You read my mind: Generating and minimizing intention uncertainty under different social contexts in a two-player online game.

Abstract

We investigate an ecologically pertinent form of social uncertainty regarding the ability to read another's intentions. We use classic measures (response time, accuracy) and dynamic measures (mouse trajectories) to investigate how people generate or minimize uncertainty regarding their own intentions under different social contexts, and how uncertainty regarding other's intentions affects decision making. Ninety-six participants (N = 48 dyads) completed a two-player online card game, where the goal was to collect cards with a certain feature (e.g., triangles), with participant cursor movements projected to both players. Participants played six games, three cooperatively and three competitively (Social Decision Context). Points were awarded for two decisions: collecting a card matching one's goal (ability to achieve personal goal) and correctly guessing the other player's goal (ability to guess intention). Data revealed: (a) Card scores did not vary with Social Decision Context, (b) Guess scores did vary with Social Decision Context, with more correct guesses when cooperating compared to competing, and (c) Mouse trajectories (durations and mouse distance traveled) decreased when cooperating compared to competing. These results indicate that better guessing during cooperative play is not due to explicit communication (i.e., circling desired cards), but may be due to increased speed and confidence when making decisions in a cooperative context. Additionally, participants could be actively hiding their intention in a competitive context. Thus, social uncertainty when reading another's intentions is both adaptive-affected by the prescribed social context, and automatic-indirectly inferred from the way another moves their mouse when acting with intention. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).