A probabilistic map of emotional experiences during competitive social interactions

Abstract

Theories of emotion and decision-making argue that negative, high arousing emotions—such as anger—motivate competitive social choice (e.g., punishing and defecting). However, given the long-standing challenge of quantifying emotion and the narrow framework in which emotion is traditionally examined, it remains unclear which emotions are actually associated with motivating these types of choices. To address this gap, we combine machine learning algorithms with a measure of affect that is agnostic to any specific emotion label. The result is a probabilistic map of emotion that is used to classify the specific emotions experienced by participants in a variety of social interactions (Ultimatum Game, Prisoner’s Dilemma, and Public Goods Game). Our results reveal that punitive and uncooperative choices are linked to a diverse array of negative, neutrally arousing emotions, such as sadness and disappointment, while only weakly linked to anger. These findings stand in contrast to the commonly held assumption that anger drives decisions to punish, defect, and freeride—thus, offering new insight into the role of emotion in motiving social choice.

Investigating attentional scope as a novel indicator of emotional state in animals

“…We then tested the dogs following a 30 s delay from the point of losing interest. We predicted that these treatments would initially induce frustration but would be followed by disappointment once they had given up searching for the expected reward 43 , with disappointment being lower in arousal than frustration 44 .…”

Supraphysiologic testosterone increases proactive aggression in the power-to-take game.

“…Anger has a more complicated effect on cooperation in economic games, increasing punishment and/or noncooperation in some studies (Seip et al, 2014), but not others (Chierchia et al, 2021; Heffner & FeldmanHall, 2022). These findings are due in part to the variation in how anger is measured.…”

“…This shows the subtlety of the effects of T on both affective states and behaviors. This subtlety is reflected in the literature that has shown, without drug administration, that sadness increases fair offers and rejections of unfair offers in the ultimatum game (Harlé & Sanfey, 2007; Heffner & FeldmanHall, 2022; Tan & Forgas, 2010). Sadness-inducing interventions also eliminate the endowment effect (Lerner et al, 2004) but increase intertemporal impatience (Lerner et al, 2013).…”

Computational models of subjective feelings in psychiatry

“…Different subjective feelings can be measured depending on the disorders or processes under study. Different questions can probe specific types of emotion (Heffner et al, 2021;Heffner & FeldmanHall, 2022), which have different relationships with decision making (Heffner & FeldmanHall, 2022). For example, researchers interested in the conditions that make people angry might consider repeatedly asking questions about anger.…”