Slow, controlled breathing is widely recommended as a way to calm the mind before making important decisions. It is commonly used to reduce anxiety, lower blood pressure, and restore a sense of control during stressful situations. But new research suggests that one popular breathing technique may also subtly influence the way people evaluate risk.
In a proof-of-concept study conducted by researchers at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, participants who practiced prolonged exhalation became more likely to accept risky monetary gambles. Rather than making them more cautious, the breathing exercise appeared to increase the appeal of potential rewards, even though the risks remained unchanged.
How the study was conducted
The researchers investigated a breathing technique known as prolonged exhalation, which involves taking a short breath in followed by a much longer breath out. During the experiment, participants followed a 2:8 breathing pattern—breathing in for two seconds and exhaling for eight seconds—while lying inside an MRI scanner. On a separate occasion, they completed the same task while breathing normally.
The study included 41 healthy young adults who completed a series of 50/50 gambling decisions involving potential monetary gains and losses. For each gamble, participants chose whether to accept or reject the offer. Throughout both breathing conditions, the researchers also monitored heart activity, breathing rate, skin conductance, and pupil size to measure changes in the body’s autonomic nervous system.
A calmer body but different decisions
The prolonged exhalation technique produced the expected physiological effects. Participants breathed more slowly and showed increased activity within the parasympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for the body’s “rest-and-digest” response. Measures associated with sympathetic activation, including skin conductance and pupil size, remained largely unchanged.
These findings suggest that prolonged exhalation shifted the body toward a calmer physiological state rather than simply reducing overall arousal. Similar breathing techniques are already incorporated into military and law-enforcement training to help individuals remain composed and focused during stressful situations.
Despite these calming effects, participants became more willing to accept risky monetary gambles while practicing prolonged exhalation than they were during normal breathing.
Calmness increased sensitivity to rewards
A closer analysis revealed that the breathing exercise did not reduce participants’ awareness of potential losses. Instead, it appeared to increase their sensitivity to possible gains.
As a result, participants were more likely to accept gambles offering larger potential rewards, even though the probability of winning and the possible losses remained unchanged. Importantly, the time participants took to make each decision did not differ between breathing conditions, suggesting they were not becoming more impulsive or spending less time considering their choices.
Brain scans revealed changes in reward processing
Functional MRI scans helped explain how these behavioral changes may have occurred. Participants who showed the greatest increase in parasympathetic activity also demonstrated stronger reward-related brain activity in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and the precuneus. Both brain regions are known to contribute to evaluating rewards, assigning value to different options, and integrating signals from the body into decision-making.
According to the researchers, these findings support the concept of a neurovisceral pathway—a mechanism through which internal physiological states influence how the brain processes rewards and risks. Rather than simply accompanying decision-making, the body’s signals may actively shape how attractive potential outcomes appear.
Study limitations and future directions
The researchers caution that the findings should be interpreted carefully. The study involved only 41 participants, most of whom were healthy adults with an average age of about 25 years. In addition, the decisions involved hypothetical monetary gambles completed under controlled laboratory conditions rather than emotionally significant real-world choices.
The gambling task also deliberately used unbalanced gain and loss amounts to increase the likelihood of detecting subtle effects. For this reason, the authors describe the study as proof of principle rather than definitive evidence of how breathing influences everyday decision-making. Larger studies involving more diverse populations will be needed to confirm the findings.
Future research may examine whether similar effects occur during more realistic financial, social, or medical decisions involving balanced risks and rewards. Researchers also hope to explore whether controlled breathing techniques could eventually help treat conditions involving disrupted reward processing, including depression and anxiety disorders.
Although slow, prolonged exhalation remains an effective way to calm the body, the findings suggest it may not always promote more cautious decision-making. Instead, by enhancing sensitivity to potential rewards, the technique may subtly encourage people to focus more on possible gains when weighing risks.
