New Research On How Anxiety & Depression Affect Decision Making

If you struggle with anxiety or depression, change can be a challenge. But according to new research out of U.C.–Berkeley, the key to making good decisions in the face of transitions could lie in remembering what you've done right in the past rather than what you've done wrong.

Researchers from Berkeley had previously established that those with high levels of anxiety tend to make more mistakes when forced to make decisions in rapidly changing environments (in this case, during computerized assignments). Those without anxiety, on the other hand, fared much better when adjusting to change.

They theorized that this was the case because when people are faced with shifting circumstances, we often call upon what's known as probabilistic decision making. This involves recalling previous outcomes from other situations to help us make a current decision. But for people with anxiety and depression, the tendency is to fixate on negative outcomes from the past, which makes it harder to make good decisions in the present.

In their latest research, the team gathered 86 participants, some with clinical anxiety and depression, some with symptoms but no diagnoses, and some without symptoms. They were led through a task that resulted in either a small electrical shock or a monetary prize.

And when the task began to get more volatile and rapidly changing, researchers found those with depression and anxiety, including those with just some symptoms, had a harder time keeping up, indicating they weren't learning from their mistakes as well.

According to Bishop, the results of this study suggest people with anxiety and depression could benefit from cognitive therapies that help shift the focus to positive outcomes instead of negative ones.