Heart beats and economic decisions: Observing mental stress in the ultimatum bargaining game (original) (raw)
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Heart Rate Variability, the Autonomic Nervous System, and Neuroeconomic Experiments
2011
Measuring the activity of the autonomic nervous system may yield insights into individual stress levels. One small, nonintrusive instrument for collecting such data is a high-resolution heart rate monitor that allows measurement of heart rate variability (HRV). This complements brain-scanning methods and increases the number of participants that can be studied simultaneously. Combining HRV data with recorded data on the decisions made in experimental games throws light on how different individuals react in (economic) decision-making situations. This article therefore introduces the HRV measurement method and, using data from an ultimatum bargaining experiment in a laboratory environment, illustrates its application in experimental economic research.
Overcoming selfishness: reciprocity, inhibition, and cardiac-autonomic control in the ultimatum game
Frontiers in psychology, 2011
The processes underlying decision-making in response to unfair offers in the ultimatum game (UG) have recently been discussed in light of models of reciprocity and fairness-related behavior. It has been suggested that behavior following norm-oriented, internalized expectations of reciprocity requires overcoming economic self-interest. In this study we investigated both, behavioral and peripheral-physiological indicators of inhibitory capacity related to neuronal networks that are likely to be involved in the behavioral response to unfair offers. Both heartrate variability as an index of inhibitory capacity, and performance in a motor response inhibition task predicted rejection of unfair offers in an UG, suggesting an important role of inhibitory processes in overcoming economic temptations and regulating behavior conforming to social norms of reciprocity and fairness. The role of parasympathetic activity as a physiological traitmarker predicting inter-individual differences in the rejection of unfair offers is discussed.
EEG-‐based biomarkers and emotional response to the Ultimatum Game
This paper presents a basic neuro--experiment to explore the possibility of the application of EEG--based biomarkers to analyze emotional response to the ultimatum game. Using a basic EEG registration tool (Emotiv EPOC technology), the paper presents two EEG--based biomarkers (F8--EP and ALPHA8--AP) obtained from an evoked potential and accumulated power approaches, which seem to be related with the responder's emotions when facing an unfair offer in the Ultimatum Game.
Affective state and decision-making in the Ultimatum Game
Experimental Brain Research, 2006
The emerging field of neuroeconomics has provided evidence that emotional as well as cognitive processes may contribute to economic decision-making. Indeed, activation of the anterior insula, a brain area involved in emotional processing, has been shown to predict decision-making in the Ultimatum Game. However, as the insula has also been implicated in other brain functions, converging evidence on the role of emotion in the Ultimatum Game is needed. In the present study, 30 healthy undergraduate students played the Ultimatum Game while their skin conductance responses were measured as an autonomic index of affective state. The results revealed that skin conductance activity was higher for unfair offers and was associated with the rejection of unfair offers in the Ultimatum Game. Interestingly, this pattern was only observed for offers proposed by human conspecifics, but not for offers generated by computers. This provides direct support for economic models that acknowledge the role of emotional brain systems in everyday decision-making.
Previous studies explored the possibility to use cognitive strategies to bias economic decisions by altering their emotional impact. One emerging question, but yet unsolved, is whether different cognitive strategies impact our decisions in the same or different ways. Another intriguing question is whether these strategies alter our decisions by altering the valence or by affecting the arousal of the emotion associated with the economic exchange. In the present study, we compared the effect of 2 emotion regulation strategies, namely, reappraisal and distancing, and showed that reappraisal is able to increase the valence of the emotions associated with monetary divisions in the dictator game (Experiment 1) and to reduce rejection rates in the ultimatum game (Experiment 2), whereas distancing decreases the arousal of emotions (Experiment 1) but surprisingly increases rejection rates (Experiment 2). Moreover, in the present study, we explored the cognitive effort associated with the usage of regulatory strategies during decision-making, using the galvanic skin response as index, and found an increase in physiological arousal when applying both strategies. These results extend our understanding of how to bias individuals' decisions in a desired direction by using different strategies that alter one aspect or the other of the emotional reaction.
Reciprocity and emotions in bargaining using physiological and self-report measures
Journal of Economic Psychology, 2007
Although reciprocity is a key concept in the social sciences, it is still unclear why people engage in costly reciprocation. In this study, physiological and self-report measures were employed to investigate the role of emotions, using the Power-to-Take Game. In this two-person game, player 1 can claim any part of player 2's resources, and player 2 can react by destroying some (or all) of these resources thus preventing their transfer to player 1. Both physiological and self-report measures were related to destruction decisions. The observed pattern of emotional arousal and its correlation with self-reported anger provides support for using both techniques to study reciprocity.
Journal of Neuroscience, Psychology, and Economics, 2015
A large number of private investors deviate from maximizing expected monetary value of a given decision. Instead of focusing on fundamental indicators, they have the tendency to be driven by experienced gains and losses, or the emotional arousal experienced as a result of these trends. Up till now, little is known about how emotion regulation (ER) strategies, such as reappraisal or suppression, dictate the extent to which emotions are experienced, and how they impact deviations from expected value (EV)-maximizing behavior. We seek to answer these questions in this article. To this end, we conducted an experiment with 4 treatments, where participants traded stocks with higher/lower valuation and lower/higher probabilities of price increase. Skin conductance responses, heart rate measures and questionnaires were used to measure the emotional arousal and ER strategies. The results show that using ER indeed influences the level of emotional arousal experienced. First, reappraisers experienced lower levels of arousal, and suppressors higher. Second, while reappraisal reinforced the impact of emotional arousal on EV-maximizing behavior, adopting suppression strategy had no similar impact. Third, reappraisal reinforced the impact of integral arousal on EV-maximizing decisions, especially after experiencing losses. This was not observed for suppressors, whether they experienced a gain or a loss. We infer that reappraisal has an observable impact on decisions, especially after losses, and could be used to train investors to improve decision-making performance. The article concludes with theoretical implications of emotion regulation on physiological arousal, and on maximizing the expected value in a stock trading context.
Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, 2012
It has been robustly demonstrated using the ultimatum game (UG) that individuals frequently reject unfair financial offers even if this results in a personal cost. One influential hypothesis for these rejections is that they reflect an emotional reaction to unfairness that overrides purely economic decision processes. In the present study, we examined whether the interplay between bodily responses, bodily regulation, and bodily perception ("interoception") contributes to emotionally driven rejection behavior on the UG. Offering support for bodily feedback theories, interoceptive accuracy moderated the relationship between changes in electrodermal activity to proposals and the behavioral rejection of such offers. Larger electrodermal responses to rejected relative to accepted offers predicted greater rejection in those with accurate interoception but were unrelated to rejection in those with poor interoception. Although cardiovascular responses during the offer period were unrelated to rejection rates, greater resting heart rate variability (linked to trait emotion regulation capacity) predicted reduced rejection rates of offers. These findings help clarify individual differences in reactions to perceived unfairness, support previous emotion regulation deficit accounts of rejection behavior, and suggest that the perception and regulation of bodily based emotional biasing signals ("gut feelings") partly shape financial decision making on the UG.