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Trust me (or not): Regret and disappointment in experimental economic games

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Emotional states exert an influence on trust and the reciprocation of trust. The current research found that regret and disappointment, though both negatively valenced, have distinct effects on trust (and trustworthiness). Three experiments showed that regret decreased trust and trustworthiness, whereas disappointment increased them. Regret elicited both lower initial transfers and returns in a trust game. Conversely, disappointment gave rise to both higher initial transfers and returns in the same game. The implications of our results are discussed. The findings once again demonstrate that emotions play a crucial role on decision-making.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)118-126
Number of pages9
JournalDecision
Volume2
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2015

Funding

This research was partially supported by the Foundation for Science and Technology, Portugal – SFRH/BD/40990/ 2008 and PEst-OE/EGE/UI0315/2011. Part of this research was presented at the 24th Subjective Probability, Utility, and Decision Making Conference (SPUDM24), IESE Business School, Barcelona, Spain, August 18-22, 2013. We thank the editor and five anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on earlier versions of this article. We also thank Rosa Isabel Rodrigues, Maryline Santos, Ana Lemos, and Filipe Ramos for their help in the collection of data used in this article.

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

  1. SDG 16 - Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
    SDG 16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

Keywords

  • Decision-making
  • Disappointment
  • Emotion
  • Regret
  • Trust game

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