Movie and Mood Experiment: Mood Affects Risk and Trust Preferences CONDUCTED BY DR. CATHERINE ECKEL, STEVEN WALSER AND

1. Movie and Mood Experiment: Mood Affects Risk and Trust Preferences CONDUCTED BY DR. CATHERINE ECKEL, STEVEN WALSER AND NICHOLAS TRAVIS UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT DALLAS MATERIALS AND METHODS RESULTS BACKGROUND • Protocol • Recruit subjects before Meteor Theater performance: Subjects were recruited to participate in an economics experiment before and after the movie. They were given a $4.00 participation fee and a chance to earn more money later in the experiment based on the games they played. • Mood Surveys: Before the movie, subjects were instructed to complete an initial mood survey which would be used to determine a mood score for the following categories: fear, hostility, guilt, sadness, joviality, self assurance, attentiveness, shyness, fatigue, serenity, surprise, affinity to a positive mood and affinity to a negative mood. After subjects completed the survey, they watched the movie and were then instructed to complete the same survey after the completion of the movie. Additionally, subjects completed a survey to determine what they thought of the movie. • Games: The subjects now had the chance to earn more money by completing two games designed to measure risk and trust preferences. • Risk Game: This game was designed to measure one’s affinity to risk. Players were instructed to choose from one of six possible options with options one being least risky and option six being most risky. • Playing the Game: • Based on players choices in the risk game, it can be determined their affinity towards taking risks. • Trust Game: This game was designed to determine how much trust people place in others. It also measures how people reciprocate that trust. There are two players in the trust game, Player A and Player B. Each player is given an initial endowment of $10.00. Player A then has the option to send a portion of that $10.00 to Player B. The amount Player A decides to send to Player B will be tripled and then passed to Player B. • Now Player B will have the option to send money back to Player A. Player A will receive the exact amount Player B sent; it will not be tripled. At this point, the game is over, and each Player earns the money they currently possess. • For example, if Player A decides to send $6.00 to Player B, Player B will receive $18.00. In this case, Player B will have that $18.00 plus their initial $10.00 endowment for a total of $28.00. Now Player B has the option to send money back to Player A; in this case they can send up to $28.00. If Player B sends $11.00 to Player A, Player B will be left with $17.00 and Player A will get the $11.00 dollars from Player B plus the $4.00 dollars they have left from their initial endowment for a total of $15.00. The game is now over; Player A earned $15.00 and Player B earned $18.00 dollars. • In order to obtain more data, players were instructed to fill in a strategy method to indicate what they would do in each possible position. They determined the amount they would send if they were player A and the amount they would return given each possible amount they were sent if they were player B. • Demographics survey: In order to obtain the necessary information to control for outside factors, subjects were instructed to complete a demographics survey, which included questions to determine background risk and trust factors. • Experimental Economics • It uses experimental methods to test various aspects of economic and behavioral theory. • Lab experiments involve subjects playing games to determine their preferences in various areas. • Subjects are paid based on their decisions and the decisions of others to encourage true preferences to be foreclosed. • Meteor Theater • The economics experiment was conducted in conjunction with Meteor Theater, UTD’s free on campus movie theater. • The subjects were recruited as they arrived to participate in the experiment that took place in conjunctions with the movie. CONCLUSIONS • Interpreting the table • Mood indicators for positive affect, guilt, joviality, attentiveness, shyness, fatigue, and serenity show statistical differences at a 95% confidence level after watching Gladiator when compared to pre-movie mood. • Mood indicators for positive affect, fear, guilt, joviality, self assurance, shyness, and fatigue show statistical differences at a 95% confidence level after watching Psycho when compared to pre-movie mood. • Interpreting the graphs • the movie viewed affects subjects’ decisions in the games. • Subjects who watched Sicko choose less risky options in the Risk Game compared to Gladiator and Psycho. • Subjects who watched Psycho are less trusting in the sending stage of the Trust Game. • Subjects who watched Gladiator are reciprocate more in the returning stage of the Trust Game PURPOSE AND HYPOTHESIS Purpose: To determine if movies have an affect on mood, and if mood in turn has an affect on risk and trust preferences. Many studies aim to find the affect of various forms of media such as television shows, video games and movies have on people’s moods and actions. The next plausible area of research is to determine if the change in mood caused by movies affects one’s risk and trust preferences. Hypothesis: Depending on the type of movie, people will have differing moods than they arrived with at the beginning of the movie. The movie will cause changes in mood indicators that measure emotions such as fear, sadness, joviality, shyness and serenity. Changes in these emotions will in turn affect one’s risk and trust preferences. BIBLIOGRAPHY Berg, Joyce, John Dickhaut and Kevin Mc- Cabe. 1995. "Trust, Reciprocity and Social History." Games and Economic Behavior. 10, pp. 122- 42. C. Monica Capra, Shireen Meer, and Kelli Lanier. 2006. “The Effects of Induced Mood on Bidding in Random Nth-price Auctions.” Emory Economics 0607. Eckel, Catherine C. and Philip J. Grossman. 2002b. “Forecasting Risk Attitudes: An Experimental Study of Actual and Forecast Risk Attitudes of Women and Men,” Unpublished Manuscript, Department of Economics, Virginia Tech Watson D, Clark LA. 1994. The PANAS-X: Manual for the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule—Expanded Form, Univ. Iowa, Iowa City. Unpublished manuscript. 35 pp.