The Association Between the Stress Hormone Cortisol and Decision-making

Stress-induced Cortisol Clouds the Gut Feeling in Decision-making: A Randomized Controlled Study

The goal of this study is to learn how acute psychosocial stress influences decision-making in healthy young adults. It will also examine whether cortisol reactivity, a biological stress response, changes the influence of physiological emotional signals on decision-making (i.e., the gut feeling indicating risks).

The main questions it aims to answer are:

1. Does exposure to an acute psychosocial stressor affect the development of physiological emotional signals during decision-making?
2. Does cortisol reactivity moderate the relationship between physiological emotional signals and decision-making?
3. Are there sex differences in these relationships?

Researchers will compare participants exposed to a standardized psychosocial stress procedure, with participants exposed to a non-stressful control condition.

Participants will:

1. Be randomly assigned to either a psychosocial stress condition or a control condition.
2. Complete a gambling decision-making task following the experimental manipulation.
3. Provide multiple saliva samples and subjective stress ratings throughout the session to assess stress reactivity.
4. Undergo continuous electrodermal activity recording during the decision-making task to measure physiological emotional signals.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Adult aged 18-35 years old.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Current or past psychiatric/neurodevelopmental disorders
• Physical illness
• Medication use (except hormonal contraception)
• Alcohol consumption exceeding Health Canada guidelines (>10 drinks/week for women, >15 for men)
• Smoking more than 7 cigarettes/day.