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Behavioral Sciences
Special Issues
Emotion–Cognition Interactions in Decision-Making
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Emotion–Cognition Interactions in Decision-Making

A special issue of Behavioral Sciences (ISSN 2076-328X). This special issue belongs to the section "Cognition".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 December 2026 | Viewed by 2541

Editor

Dr. Kesong Hu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Psychology and Philosophy, Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, TX 77340, USA
Interests: neural mechanisms underlying emotion and cognition; cognitive psychology; emotion/motivation; neuroscience; computational modeling; neuroimaging

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Decision‑making has traditionally been viewed through the lens of rational choice theory; however, mounting evidence demonstrates that emotions play a critical and often underestimated role in how individuals evaluate options and make choices. This Special Issue explores the dynamic interplay between emotional and cognitive processes in decision‑making across diverse contexts, populations, and methodological approaches.

We invite submissions that investigate how emotional states influence cognitive processes such as attention, memory, and reasoning during decision‑making, as well as how cognitive appraisals shape emotional responses that subsequently guide choices. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the neural mechanisms underlying emotion–cognition integration; individual differences in emotion regulation and decision outcomes; the role of emotions in risk assessment and uncertainty; affective forecasting and decision satisfaction; clinical populations with disrupted emotion–cognition interactions; and computational models of affective decision‑making.

This Special Issue welcomes original research articles, systematic reviews, meta‑analyses, and theoretical contributions that advance our understanding of how emotions and cognition jointly shape decisions in everyday life, clinical settings, and organizational contexts.

Dr. Kesong Hu
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Behavioral Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • decision-making
  • emotion–cognition interaction
  • affective decision-making
  • emotion regulation
  • risk and uncertainty
  • neural mechanisms
  • cognitive appraisal

