Think about a time you were weighing an important decision at work or considering a big expense such as a buying a house, making a hefty financial investment, or a starting a new business. Such decisions are inherently complex, and — no matter how much experience we have making them — working through the pros and cons of each choice can be overwhelming. Our emotional reactions to these choices may be useful in directing our attention and energy toward what we feel are the most important aspects of the decision. Yet intense emotions may lead us to make misguided decisions or outright disastrous ones.

An amusing example comes from the 1991 movie Defending Your Life. In one scene, the character Daniel Miller (played by Albert Brooks) is preparing for a salary negotiation the next day with his boss. To try out the tough bargaining strategy he is planning to use, he enlists his wife’s help. His wife makes various salary offers, and Daniel rejects every one of them, insisting that he cannot take the job for a penny under $65,000. As Daniel refuses to budge from his position, his wife starts to make him increasingly attractive offers.

The next scene is Daniel’s negotiation with his boss. His boss opens the discussion by saying, “Daniel, I am prepared to offer you $49,000.” Before he even finishes his sentence, Daniel replies: “I’ll take it.” Daniel’s decision to be tough got derailed by the emotions he failed to anticipate: the anxiety triggered by sitting in front of his boss and negotiating with him.

Emotions can cloud our judgment and influence our decisions when triggered by the situation at hand, as in Daniel’s case. But research shows it is also possible for emotions triggered by one event to spill over and affect another, unrelated situation.

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