Peter Salovey President | Yale University
Peter Salovey President | Yale University
Step into our sound booth and listen to these tones. Unless you’re about to make a big decision…
By Mallory Locklear
September 17, 2024
Take 15 seconds and listen to the tones below.
Yale University · Researchers find unexpected sounds can lead to riskier decision-making
That last sound, the surprising one at the end — if you heard that when you were about to make a decision, would it affect your choice? You may think that it would be distracting, that it might break your focus. But a new study from Yale researchers finds it actually makes you riskier.
For the numerous tiny decisions we make in a day — which turnstile to walk through, which jacket to wear — does it matter if the noise around us changes our decision? What about during bigger decisions, like buying a car or placing a bet at a casino?
Read more about how sounds affect our decisions, what’s going on in the brain when it happens, and how researchers might use this to better understand conditions like schizophrenia.
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