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

20 pages, 2421 KB  
Article
Psychobiological Correlates of Instructed Deceptive Responding: An Exploratory EEG Study
by Andrei Teodor Bratu, Florin Zamfirache, Nadina-Ionela Darie, Georgiana Dumitru, Gabriela Narcisa Prundaru, Cristina Dumitru and Beatrice Mihaela Radu
Behav. Sci. 2026, 16(8), 1360; https://doi.org/10.3390/bs16081360 - 9 Aug 2026
Viewed by 749
Abstract
Intentional deceptive responding under laboratory instructions provides an experimental model for investigating the cognitive mechanisms involved in producing false responses, although it does not fully capture the complexity of real-world deception. Although deception has important implications for social functioning and has been widely [...] Read more.
Intentional deceptive responding under laboratory instructions provides an experimental model for investigating the cognitive mechanisms involved in producing false responses, although it does not fully capture the complexity of real-world deception. Although deception has important implications for social functioning and has been widely studied, identifying reliable indicators that cannot easily be concealed remains a major challenge. In the present study, we investigated frontal EEG activity during intentional instructed deception and examined its association with stress-related and affective traits. The study included 86 healthy adults (M age = 26.97 years, SD = 9.42) who completed standardized self-report measures assessing depression (BDI), anxiety (BAI), perceived stress (PSS), and everyday deceptive behavior (LiES). A subsample of 48 participants subsequently completed a controlled truth–deception task while EEG activity was recorded from frontal scalp electrodes, providing an indirect measure of frontal electrophysiological activity. Absolute spectral power was analyzed across beta, alpha, theta, and delta frequency bands. The findings indicated that anxiety was positively associated with self-reported deceptive behavior, whereas depression and perceived stress were not significantly related to deception tendencies. EEG analyses suggested an increase in right-frontal scalp theta power during instructed deceptive responding, particularly through significant modulation of theta activity in the right hemisphere; however, later multilevel analysis showed it is a rather less specific activation appearing irrespective of the hemisphere. The increase remained significant when relative power was analyzed, indicating that the finding was robust to normalization of spectral power. Together, these findings suggest that instructed deceptive responding was associated with changes in frontal EEG oscillatory activity that are broadly consistent with mechanisms previously linked to executive control and conflict monitoring; however, because recordings were obtained using a low-density consumer EEG device during overt verbal responding, these interpretations should be considered exploratory. In this view, our study investigates habitual deceptive tendencies with affective traits and state-dependent EEG modulation during instructed deception, and our results could contribute to the understanding of emotion–cognition interactions in decisions involving uncertainty, social evaluation, and strategic information control. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Emotion–Cognition Interactions in Decision-Making)
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18 pages, 412 KB  
Article
Spiritual Leadership in Hotels and Service Performance Under Emotional Demands: The Mediating Role of Emotion Regulation Self-Efficacy
by JaeWon Shin and HyoungChul Shin
Behav. Sci. 2026, 16(6), 888; https://doi.org/10.3390/bs16060888 - 1 Jun 2026
Viewed by 415
Abstract
This study analyzes the relationships among spiritual leadership, emotion regulation self-efficacy, and service performance in the hotel industry where emotional labor is emphasized. Data were collected through an online survey of hotel employees at three-star or higher-grade hotels in Korea. A total of [...] Read more.
This study analyzes the relationships among spiritual leadership, emotion regulation self-efficacy, and service performance in the hotel industry where emotional labor is emphasized. Data were collected through an online survey of hotel employees at three-star or higher-grade hotels in Korea. A total of 347 valid samples were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. Four hypotheses were established. First, spiritual leadership was expected to positively relate to emotion regulation self-efficacy. Second, emotion regulation self-efficacy would be positively related to service performance. Third, spiritual leadership was hypothesized to have a positive relationship with service performance. Fourth, emotion regulation self-efficacy was expected to mediate a positive relationship between spiritual leadership and service performance. The results of the analysis supported all four hypotheses. The findings indicate that spiritual leadership enhances employees’ emotion regulation self-efficacy, improving emotion regulation and, in turn, service performance. Therefore, hotel organizations should consider improving service performance and competitiveness by developing leadership strategies and educational programs that strengthen employees’ emotion regulation capabilities. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Emotion–Cognition Interactions in Decision-Making)
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18 pages, 518 KB  
Article
Ethical Decision-Making in Chilean University Students: Behavioral and Electroencephalographic Evidence from Professional Ethical Dilemmas
by Jorge Vergara-Morales, Brian Matamala, Bastián Retamal and Carlos Gantiva
Behav. Sci. 2026, 16(5), 815; https://doi.org/10.3390/bs16050815 - 19 May 2026
Viewed by 367
Abstract
Ethical decision-making in professional contexts requires integrating behavioral performance and neural processes, as it involves both deliberative and intuitive mechanisms. However, empirical evidence integrating these levels of analysis in professional ethics remains limited. To address this gap, this study examines the association between [...] Read more.
Ethical decision-making in professional contexts requires integrating behavioral performance and neural processes, as it involves both deliberative and intuitive mechanisms. However, empirical evidence integrating these levels of analysis in professional ethics remains limited. To address this gap, this study examines the association between behavioral responses and electroencephalographic (EEG) activity during ethical–professional decision-making in a sample of Chilean university students. Thirty-two participants completed a computerized task involving personal and impersonal ethical–professional dilemmas related to psychological practice, making binary decisions while reaction times were recorded. EEG data were acquired using an 8-channel OpenBCI Cyton system. Mean EEG amplitude (0–800 ms post-stimulus) was computed for frontal (Fp1, Fp2, F7, F8) and parietal (Cz, Pz, P3, P4) regions of interest. Behavioral outcomes showed that impersonal dilemmas elicited significantly longer reaction times than personal dilemmas, consistent with greater deliberative demands. Trial-level mixed-effects models revealed a systematic frontal–parietal dissociation, where longer decision durations were associated with increased frontal EEG activity and concurrent parietal suppression. These findings support a systematic behavioral–neural association during ethical–professional decision-making, characterized by a frontal–parietal dissociation that reflects the dynamic competition between deliberative and integrative processes. Prolonged responses to impersonal dilemmas indicate greater deliberative demand, requiring extended integration of abstract professional norms. The observed neural pattern extends dual-process accounts of moral cognition and has implications for the design of ethics education programs that cultivate both deliberative and context-sensitive reasoning skills. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Emotion–Cognition Interactions in Decision-Making)
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27 pages, 5111 KB  
Article
The Peak–End Rule and Retrospective Emotional Valence in Digital Learning Tasks: Evidence from a Word-Learning App
by Wei Xie and Zhitao Li
Behav. Sci. 2026, 16(5), 779; https://doi.org/10.3390/bs16050779 - 14 May 2026
Viewed by 399
Abstract
The peak–end rule proposes that retrospective evaluations depend on the emotional peak and the end of an experience rather than on its duration. Two short, controlled vocabulary-learning experiments tested whether optimizing these moments improves retrospective emotional valence. Study 1 (N = 32) [...] Read more.
The peak–end rule proposes that retrospective evaluations depend on the emotional peak and the end of an experience rather than on its duration. Two short, controlled vocabulary-learning experiments tested whether optimizing these moments improves retrospective emotional valence. Study 1 (N = 32) manipulated task length (4 vs. 8 words). Retrospective emotional valence did not differ significantly between groups (p = 0.459, d = 0.27), a result consistent with duration neglect under this short task–episode manipulation but not a strong test of pure temporal duration neglect. Retrospective emotional valence correlated more strongly with the peak–end mean than with the mean of reconstructed page-level ratings (r = 0.761 vs. r = 0.314; Steiger’s Z = 3.03, p = 0.002). Study 2 (N = 56) used a 2 × 2 design to optimize the candidate peak-related completion page and the structurally defined end check-in page through color and anthropomorphic graphics. Both peak (ηp2 = 0.18) and end (ηp2 = 0.22) optimization enhanced retrospective emotional valence, with a significant non-additive interaction (ηp2 = 0.09): the effect of optimizing one node was reduced when the other node had already been optimized. For learning accuracy, the main effect of peak optimization was significant (F(1, 52) = 4.44, p = 0.040), but only the combined peak-and-end optimization significantly outperformed the control condition (p = 0.041, d = 1.11); neither single-optimization condition significantly differed from the control condition after correction. The findings provide preliminary evidence for a peak–end-consistent evaluation pattern in brief, controlled vocabulary-learning tasks, identify a non-additive interaction in peak–end optimization, and offer guidance for designing key interactive moments within similarly short, task-based learning episodes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Emotion–Cognition Interactions in Decision-Making)
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