An experimental investigation on the dark side of emotions and its aftereffects

The economic literature is so far overwhelmingly dedicated to the effect of incidental emotions on virtuous behavior. However, it is not so explicit for destructive behavior and the way it evolves with emotional states. To fill this gap, we explore how incidental emotions impact antisocial behavior...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2022-10, Vol.17 (10), p.e0274284-e0274284
Main Authors: Ibanez, Lisette, Saadaoui, Hayet
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Altruism
Antisocial behavior
Antisocial behaviour
Antisocial personality disorder
Behavior
Biology and Life Sciences
Decision making
Destruction
Economics and Finance
Economists
Emotional factors
Emotions
Endowment
Expected utility
Games
Humanities and Social Sciences
Influence
Laboratories
Physical Sciences
Preempting
Psychological aspects
Questionnaires
Risk factors
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2
Social aspects
Social behavior
Social Sciences
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Summary:The economic literature is so far overwhelmingly dedicated to the effect of incidental emotions on virtuous behavior. However, it is not so explicit for destructive behavior and the way it evolves with emotional states. To fill this gap, we explore how incidental emotions impact antisocial behavior in a laboratory experiment. As our vehicle of research, we used the open treatment of the joy-of-destruction mini-game. In addition to that, we elicited players’ first and second-order beliefs via an incentivized questionnaire. We find that destructive behavior is driven by two motives: spite (Machiavellian traits) and preemptive retaliation (Expected destruction by partners). Emotional states do not impact destructive behavior directly. However, positive emotions brighten the expectations of other player beliefs on his partner’s destruction, and indirectly reduces the willingness to destroy partner’s money.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0274284