Emotional Tears: An Honest Signal of Trustworthiness Increasing Prosocial Behavior?

ABSTRACT: How do our emotional tears affect the way we are treated? We tested whether tears, paired with either a neutral or a sad facial expression, elicited prosocial behavior among perceivers. Participants viewed a video clip depicting a confederate partner with or without tears displaying either a neutral or sad facial expression before making a behavioral decision in one of two economic games. In a Trust game (Experiment 1), participants who played the role of the investor were more likely to share an endowment after viewing a confederate trustee with tears (paired with either a neutral or a sad facial expression) in comparison to a confederate trustee without tears. However, in a Dictator game (Experiment 2), participants who played the role of allocator were no more likely to share an endowme

SUBMITTER: Reed LI 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10299780 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jul-Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature