The Effect of Positive Mood on Cooperation in Repeated Interaction

Eugenio Proto, Daniel Sgroi and Mahnaz Nazneen ()
Additional contact information
Mahnaz Nazneen: University of Warwick

No 11130, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Existing research supports two opposing mechanisms through which positive mood might affect cooperation. Some studies have suggested that positive mood produces more altruistic, open and helpful behavior, fostering cooperation. However, there is contrasting research supporting the idea that positive mood produces more assertiveness and inward-orientation and reduced use of information, hampering cooperation. We find evidence that suggests the second hypothesis dominates when playing the repeated Prisoner's Dilemma. Players in an induced positive mood tend to cooperate less than players in a neutral mood setting. This holds regardless of uncertainty surrounding the number of repetitions or whether pre-play communication has taken place. This finding is consistent with a text analysis of the pre-play communication between players indicating that subjects in a more positive mood use more inward-oriented, more negative and less positive language. To the best of our knowledge we are the first to use text analysis in pre-play communication.

Keywords: positive mood; Prisoner's Dilemma; cooperation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C72 C91 D91 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 35 pages
Date: 2017-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-big, nep-cbe and nep-gth
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Published - revised version published in: Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2019, 168, 209-228

Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp11130.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: The Effect of Positive Mood on Cooperation in Repeated Interaction (2017)
Working Paper: The Effect of Positive Mood on Cooperation in Repeated Interaction (2017)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11130

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
IZA, Margard Ody, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) IZA, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Holger Hinte ().