happy and sad on decision making time. First year college students participated in the study, 47 of them watched a happy film while 38 watched a sad film. Both groups were asked to answer the same set of 12-item dilemma questions to test their decision making process relative to time consumed in making decisions. The experiment yielded significant results. Using the chi-square test, the computed value of 38.91 was found to be significant at 0.05 level of significance. The majority of the subjects who watched a happy film decided faster compared to those who watched a sad film, consuming more time in deciding what could be done with regards to the situation given. Sadness may shape people's decisions by coloring the content of their thoughts. Along with a negative mood, people's perceptions, thoughts, and judgments are often distorted, interfering with people's ability to process information while positive-affect condition showed less confusion among the decision makers having more early information processing in making decisions.