Why anxiety makes you a sucker for bad advice

Deciding the best course of treatment for a medical condition. Figuring out the right investment plan for your retirement savings. Choosing the most desirable career path for your future. These are all weighty, anxiety-wrought decisions that individuals are faced with nearly every day, and most will seek advice from others before deciding on the right path forward.

The anxiety surrounding such decisions has always intrigued Wharton operations and information management professor Maurice Schweitzer. His curiosity prompted him to look into how it impacts decision making. "Anxiety is one of my favourite emotions," Schweitzer says. " It's an emotion that is very pervasive, but understudied ... Anxiety has largely been studied as a 'trait' - e.g., anxious people - rather than a 'state' - something that all of us experience for periods of time" ... READ MORE

Released by Knowledge@Wharton - January 2013