Negative incidental emotions augment fairness sensitivity.
Previous studies have shown that task-unrelated emotions induced incidentally exert carryover effects on individuals' subsequent decisions in financial negotiations. However, the specificity of these emotion effects are not clear. In three experiments, we systematically investigated the role of seven transiently induced basic emotions (disgust, sadness, anger, fear, happiness, surprise and neutral) on rejection of unfair offers using the ultimatum game. We found that all negative emotions (disgust, sadness, anger and fear), but not happiness or surprise, significantly increased rejection rates, suggesting that the effect of incidental negative emotions on fairness is not specific to the type of negative emotion. Our findings highlight the role of fleeting emotions in biasing decision-making processes and suggest that all incidental negative emotions exert similar effects on fairness sensitivity, possibly by potentiating attention towards negative aspects of the situation.
School of Psychology and Center for Studies of Psychological Application, South China Normal University, China.|Department of Psychology, National University of Singapore, Singapore.
Cuizhen
C
Liu
Department of Psychology, National University of Singapore, Singapore.
Jing Wen
JW
Chai
School of Psychology and Center for Studies of Psychological Application, South China Normal University, China.|Department of Psychology, National University of Singapore, Singapore.|Neurobiology/Ageing Programme, Center for Life Sciences, National University of Singapore, Singapore.|Institute for Neurotechnology (SINAPSE), Center for Life Sciences, National University of Singapore, Singapore.
Rongjun
R
Yu
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003657:Decision Making; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D055815:Young Adult