Effects of Anger, Disgust, and Sadness in Social Dilemmas

Abstract

We examined the impact of emotions on cooperative behavior via giving and taking shared resources that belong to a group. In four studies, we found that (1) anger decreased cooperative behavior; (2) disgust increased cooperative behavior; and (3) sadness decreased cooperative behavior (when dilemmas were framed as taking), yet increased cooperative behavior (when dilemmas were framed as giving). In our first study, we measured participants’ social orientation with the RING test. In the next two studies, we measured the extent that participants give personal resources to a group (i.e., public good dilemma), or alternatively, take collective resources from a group (i.e., resource dilemma). Finally, we examined simultaneous giving and taking resources with a hybrid social dilemma. Our results demonstrate that emotions influence decisions to cooperate in a social dilemma, even when real money is at stake, and that emotions of the same valence have opposing effects on cooperation.