Individual Differences in Decision-Making and Emotions: A Study of Alexithymia Using the Columbia Card Task
Abstract
Making effective decisions requires a balance between rational thinking and emotional processing. Optimal decision-making approaches involve carefully analyzing available information to make informed and advantageous choices. This study investigates how people’s ability to identify, process, and express emotions (alexithymia) relates to their decision-making in different emotional contexts. We used the Hot and Cold versions of the Columbia Card Task (CCT) to evaluate how participants make decisions. By analyzing their decisions as a function of their alexithymia levels and three manipulated game parameters (loss probability, loss amount, and gain amount), we discovered that people with higher levels of alexithymia had reduced sensitivity to losses, especially in the Hot version of the CCT. These results indicate that people with alexithymia may underestimate losses when making decisions involving emotional processing, leading to biased outcomes. Our findings have important implications for understanding and addressing risk-taking behaviour in individuals with heightened alexithymia.