Unreliable gut feelings can lead to correct decisions: The somatic marker hypothesis in non-linear decision chains
Publicated to:Frontiers In Psychology. 3 (OCT): - 2012-01-01 3(OCT), DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00384
Authors: Bedia MG; Di Paolo E
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Abstract
Dual-process approaches of decision-making examine the interaction between affective/ intuitive and deliberative processes underlying value judgment. From this perspective, decisions are supported by a combination of relatively explicit capabilities for abstract reasoning and relatively implicit evolved domain-general as well as learned domainspecific affective responses. One such approach, the somatic markers hypothesis (SMH), expresses these implicit processes as a system of evolved primary emotions supplemented by associations between affect and experience that accrue over lifetime, or somatic markers. In this view, somatic markers are useful only if their local capability to predict the value of an action is above a baseline equal to the predictive capability of the combined rational and primary emotional subsystems.We argue that decision-making has often been conceived of as a linear process: the effect of decision sequences is additive, local utility is cumulative, and there is no strong environmental feedback. This widespread assumption can have consequences for answering questions regarding the relativeweight between the systems and their interaction within a cognitive architecture.We introduce a mathematical formalization of the SMH and study it in situations of dynamic, non-linear decision chains using a discrete-time stochastic model. We find, contrary to expectations, that decisionmaking events can interact non-additively with the environment in apparently paradoxical ways.We find that in non-lethal situations, primary emotions are represented globally over and above their local weight, showing a tendency for overcautiousness in situated decision chains.We also show that because they tend to counteract this trend, poorly attuned somatic markers that by themselves do not locally enhance decision-making, can still produce an overall positive effect.This result has developmental and evolutionary implications since, by promoting exploratory behavior, somatic markers would seem to be beneficial even at early stages when experiential attunement is poor. Although the model is formulated in terms of the SMH, the implications apply to dual systems theories in general since it makes minimal assumptions about the nature of the processes involved. © 2012 Bedia and DiPaolo.
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Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel
The work has been published in the journal Frontiers In Psychology due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency Scopus (SJR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2012, it was in position , thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Psychology (Miscellaneous).
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Según las diferentes agencias de indexación, el número de citas acumuladas por esta publicación hasta la fecha 2025-07-04:
- Scopus: 6
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Leadership analysis of institutional authors
This work has been carried out with international collaboration, specifically with researchers from: United Kingdom.
There is a significant leadership presence as some of the institution’s authors appear as the first or last signer, detailed as follows: First Author (GONZÁLEZ BEDIA, MANUEL) .