So Close to a Deal: Spatial-Distance Cues Influence Economic Decision-Making in a Social Context.
Social distance (i.e., the degree of closeness to another person) affects the way humans perceive and respond to fairness during financial negotiations. Feeling close to someone enhances the acceptance of monetary offers. Here, we explored whether this effect also extends to the spatial domain. Specifically, using an iterated version of the Ultimatum Game in a within-subject design, we investigated whether different visual spatial distance-cues result in different rates of acceptance of otherwise identical monetary offers. Study 1 found that participants accepted significantly more offers when they were cued with spatial closeness than when they were cued with spatial distance. Study 2 replicated this effect using identical procedures but different spatial-distance cues in an independent sample. Importantly, our results could not be explained by feelings of social closeness. Our results demonstrate that mere perceptions of spatial closeness produce analogous-but independent-effects to those of social closeness.
Department of Education and Psychology, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany; Cluster "Languages of Emotion", Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany; Berlin School of Mind & Brain, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
Ramzi
R
Fatfouta
Department of Education and Psychology, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
Stefan
S
Schulreich
Department of Education and Psychology, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
Dar
D
Meshi
Department of Education and Psychology, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
Hauke
H
Heekeren
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003463:Cues; D003657:Decision Making / Q000502:physiology*; D004467:Economics; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D005376:Financial Management / Q000191:economics*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012929:Psychological Distance; D012931:Social Environment; D055815:Young Adult