The Effect of Emotional Context and Expectation on Social Economic Decision-making

Abstract

Abstract: In the present study, we extended social expectation effects research by examining the influence of induced task-irrelevant emotional context and its positive or negative valence on this decision bias. This question was investigated by inducing 2 basic emotional states(amusement or sadness)that were compared with a neutral-emotion control group. Decision making was assessed with a well-studied social task, the Ultimatum Game. The results revealed that: 1)negative and neutral emotional contexts had no significant effect on social expectations, whereby those with high expectation rejecting significantly more unfair offers than those participants who expected low offers in the UG. 2)positive emotional context played an important role in biasing expectation effects on social interactive decision-making. In conclusion, the present study demonstrated that a task-irrelevant positive emotional context can have a significant impact on social decision-making. Specifically, social expectation no longer affected subjects' decision-making following exposure to emotionally pleasant movie clip.

Key words: expectation, emotional context, the Ultimatum Game, decision-making

摘要： 采用最后通牒博弈范式，探讨不同情绪背景对社会经济决策中社会预期效应的影响。以90名大学生为被试，利用不同效价的电影片段（正性、负性和中性）诱发相应的目标情绪。通过操作社会规范性信息启动被试对分配方案公平性的不同预期。结果发现：在负性和中性情绪背景下，高预期组更倾向于拒绝接受不公平分配。在正性情绪背景下，高预期组和低预期组面对不公平提议时的接受率没有显著差异。结果表明正性情绪背景使社会预期效应发生改变，回应者对分配方案的高预期不再对决策结果产生显著影响。

关键词: 预期, 情绪背景, 最后通牒博弈, 决策

CLC Number:

B842

Wang Qin, Bai Xuejun, Li Shiyi. The Effect of Emotional Context and Expectation on Social Economic Decision-making[J]. Studies of Psychology and Behavior, 2015, 13(2): 191-197.

王芹, 白学军, 李士一. 情绪背景和社会预期对社会经济决策行为的影响[J]. 心理与行为研究, 2015, 13(2): 191-197.

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