Emotions in Civil Litigation

In a civil-litigation game, monetary and emotional variables motivate a plaintiff and a defendant simultaneously to exert costly efforts; the emotional variables capture their relational emotions toward each other, and a non-monetary joy of winning. Based on the litigants’ efforts and exogenous relative advantages, a generally-formulated success function gives their probabilities of success. A cost-shifting rule shifts a proportion of the winner’s costs to the loser. In equilibrium, negative relational emotions (but not positive joy of winning) amplify the effects of cost shifting. Negative relational emotions increase the equilibrium relative effort and probability of success of the more advantageous litigant.