AUTHOR=Breaban Adriana , van de Kuilen Gijs , Noussair Charles N. TITLE=Prudence, Emotional State, Personality, and Cognitive Ability JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology VOLUME=7 YEAR=2016 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01688 DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01688 ISSN=1664-1078 ABSTRACT=

We report an experiment to consider the emotional correlates of prudent decision making. In the experiment, we present subjects with lotteries and measure their emotional response with facial recognition software. They then make binary choices between risky lotteries that distinguish prudent from imprudent individuals. They also perform tasks to measure their cognitive ability and a number of personality characteristics. We find that a more negative emotional state correlates with greater prudence. Higher cognitive ability and less conscientiousness is also associated with greater prudence.