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Heartbeat and Economic Decisions: Observing Mental Stress among Proposers and Responders in the Ultimatum Bargaining Game

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  • Uwe Dulleck
  • Markus Schaffner
  • Benno Torgler

Abstract

The ultimatum bargaining game (UBG), a widely used method in experimental economics, clearly demonstrates that motives other than pure monetary reward play a role in human economic decision making. In this study, we explore the behaviour and physiological reactions of both responders and proposers in an ultimatum bargaining game using heart rate variability (HRV), a small and nonintrusive technology that allows observation of both sides of an interaction in a normal experimental economics laboratory environment. We find that low offers by a proposer cause signs of mental stress in both the proposer and the responder; that is, both exhibit high ratios of low to high frequency activity in the HRV spectrum.

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  • Uwe Dulleck & Markus Schaffner & Benno Torgler, 2014. "Heartbeat and Economic Decisions: Observing Mental Stress among Proposers and Responders in the Ultimatum Bargaining Game," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(9), pages 1-9, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0108218
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0108218
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    Cited by:

    1. Buckert, Magdalena & Oechssler, Jörg & Schwieren, Christiane, 2017. "Imitation under stress," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 252-266.
    2. Benno Torgler, 2014. "Can Tax Compliance Research Profit from Biology?," CREMA Working Paper Series 2014-08, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).
    3. Benno Torgler, 2014. "Can Tax Compliance Research Profit from Biology?," QuBE Working Papers 025, QUT Business School.
    4. Perakakis, Pandelis & Guinot-Saporta, José & Jaber-Lopez, Tarek & García-Gallego, Aurora & Georgantzis, Nikolaos, 2019. "A technical note on the precise timing of behavioral events in economic experiments," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 21(C), pages 10-14.
    5. Borawska Anna, 2017. "Cognitive Neuroscience Tools in Economic Experiments Investigating the Decision Making Process," Folia Oeconomica Stetinensia, Sciendo, vol. 17(1), pages 159-169, June.
    6. Ho Fai Chan & Uwe Dulleck & Benno Torgler, 2019. "Response Times and Tax Compliance," Games, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-13, November.
    7. Mateusz Piwowarski & Uma Shankar Singh & Kesra Nermend, 2019. "The Cognitive Neuroscience Methods in the Analysis of the Impact of Advertisements in Shaping People's Health Habits," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(4), pages 457-471.
    8. Alison Macintyre & Ho Fai Chan & Markus Schaffner & Benno Torgler, 2021. "National Pride and Tax Compliance: A Laboratory Experiment Using a Physiological Marker," CREMA Working Paper Series 2021-07, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).
    9. Halko, Marja-Liisa & Sääksvuori, Lauri, 2017. "Competitive behavior, stress, and gender," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 96-109.
    10. Armin Falk & Fabian Kosse & Ingo Menrath & Pablo E. Verde & Johannes Siegrist, 2018. "Unfair Pay and Health," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(4), pages 1477-1488, April.
    11. Marc T. P. Adam & Timm Teubner & Henner Gimpel, 2018. "No Rage Against the Machine: How Computer Agents Mitigate Human Emotional Processes in Electronic Negotiations," Group Decision and Negotiation, Springer, vol. 27(4), pages 543-571, August.
    12. Kim, Do-Hoon, 2020. "Human factors influencing the ship operator's perceived risk in the last moment of collision encounter," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 203(C).

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