Anxiety and selective attention to threat in tactical decision-making

Abstract This study investigated effects of anxiety on tactical decision-making. Trait and state anxiety were compared as predictors of bias in information search and decision-making, using a simulated search-and-rescue task. A mood induction was also used to manipulate anxiety. Results suggested that anxiety biased decision-making, but the effects were subtle, and depended on the anxiety variable involved. Participants were generally willing to accept the possibility of a low-probability large loss, but anxious mood induction reduced this bias. Trait anxiety was associated with a bias in information search, favoring sampling of information about possible losses, but only with a neutral mood induction. Anxiety may not be associated with a general, automatic bias towards threat on this task; instead, anxiety effects may vary with the affective context for information search.