Emotions are necessary for human decision making
Accumulating neurobiological and psychological evidence, including work on the somatic marker hypothesis, supports the view that emotional signals and affective processes play a critical role in guiding human decision-making.
The retrieved literature consistently supports the premise that emotions and somatic markers guide and facilitate decision-making, particularly under conditions of uncertainty or long-term planning.
Varsha Singh. Bittersweet memories and somatic marker hypothesis: adaptive control in emotional recall facilitates long-term decision-making in the Iowa Gambling Task. 2024. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2023.1214271
Paper 0 demonstrates that affect control and emotional recall facilitate adaptive long-term decision-making in the Iowa Gambling Task.
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Duplessis-Marcotte F, Caron PO, Marin MF. Unlocking new insights into the somatic marker hypothesis with multilevel logistic models.. 2025. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13415-025-01271-7
Paper 1 supports the somatic marker hypothesis, affirming that emotional somatic markers influence decision-making processes.
Rolls ET. Emotion, Motivation, Reasoning, and How Their Brain Systems Are Related.. 2025. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci15050507
Paper 2 shows that emotional and motivational states are intertwined with the brain systems responsible for learning and executing goal-directed actions.
Hasan Demirci, Hanife Merve Çatan, Ahmet Fatih Sarıkaya, Ülkü Tankut. RISK-TAKING AND DECISION-MAKING UNDER UNCERTAINTY IN THE COVID-19 VACCINE. DOES THE SOMATIC MARKER HYPOTHESIS EXPLAIN VACCINE HESITANCY?. 2023. https://doi.org/10.5604/01.3001.0053.7282
Paper 9 finds that individuals who make riskier choices in decision-making tasks exhibit patterns linked to implicit and emotional processes, supporting the role of somatic markers in risk assessment.
Suzuki K, Terasawa Y, Nishio Y, Yamashita Y. Cognitive Feelings from Healthy Experience to Psychopathology: An Integrative Review Across Phenomenology, Psychology, Neuroscience, and Computation. 2026. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/9bckg_v1
Paper 10 highlights that cognitive feelings and subjective affective states are integral components that play crucial roles in perception, memory, and decision-making.
Lima V, Martinho D. Biomimetic Synthetic Somatic Markers in the Pixelverse: A Bio-Inspired Framework for Intuitive Artificial Intelligence.. 2026. https://doi.org/10.3390/biomimetics11010063
Paper 11 demonstrates computationally that bio-inspired synthetic somatic markers provide an effective evaluative mechanism to bias decision-making under uncertainty.
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