Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

PSYCHOLOGY

Emotional predictions and choice

Nature Human Behaviour volume 5, pages 1271–1272 (2021)Cite this article

Subjects

Predicted values and feedback from errors in those predictions are fundamental to adaptive decision-making. Heffner et al. directly compare the contributions of reward predictions and emotional predictions to social decisions and find, unexpectedly, that emotional predictions are often the more important determinant of choice.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Rescorla, R. A. & Wagner, A. R. In Classical Conditioning II: Current Research and Theory (eds. Black, A. H. & Prokasy, W. F.) 64–99 (Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1972).

  2. Schultz, W., Dayan, P. & Montague, P. R. Science 275, 1593–1599 (1997).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Dickinson, A. & Balleine, B. In Stevens’ Handbook of Experimental Psychology (ed. Pashler, H.) (John Wiley & Sons, 2002).

  4. Berridge, K. C. & Robinson, T. E. Brain Res. Brain Res. Rev. 28, 309–369 (1998).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Wassum, K. M., Ostlund, S. B., Maidment, N. T. & Balleine, B. W. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 106, 12512–12517 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Heffner, J., Son, J.-Y. & FeldmanHall, O. Nat. Hum. Behav. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-021-01213-6 (2021).

  7. Russell, J. A. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 39, 1161–1178 (1980).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Russell, J. A., Weiss, A. & Mendelsohn, G. A. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 57, 493–502 (1989).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Zajonc, R. B. Am. Psychol. 35, 151–175 (1980).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Flaherty, C. F. Incentive Relativity (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1996).

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Decision Neuroscience Lab, School of Psychology, University of NSW, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    Bernard W. Balleine

Authors
  1. Bernard W. Balleine
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Bernard W. Balleine.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The author declares no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Balleine, B.W. Emotional predictions and choice. Nat Hum Behav 5, 1271–1272 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-021-01208-3

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-021-01208-3

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing: Translational Research

Sign up for the Nature Briefing: Translational Research newsletter — top stories in biotechnology, drug discovery and pharma.

Get what matters in translational research, free to your inbox weekly. Sign up for Nature Briefing: Translational Research