Human wagering behavior depends on opponents' faces.

PloS One
Erik J SchlichtKen Nakayama

Abstract

Research in competitive games has exclusively focused on how opponent models are developed through previous outcomes and how peoples' decisions relate to normative predictions. Little is known about how rapid impressions of opponents operate and influence behavior in competitive economic situations, although such subjective impressions have been shown to influence cooperative decision-making. This study investigates whether an opponent's face influences players' wagering decisions in a zero-sum game with hidden information. Participants made risky choices in a simplified poker task while being presented opponents whose faces differentially correlated with subjective impressions of trust. Surprisingly, we find that threatening face information has little influence on wagering behavior, but faces relaying positive emotional characteristics impact peoples' decisions. Thus, people took significantly longer and made more mistakes against emotionally positive opponents. Differences in reaction times and percent correct were greatest around the optimal decision boundary, indicating that face information is predominantly used when making decisions during medium-value gambles. Mistakes against emotionally positive opponents resulted fro...Continue Reading

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Citations

Sep 23, 2014·Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking·Michael LaakasuoMikko Salmela
Dec 14, 2011·Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience·Motohide MiyaharaTetsuya Iidaka
Mar 19, 2014·Journal of Gambling Studies·Michael LaakasuoMikko Salmela
May 6, 2016·Frontiers in Psychology·Fábio P Pádua JúniorEduardo B Andrade
Sep 10, 2014·Annual Review of Psychology·Alexander TodorovPeter Mende-Siedlecki
Jun 18, 2016·Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience·Sarah Jessen, Tobias Grossmann
Nov 19, 2020·Psychology Research and Behavior Management·Jie WangLei Mo

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Methods Mentioned

BETA
chips
chip

Software Mentioned

psychtoolbox
MATLAB

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