CeDEx
Centre for Decision Research and Experimental Economics

CeDEx 2022-16: Do emotional carryover effects carry over?

Summary

Existing research has demonstrated carryover effects whereby emotions generated in one context influence decisions in other, unrelated ones. We examine the carryover effect in relation to valuations of risky and ambiguous lotteries with a novel focus on comparing the carryovers arising from a targeted stimulus (designed to elicit a specific emotion) with those arising from a naturalistic stimulus (expected to produce a more complex emotional response). We find carryover effects using both a standard targeted stimulus and a naturalistic one, but they are stronger for the naturalistic stimulus and in the context of ambiguity. These effects are also highly gender-specific with only males being susceptible. To probe the emotional foundations of behaviour, we conduct analysis relating individual self-reports of emotions to incentivised valuation behaviour. Our results cast doubt on the interpretation of some evidence purporting to establish links between specific incidental emotions and risk taking.

Download the paper in PDF format

 

Authors

Nikhil Masters, Tim Lloyd and Chris Starmer


 

View all CeDEx discussion papers | View all School of Economics featured discussion papers

 

Posted on Friday 30th September 2022

Centre for Decision Research and Experimental Economics

Sir Clive Granger Building
University of Nottingham
University Park
Nottingham, NG7 2RD

telephone: +44 (0)115 951 5458
Enquiries: jose.guinotsaporta@nottingham.ac.uk
Experiments: cedex@nottingham.ac.uk