Fear of Negative Evaluation Moderates the Effect of Subliminal Fear Priming on Rejection of Unfair Offers in the Ultimatum Game

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine whether the tendency to fear negative evaluation moderates the effect of fear emotion on the rejection of unfair offers in the ultimatum game (UG). A photograph of a fearful face or landscape was displayed subliminally (i.e., for 10 ms) before the proposer’s offer in the UG was presented to participants. We used the Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale (FNES) to measure participants’ anxiety regarding negative evaluations from others. Results showed a significant interaction between FNES and condition (fearful face vs. landscape) in relation to the rejection of an unfair offer. Furthermore, the mean rejection rate of an unfair offer was significantly higher in the fearful face condition relative to that in the landscape condition among participants whose FNES scores were higher than the median; however, this difference was not observed in participants whose FNES scores were lower than the median. These results suggest that fear of negative evaluation moderates the effect of subliminal fear priming on the rejection of unfair offers in the UG, and that negative emotion induced by unconscious stimuli enhances rejection of these unfair offers.

Social preferences trump emotions in human responses to unfair offers

“…(Choices of statistical tests are motivated in the Methods section, while the complete statistical results are provided in the SI). The result replicates findings from other studies with very low rejection rates in the IG 13 , 15 , and goes against theoretical arguments from others 4 , 11 , 24 . The result is independent of whether or not responders are connected to biophysical measurement instruments.…”

“…Some find that in contrast to the UG, unfair offers in the IG are commonly made and hardly ever rejected 13 , 15 , supporting a preference-based account. Others find rejection rates in the IG that are comparable to the UG 4 , 11 , supporting an emotion-based account. The explanation in Yamagishi et al 4 for the difference is that in Bolton and Zwick 13 the accept/reject terminology is not used in the experimental design.…”

“…In the ‘Dictator Game’ (DG) 9 responders must accept any proposed split. In the less often studied ‘Impunity Game’ (IG) 4 , 10 , 11 responders can refuse their share but proposers keep their share regardless. Laboratory experiments show that proposed offers in the UG are more equitable than in the DG, suggesting that proposers indeed anticipate either social preference- or emotion-based rejections by responders.…”

Increased Conformity to Social Hierarchy Under Public Eyes

“…Additionally, the FNE scale measures personality traits related to the apprehension about evaluations of others and the desire to pursue social approval (Leary, 1983). Previous studies have shown that FNE affects a variety of social behaviors, playing a particularly vital role in interpersonal interactions involving social evaluations (Wright et al, 2010;Van der Molen et al, 2014;Takagishi et al, 2016). Thus, people with a high level of FNE should be more likely to exhibit social conformity (Wright et al, 2010), especially in a public situation where their choices are visible to others.…”

The role of personality traits in mediating the relation between fear of negative evaluation and social interaction anxiety

“…Individuals with high levels of fear of negative evaluation often experience extreme anxiety and discomfort in social situations, which triggers avoidance behaviors or intense stress ( Reichenberger et al, 2018 ). As symptoms, individuals may experience a range of unpleasant states physically ( Weeks and Zoccola, 2016 ), intellectually ( Maresh et al, 2017 ), emotionally, and behaviorally ( Takagishi et al, 2016 ). Physical symptoms can include rapid heartbeat, sweating, trembling, nausea, and difficulty breathing.…”