Abstract: The individual differences research in decision making (IDRD) can help to re-test and deepen traditional decision making models. The paper introduced the main researching variables (personality, cognitive ability, cognition styles and age) and results of the IDRD in recent 10 years, and summarized the background, research methods and theory meaning of IDRD briefly. These researches consistently found the influence of these variables on decision making process and performance, which indicated that individual differences were related to the complex person-context links in decision making process. To explain the influences of individual differences on decision making better, an integrate model needs to be developed in the future, in which the decision making context, emotion and person are considered together

Key words: individual differences, decision making research,individual difference methods, decision making models