Abstract
Research in psychology and neuroscience has shown that negative emotions such as depression and anxiety affect decision making in such a way that these emotions lead to pessimistic risk estimates. To see if this is applicable to consumer confidence, we conducted preliminary questionnaire surveys. In the first survey, college students filled out the Japanese version of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) and the questions from which the Japanese version of the consumer confidence index (CCI) is calculated. In the second survey, college students filled out the Japanese version of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) and the aforementioned CCI questions. The surveys showed no significant correlation between the CES-D and the CCI, but a significant correlation between the positive affect subscale of the CES-D and the CCI (r=-0.224, p<0.01), between trait anxiety and the CCI (r=-0.340, p<0.01), and between state anxiety and the CCI (r=-0.157, p<0.05).
