December 2014

IZA DP No. 8710: Pour Some Sugar in Me: Does Glucose Enrichment Improve Decision Making?

revised version published as 'Thinking about Decisions: An integrative Approach of Person and Task Factors' in: Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 2020, 33 (4), 538 - 555

In the current study we explore whether enriching the brain's supply of glucose will improve the quality and speed of decision making. Prior research shows that glucose enrichment supports cognition and more recent research has shown it can improve decision making on some tasks. To test our hypothesis we used a standardized decision inventory and measured response times. The findings show that supplemental glucose improves decision making but only in complex decision tasks. The findings also show that enrichment leads to faster decision response times across decision types.