Affective empathy in non-cooperative games

Jorge Vásquez and Marek Weretka

Games and Economic Behavior, 2020, vol. 121, issue C, 548-564

Abstract: In this paper, we examine strategic settings in which players have interdependent preferences. Players' utility functions depend not only on the strategy profile being played, but also on the realized utilities of other players. Thus, players' realized utilities are interdependent, capturing the psychological phenomena of affective empathy and emotional contagion. We offer a solution concept for these empathetic games and show that the set of equilibria is non-empty and, generically, finite. Motivated by psychological evidence, we then analyze sympathetic and antipathetic games. In the former, players' utilities increase in others' realized utilities, capturing unconditional friendship; in the latter, the opposite holds, resembling hostility.

Keywords: Non-paternalistic preferences; Interdependent utilities; Affective empathy; Emotional contagion (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D64 D90 D91 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:gamebe:v:121:y:2020:i:c:p:548-564

DOI: 10.1016/j.geb.2019.10.005

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