London: It's not just instinct but your genes which really matter when it comes to decision-making, a new study has revealed.
Researchers at University College London have found that genes affect the decisions people make and the decisions are actually influenced by the positive or negative framing of the options on offer, the 'Journal of Neuroscience' reported.
In fact according to them, decision-making is actually affected by variation in the serotonin transporter gene, which also influences the response of the amygdala, an area of the brain involved in processing emotions.
"We know that people from across a variety of cultures are susceptible to biases when making decisions, and that even with training these biases are hard to overcome.
"This implies that hard-wired genetic influences might play an important role in determining how susceptible different individuals are to the framing effect," Dr Jonathan Roiser, who led the study, said.
In the study, the researchers investigated two common variants of this gene, the "short" and "long" versions. They selected 30 healthy volunteers carrying either a pair of short variants or a pair of long variants.
Participants in the study performed a task involving deciding whether or not to gamble with 50 pounds. They had to make the same decision twice -- first through the "gain frame" and then the "loss frame".