Being of two minds: an ultimatum experimentinvestigating affective processes

We experimentally investigate how affective processes influence proposers’and responders’ behaviour in the Ultimatum Game. Using a dualsystemapproach, we tax cognitive resources through time pressure andcognitive load to enhance the influence of affective processes on behaviour.We find that proposers offer more under time pressure and this seems tobe due to strategic considerations rather than to other-regarding concerns.We also find that responders are more likely to reject under time pressure.Surprisingly, both proposers and responders appear to be unaffected bycognitive load manipulation.