Stress-induced cortisol clouds the gut feeling in decision-making: a randomized controlled study

Abstract

Abstract The advice to “follow your gut” reflects the idea that instinctive feelings can guide decision-making. Indeed, anticipatory emotional bodily signals, such as skin conductance responses, have been shown to help people avoid risky choices. Yet, stress increases risk-taking, casting doubt on gut feelings’ reliability under stress and whether emotions are always beneficial to decision-making. In a study of 109 young adults (54 women), we randomly exposed half of the participants to a psychosocial stressor or a non-stressful control condition and assessed their cortisol reactivity levels. We then measured their performance on the Iowa Gambling Task alongside anticipatory skin conductance responses before each decision. We showed that stress-induced cortisol reactivity moderated the relationship between anticipatory skin conductance responses and risk-taking in the gambling task, but only in men. Greater anticipatory skin conductance responses were associated with increased risk-taking among men with low cortisol reactivity, whereas the opposite pattern emerged among men with high cortisol reactivity, suggesting that cortisol may alter the relationship between somatic signals and decision-making. Women showed no such effect and, on average, took more risks than men. These findings reveal a sex-specific pathway through which cortisol may impair the gut feeling that normally protects against risky decisions. [Study registration ID: NCT07702747; retrospectively registered on 2026-07-14; https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT07702747 ]. .