The value of a smile: Facial expression affects ultimatum-game responses

Journal Title: Judgment and Decision Making - Year 2013, Vol 8, Issue 3

Abstract

Abstract: In social interaction, the facial expression of an opponent contains information that may influence the interaction. We asked whether facial expression affects decision-making in the ultimatum game. In this two-person game, the proposer divides a sum of money into two parts, one for each player, and then the responder decides whether to accept the offer or reject it. Rejection means that neither player gets any money. Results of a large-sample study support our hypothesis that offers from proposers with a smiling facial expression are more often accepted, compared to a neutral facial expression. Moreover, we found lower acceptance rates for offers from proposers with an angry facial expression.

Authors and Affiliations

Patrick Mussel, Anja S. Göritz and Johannes Hewig

Keywords

Related Articles

Moral pluralism on the trolley tracks: Different normative principles are used for different reasons in justifying moral judgments

The psychological correlates of utilitarian choices in sacrificial moral dilemmas are contentious. In the literature, some research (Greene, et al., 2001) suggested that utilitarianism requires analytic thinking while ot...

New tests of cumulative prospect theory and the priority heuristic: Probability-outcome tradeoff with branch splitting

Previous tests of cumulative prospect theory (CPT) and of the priority heuristic (PH) found evidence contradicting these two models of risky decision making. However, those tests were criticized because they had characte...

Goals and plans in decision making

We propose a constructed-choice model for general decision making. The model departs from utility theory and prospect theory in its treatment of multiple goals and it suggests several different ways in which context can...

Measuring Risk Literacy: The Berlin Numeracy Test

We introduce the Berlin Numeracy Test, a new psychometrically sound instrument that quickly assesses statistical numeracy and risk literacy. We present 21 studies (n=5336) showing robust psychometric discriminability acr...

What do Americans know about inequality? It depends on how you ask them

A recent survey of inequality (Norton and Ariely, Perspectives on Psychological Science, 6, 9–12) asked respondents to indicate what percent of the nation’s total wealth is—and should be—controlled by richer and poorer q...

Download PDF file
  • EP ID EP678065
  • DOI -
  • Views 140
  • Downloads 0

How To Cite

Patrick Mussel, Anja S. Göritz and Johannes Hewig (2013). The value of a smile: Facial expression affects ultimatum-game responses. Judgment and Decision Making, 8(3), -. https://europub.co.uk/articles/-A-678065