This study tested the proposition that deficient decision making under stress is due, to a significant extent, to the individual's failure to fulfill adequately an elementary requirement of the decision-making process, that is, the systematic consideration of all relevant alternatives. One hundred one undergraduate students (59 women and 42 men), aged 20-40, served as subjects in this experiment. They were requested to solve decision problems, using an interactive computer paradigm, while being exposed to controllable stress, uncontrollable stress, or no stress at all. There was no time constraint for the performance of the task. The controllability of the stressor was found to have no effect on the participants' performance. However, those who were exposed to either controllable or uncontrollable stress showed a significantly stronger tendency to offer solutions before all available alternatives had been considered and to scan their alternatives in a nonsystematic fashion than did participants who were not exposed to stress. In addition, patterns of alternative scanning were found to be correlated with the correctness of solutions to decision problems.

The aim of this prospective quasi-experimental study was to assess the role of coping style as a factor moderating the relationship between stress and sleep. Sleep of 36 students was assessed by means of actigraphy and daily logs during low-stress and high-stress periods. The high-stress period was the week that the students were evaluated for acceptance to graduate programs in clinical psychology. The low-stress period was a regular academic week. The students' ways of coping were assessed during the baseline low-stress period using the COPE inventory. Data analysis revealed that a high emotion-focused coping score was significantly predictive of reduction in sleep time from the low- to the high-stress period. These results suggest that coping style is a key factor in assessing the relationship between stress and sleep.

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The present study investigated the relationship between psychological stress and magical thinking and the extent to which such a relationship may be moderated by individuals' tolerance of ambiguity. Questionnaires assessing different types of magical thinking and tolerance of ambiguity were administered to 174 Israeli citizens who, during the Gulf War, resided in areas that were either exposed (high-stress condition) or not exposed (low-stress condition) to missile attacks. Magical thinking emerged more frequently in Ss under high-stress conditions than in those under low-stress conditions. Furthermore, high stress levels exerted a more pronounced effect on the emergence of magical thinking in individuals with low tolerance of ambiguity than in those with high tolerance. Results are discussed in relation to the concept of personal control and coping strategies adopted by individuals for attaining such control. I thank Daniel Kahneman for his stimulating comments and Yael Burla for her assistance in collecting the data.

Research shows that the frequency of magical thinking and superstitious behavior increases under conditions of stress. A possible explanation for this finding is that stress reduces the individual’s sense of control and that to regain control she or he engages in magical rituals or superstitions. This study tested the validity of this explanation. To this end, the effects of stress on the frequency of superstitious behavior in individuals with high and low desire for control (DC) were examined. The Desirability of Control Scale was administered to 108 participants, half of whom were exposed to low-stress conditions and half to high-stress conditions. They were interviewed and asked questions designed to elicit a “knock on wood” ritual. It was found that the difference in the number of knocks on wood between high-DC and low-DC individuals was greater in the high-stress than in the low-stress condition. Similar findings emerged when the degree of the need to knock on wood, as reported by the participants, was used as a dependent variable.