The effect of opponent’s emotional facial expressions on individuals’ cooperation and underlying mechanism in prisoner’s dilemma game

doi:10.3724/SP.J.1041.2021.00919

Abstract

Abstract:

Three experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of the opponent’s happy, neutral, and angry facial expressions on individuals’ cooperative behaviors and the mediating and moderating roles of related variables. The results showed that participants were found to be more cooperative towards happy opponents compared to angry ones, and the expectations of opponents’ cooperation mediated the relationship between emotional facial expressions and participants’ cooperative behaviors (Experiment 1); only under the condition of intuitive decision mode, participants were found to be more cooperative towards happy and neutral opponents compared to angry ones, and the expectations of opponents’ cooperation mediated the relationship between emotional facial expressions and participants’ cooperative behaviors (Experiment 2); only under the condition of time constraint, participants were found to be more cooperative towards happy opponents compared to angry and neutral ones, and the expectations of opponents’ cooperation mediated the relationship between emotional facial expressions and participants’ cooperative behaviors (Experiment 3). Based on these results, a moderated mediation model was established to reveal the complex relationships among emotional facial expressions, expectations of cooperation, cooperative behaviors, and individuals’ decision-making modes.

Key words: emotional facial expressions, expectations of cooperation, cooperative behaviors, decision modes, social functions of emotions

XIONG Chengqing, XU Jiaying, MA Danyang, LIU Yongfang. (2021). The effect of opponent’s emotional facial expressions on individuals’ cooperation and underlying mechanism in prisoner’s dilemma game. Acta Psychologica Sinica, 53(8), 919-932.

Figures/Tables 9

References 64

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		Round 1		Round 2		Round 3		Round 4		Round 5
		Player 2
		Transfer	Keep	Transfer	Keep	Transfer	Keep	Transfer	Keep	Transfer	Keep
Player 1	Transfer	10/10	0/15	12/12	0/18	14/14	0/21	16/16	0/24	18/18	0/27
Player 1	Keep	15/0	5/5	18/0	6/6	21/0	7/7	24/0	8/8	27/0	9/9

		Round 1		Round 2		Round 3		Round 4		Round 5
		Player 2
		Transfer	Keep	Transfer	Keep	Transfer	Keep	Transfer	Keep	Transfer	Keep
Player 1	Transfer	10/10	0/15	12/12	0/18	14/14	0/21	16/16	0/24	18/18	0/27
Player 1	Keep	15/0	5/5	18/0	6/6	21/0	7/7	24/0	8/8	27/0	9/9

Variables	Equation 1				Equation 2				Equation 3
Variables	Dependent variable: Participants’ cooperation (Y)				Dependent variable: Expectations of opponents’ cooperation(M)				Dependent variable: Participants’ cooperation (Y)
		β	SE	t		β	SE	t		β	SE	t
Opponents’ emotional facial expressions (D₁)	c₁	0.58	0.36	1.62	a₁	0.04	0.35	0.11	C′₁	0.55^*	0.24	2.26
Opponents’ emotional facial expressions (D₂)	c₂	-0.35	0.34	-1.01	a₂	-0.68^*	0.34	-1.99	c′₂	0.15	0.23	0.65
Expectations of opponents’ cooperation (M)									B	0.74^***	0.05	14.33
Constant	i_y	2.22^***	0.26	8.46	i_m	2.86^***	0.26	10.98	i_y	0.10	0.23	0.45
	R² = 0.043				R² = 0.034				R² = 0.559
	F(2, 177) = 4.01, p = 0.020				F(2, 177) = 3.09, p = 0.048				F(3, 176) = 74.23, p < 0.001

Variables	Equation 1				Equation 2				Equation 3
Variables	Dependent variable: Participants’ cooperation (Y)				Dependent variable: Expectations of opponents’ cooperation(M)				Dependent variable: Participants’ cooperation (Y)
		β	SE	t		β	SE	t		β	SE	t
Opponents’ emotional facial expressions (D₁)	c₁	0.58	0.36	1.62	a₁	0.04	0.35	0.11	C′₁	0.55^*	0.24	2.26
Opponents’ emotional facial expressions (D₂)	c₂	-0.35	0.34	-1.01	a₂	-0.68^*	0.34	-1.99	c′₂	0.15	0.23	0.65
Expectations of opponents’ cooperation (M)									B	0.74^***	0.05	14.33
Constant	i_y	2.22^***	0.26	8.46	i_m	2.86^***	0.26	10.98	i_y	0.10	0.23	0.45
	R² = 0.043				R² = 0.034				R² = 0.559
	F(2, 177) = 4.01, p = 0.020				F(2, 177) = 3.09, p = 0.048				F(3, 176) = 74.23, p < 0.001

Variables	Equation 1				Equation 2				Equation 3
	Dependent variable: Participants’ cooperation(Y)				Dependent variable: Expectations of opponents’ cooperation(M)				Dependent variable: Participants’ cooperation (Y)
		β	SE	t		β	SE	t		β	SE	t
Opponents’ emotional facial expressions (D₁)	c₁	0.36	0.39	0.93	a₁	-0.05	0.39	-0.14	c′₁	0.40	0.26	1.52
Opponents’ emotional facial expressions (D₂)	c₂	-0.32	0.40	-0.80	a₂	-0.77	0.41	-1.87	c′₂	0.23	0.28	0.85
Decision modes (W)	c₃	1.39^**	0.40	3.48	a₃	0.59	0.41	1.46	c′₃	0.96**	0.27	3.52
D₁× W	c₄	-0.13	0.56	-0.23	a₄	0.12	0.57	0.21	c′₄	-0.21	0.38	-0.56
D₂ × W	c₅	-1.68^**	0.57	-2.92	a₅	-1.30^*	0.58	-2.23	c′₅	-0.74	0.39	-1.88
Expectations of opponents’ cooperation (M)									b	0.73^***	0.05	14.55
Constant	i_y	1.88^***	0.28	6.73	i_m	2.91^***	0.28	10.27	i_y	-0.23	0.24	-0.98
	R² = 0.22				R² = 0.18				R² = 0.64
	F(5, 179) = 10.11, p < 0.001				F(5, 179) = 7.87, p < 0.001				F(6, 178) = 53.63, p < 0.001