The Beginning…

Affective Feedback as a Means of Social Control in Social Dilemmas

Norbert L. Kerr

Adam W. Stivers

Brian Mund

Michigan State University

Dong Heon-Seok

Daegu University

Talk presented at the

13th International Conference on Social Dilemmas

Kyoto, Japan

August 20-24, 2009

• Do we believe (and act like) the expressions on others’ faces really can harm us?– even when they only change

their expressions--not their other behavior-- towards us?

Tennesee Williams, The Glass Menagerie

…

• Punishments (e.g., fines, economic penalties) will deter defection; e.g.– E.g., Fehr and Gächter (2000),

Bochet et al. 2005 • Social punishments also will; in

particular– Social death penalty (ostracism or

social exclusion) deters defection• E.g., Kerr (1999); Ouwerkerk et al.

(2005); Cinyabuguma et al. (2005); Maier-Rigaud, Martinsson, & Staffiero (2006); Kerr et al. (2009)

• Question: – Is a threat of full-scale exclusion

necessary?• Will cues that foreshadow/signal

social exclusion also lead to more cooperation?

– even when such cues have no direct effect on one’s objective outcomes?

• e.g., signs of social disapproval for defection (e.g., facial expressions of disgust or anger)?

ICSD 2007: Seattle• Study 1. If group members

given the chance to purchase and display angry faces,

the rate of cooperation was higher (especially if future interaction is anticipated)

• Study 2. In response to a consistently cooperative partner, Ss became more exploitative;

but if that partner also sent an angry face when the S was uncooperative, the reverse was true.

ICSD 2009: Kyoto

• Q1: Will the effect of such facial feedback attenuate with experience (as Ss learn and come to trust that the partner never retaliates)?– To see, we doubled the number of trials (from 20

to 40)

• Q2: Will positive facial feedback be as effective as negative feedback?– To see, we included negative, positive, and both

• Q3: Will the effects of facial feedback depend on individual differences in cooperativeness (SVOs)?

Experimental MethodControl/ No facial feedback condition:• Ss pretested on SVO (decomposed game measure) days before

session• Ss played 40 rounds of 2-person public-goods game

– Ss didn’t know how many rounds;– 9 token endowment each round;– Keep (defect) or Invest (cooperate) into a Group Account

• Total contributions into the later earn interest• “interest factor” ≈1.5 (viz. 1<N(1.5,.25)<2)

– Group account then divided equally between the two players– 1/12 chance of converting earnings to cash ($.50/token) for a

randomly chosen round at the end of the study• Ss’ partner (actually the computer) played a Consistently

cooperative strategy – viz. Partner played (3,4,5,6,7) with P(.10,.20,.40,.20,.10)

• Partner’s behavior not contingent on S’s choices– S (and Partner) get full outcome feedback after every trial, but

no communication

Facial feedback conditions:• Ss told that after each round, the Partner [but not the S] could purchase (for .5

token) a face to send to S• 3 conditions (differed in what Partner could and did do):

– Negative/disapproving face

– Positive/approving face

– Both positive & negative faces• No association between Facial

feedback & Partner’s allocations; Partner always was cooperative

Q2: Will positive facial feedback be as effective as negative feedback?

A: Yes (when it conveys the same information about one’s partner’s preferences)

Q1: Will the effect of such facial feedback attenuate with experience (as Ss learn and come

to trust that the partner never retaliates)?

• No (at least across 40 trials).

Q3: Will the effects of facial feedback depend on individual differences in cooperativeness

(SVOs)?SVOs had their usual overall effect …

…but didn’t significantly moderate effect of feedback

Conclusions

• We act like the expressions on others’ faces can harm us– even when they only change

their expressions--not their other behavior-- towards us

• We all (regardless of whether we’re more or less cooperative) show this sensitivity– we all use facial expressions

(and many other behaviors) as cues that we are at risk for social exclusion/marginalization

– and respond to those cues, even without explicit or overt threats of exclusion

…

The End(?)

The End!