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Updated: Jun 14, 2026
08:24
The Joint Effect of Social Comparison and Social Distance on Evaluation of Intertemporal Choice Outcomes in Event-related Potential Studies
Published on: August 25, 2023
Disgust selectively modulates reciprocal fairness in economic interactions.
Laura Moretti1, Giuseppe di Pellegrino
1Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
Emotion (Washington, D.C.)
|April 7, 2010
Summary
Disgust significantly increases rejection of unfair economic offers, but only when a human is responsible for the unfairness. This suggests disgust
Area of Science:
- Behavioral Economics
- Social Psychology
- Neuroscience
Background:
- Economic interactions are influenced by emotions.
- The ultimatum game is a standard paradigm for studying fairness and rejection decisions.
- Negative emotions, such as disgust and sadness, may differentially impact economic behavior.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the effect of induced disgust, sadness, and neutral emotion on rejection rates in the ultimatum game.
- To determine if the effect of disgust on economic decisions is specific to social contexts.
Main Methods:
- Two experiments using the ultimatum game were conducted.
- Participants' emotions were induced (disgust, sadness, neutral).
- Rejection rates of unfair offers were compared between human and computer partners.
Main Results:
- Induced disgust significantly increased rejection rates of unfair offers compared to sadness or neutral emotions.
- Disgust's effect on rejection was observed only when the partner was human, not a computer.
- The findings suggest disgust's influence is context-dependent.
Conclusions:
- Disgust specifically enhances the rejection of unfair proposals in social economic interactions.
- The findings support the hypothesis that disgust and social norm violations share common psychological and neural mechanisms.
- Emotional responses in economic games are sensitive to the social nature of the interaction.
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