Department of Psychology, University of Hull Hull, UK.
Front Psychol. 2013 Jul 25;4:469. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00469. eCollection 2013.
Despite the prevalence of studies examining economic decision-making as a purely rational phenomenon, common sense suggests that emotions affect our decision-making particularly in a social context. To explore the influence of emotions on economic decision-making, we manipulated opponent-directed emotions prior to engaging participants in two social exchange decision-making games (the Trust Game and the Prisoner's Dilemma). Participants played both games with three different (fictional) partners and their tendency to defect was measured. Prior to playing each game, participants exchanged handwritten "essays" with their partners, and subsequently exchanged evaluations of each essay. The essays and evaluations, read by the participant, were designed to induce either anger, sympathy, or a neutral emotional response toward the confederate with whom they would then play the social exchange games. Galvanic skin conductance level (SCL) showed enhanced physiological arousal during anger induction compared to both the neutral and sympathy conditions. In both social exchange games, participants were most likely to defect against their partner after anger induction and least likely to defect after sympathy induction, with the neutral condition eliciting intermediate defection rates. This pattern was found to be strongest in participants exhibiting low cognitive control (as measured by a Go/no-Go task). The findings indicate that emotions felt toward another individual alter how one chooses to interact with them, and that this influence depends both on the specific emotion induced and the cognitive control of the individual.
尽管有大量研究将经济决策视为纯粹理性现象，但常识表明，情绪会影响我们的决策，尤其是在社会环境中。为了探究情绪对经济决策的影响，我们在参与者参与两个社会交换决策游戏（信任游戏和囚徒困境）之前，操纵了针对对手的情绪。参与者与三个不同的（虚构的）伙伴玩了这两个游戏，并测量了他们的背叛倾向。在玩每一个游戏之前，参与者与他们的伙伴交换手写的“文章”，然后交换对每篇文章的评价。这些文章和评价由参与者阅读，旨在引起他们将要与之玩社会交换游戏的对手的愤怒、同情或中性情绪反应。与中性和同情条件相比，皮肤电传导水平（SCL）在愤怒诱导时显示出增强的生理唤醒。在这两个社会交换游戏中，参与者在愤怒诱导后最有可能背叛他们的伙伴，而在同情诱导后最不可能背叛，中性条件则引起中等程度的背叛率。这种模式在表现出低认知控制（如通过 Go/No-Go 任务测量）的参与者中表现最强。研究结果表明，对另一个人的情绪会改变一个人与他们互动的方式，而这种影响既取决于所引起的特定情绪，也取决于个体的认知控制。
