Do self-talk phrases affect behavior in ultimatum games?

Mind & Society, vol. 21, pp. 89–119

Abstract

Abstract The current study investigates whether self-talk phrases can influence behavior in Ultimatum Games. In our three self-talk treatments, participants were instructed to tell themselves (i) to keep their own interests in mind, (ii) to also think of the other person, or (iii) to take some time to contemplate their decision. We investigate how such so-called experimenter-determined strategic self-talk phrases affect behavior and emotions in comparison to a control treatment without instructed self-talk. The results demonstrate that other-focused self-talk can nudge proposers towards fair behavior, as offers were higher in this group than in the other conditions. For responders, self-talk tended to increase acceptance rates of unfair offers as compared to the condition without self-talk. This effect is significant for both other-focused and contemplation-inducing self-talk but not for self-focused self-talk. In the self-focused condition, responders were most dissatisfied with unfair offers. These findings suggest that use of self-talk can increase acceptance rates in responders, and that focusing on personal interests can undermine this effect as it negatively impacts the responders’ emotional experience. In sum, our study shows that strategic self-talk interventions can be used to affect behavior in bargaining situations.

Authors 6

1. Vincenz Frey corresponding

   University of Groningen · Interuniversity Center for Social Science Theory and Methodology

   Affiliation as printed

   Department of Sociology/ICS, Groningen University, Groningen, The Netherlands

2. Hannah N. M. De Mulder corresponding Aachen

   Leiden University

   Affiliation as printed

   LUCL, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands

3. Marlijn ter Bekke

   Radboud University Nijmegen · Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics · Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour

   Affiliation as printed

   Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

   Max Plank Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

4. Marijn Eefje Struiksma

   Utrecht University

   Affiliation as printed

   Department of Languages, Literature & Communication, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands

5. Jos J. A. Van Berkum

   Utrecht University

   Affiliation as printed

   Department of Languages, Literature & Communication, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands

6. Vincent Buskens

   Utrecht University

   Affiliation as printed

   Department of Sociology/ICS, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands