The interpersonal effects of emotions in money versus candy games

Emotional expressions significantly influence perceivers' behavior in economic games and negotiations. The current research examined the interpersonal effects of emotions when such information cannot be used to guide behavior for increasing personal gain and when monetary rewards are made salient. For this, a one-shot Public Goods Game (Studies 1, 2, and 3) and Dictator Game (Studies 4 and 5) were employed, in which the dominant strategy to maximize personal payoff is independent from the counterplayers' intention signaled through their facial expressions (happiness, sadness, and anger). To elicit a monetary mindset, we used money (vs. candy) as the mode of exchange in the games with (Studies 1 and 2) or without (Studies 3, 4, and 5) additional contextual framing (i.e. Wall Street Game vs. Community Game). Across five studies (N = 1211), participants were found to be more generous towards happy and sad targets compared to angry ones. Such behavioral response based on emotional information was accounted for by the trait impressions (i.e. likability, trustworthiness) formed of the counterplayer. This effect was significantly reduced when money acted as the mode of exchange, thereby making participants focus more on their self-gain. Together, the findings extend previous work by highlighting the social functional role of emotions in human exchange and its moderation by money as a transaction medium.