The Role of Cognitive and Emotional Perspective Taking in Economic Decision Making in the Ultimatum Game

Abstract

We conducted a simple resource allocation game known as the ultimatum game (UG) with preschoolers to examine the role of cognitive and emotional perspective-taking ability on allocation and rejection behavior. A total of 146 preschoolers played the UG and completed a false belief task and an emotional perspective-taking test. Results showed that cognitive perspective taking ability had a significant positive effect on the proposer’s offer and a negative effect on the responder’s rejection behavior, whereas emotional perspective taking ability did not impact either the proposer’s or responder’s behavior. These results imply that the ability to anticipate the responder’s beliefs, but not their emotional state, plays an important role in the proposer’s choice of a fair allocation in an UG, and that children who have not acquired theory of mind still reject unfair offers.

Cortical thickness of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex predicts strategic choices in economic games

“…Although these findings are inconsistent with the current lack of effect of strategic reasoning in the UG, the inconsistency may be due to age differences in the earlier study population (8,50,51) versus the current study. Cognitive control of normative demands in the DG may require the strategic use or goal-directed mobilization of theory of mind (52).…”

“…Finally, earlier studies found a positive relationship between young children's performance on a cognitive, but not emotional, theory of mind test and the levels of proposed UG giving (50,51). Although these findings are inconsistent with the current lack of effect of strategic reasoning in the UG, the inconsistency may be due to age differences in the earlier study population (8,50,51) versus the current study.…”

The Effect of Expressive Biosignals on Empathy and Closeness for a Stigmatized Group Member

“…We included the six empathic concern items as part of a 15-item question asking participants to rate their feelings towards Jared. Emotional perspective-taking refers to inferring another person's emotional state based on their context [65]. To measure emotional perspectivetaking, we used a shortened version of the PANAS scale, a widely used measure for perceptions of emotions, with items for positive and negative emotions [68].…”

“…In our research, we choose a different operationalization of empathy than empathic accuracy and state empathy. Empathy as conceptualized in the literature includes emotional perspective-taking, or the inference of another person's emotional state in a given context [24,65], and empathic concern, or feelings of sympathy or compassion towards another person [6]. Biosignals may still influence emotional perspective-taking and empathic concern for another person.…”

Relationship between Salivary Oxytocin Levels and Generosity in Preschoolers

“…We conducted an analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) model on the amounts allocated, with recipient affiliation (ingroup vs. outgroup) as a within-subject factor and sex as a between-subject factor. Because previous studies have shown an effect of age on allocations made by children4445464748, we used age in months as a covariate. Results indicated an interaction effect of recipient affiliation × sex ( F (1, 47) = 7.30, p  = 0.0096, η p 2  = 0.134) and a main effect of age ( F (1, 47) = 11.34, p  = 0.0015, η p 2  = 0.194).…”