Living emotions, avoiding emotions: Behavioral investigation of the regulation of socially driven emotions

Abstract

In this study we investigated the efficacy of different forms of reappraisal on responses to the selfish and altruistic behavior of others in the Dictator Game. Compared with a baseline condition, reappraising the intentions of the player (mentalizing) led subjects to experience their emotions more positively when receiving both selfish and altruistic proposals, whereas taking distance from the proponent (distancing) decreased the valence when receiving altruistic offers, but did not affect the perception of selfish behavior. In a second experiment, subjects played with both computer and human partners while applying the same strategy. A stronger effect was observed when the donor was a human partner.