Behavioral and Physiological Responses to Computers in the Ultimatum Game

This article describes how studies in the area of decision-making suggest clear differences in behavioral responses to humans versus computers. The current objective was to investigate decision-making in an economic game played only with computer partners. In Experiment 1, participants were engaged in the ultimatum game with computer agents and regular computers while their physiological responses were recorded. In Experiment 2, an identical setup of the game was used, but the ethnicity of the computer agents was manipulated. As expected, almost all equitable monetary splits offered by the computer were accepted. The acceptance rates gradually decreased when the splits became less fair. Although the obtained behavioral pattern implied a reaction to violation of the rule of fairness by the computer in the game, no evidence was found for participants' corresponding emotional involvement. The findings contribute to the body of research on human-computer interaction and suggest that social effects of computers can be attenuated.