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EMOTLAB SOFTWARESoftware for studying

Emotional Signaling in Economic Bargaining Games

Developed by Tim Ketelaar (Designer) and Ben Preston (Programmer)

Version 1.0

The following pages provide a brief overview of a software program that Ideveloped for the purpose of studying emotional signaling in economicbargaining games. I would like to encourage other researchers to explore therole of emotions in social decision-making. Thus, I plan to make this programavailable as a free shareware program that you can download from theauthors website. This program is approximately 5 MB in size and runs onWindows or Macintosh OSX. You do not need to purchase any specialsoftware to operate this program.

If you would like to receive a free copy of the early version of the software,please e-mail Tim Ketelaar at Ketelaar@nmsu.edu and put the words“EMOTLAB Software” in the subject heading.

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EMOTLAB SOFTWAREEMOTLAB Software creates a virtual social environment in which individualsinteract via computer in a series of economic bargaining games where themonetary payoffs (see below) that each participant receives are a function of theparticipant’s behavior and the behavior of their interaction partner.

EMOTLAB’s Virtual Interaction partnerA unique feature of EMOTLAB software is that it enables you to create avirtual interaction partner for each participant. This virtual partner appears onthe participant’s computer screen as a brief digital movie (or jpeg file) aftereach round of play. A key feature of EMOTLAB is its ability to allow you tocontrol both the strategic behavior (e.g., cooperate vs. defect) and the signalingbehavior (e.g., Anger vs. Embarrassment) of this virtual interaction partner. Thecurrent version of the program allows you to choose from eight different virtualpartners that vary in terms of:

• Sex (male, female),• Ethnicity (European American, Latino/Latina)• Facial Display (Happy, Neutral, Angry, Embarrassed, etc.).

Embarrassed Neutral Angry

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Capable of playing 78 distinct social bargaining gamesEMOTLAB Software allows the researcher to present participants with all 78distinct 2 person-2 strategy Economic Bargaining Games ranging from thePrisoner’s Dilemma to Chicken to Battle of the Sexes. EMOTLAB enables youto not only modify the numerical value of the payoffs in each cell of the 2 X 2game matrix, it also allows you to modify the instructions (regarding theprotocol of play) that are presented to research participants. Finally,EMOTLAB allows you to specify a virtually limitless number of rounds of playin which you, the experimenter, can precisely control the structure of thepayoffs and the behavior of the virtual opponent each round.

Keeps track of Monetary payoffs for each participantEMOTLAB software is designed to allow you to offer real monetary payoffsto participants in a manner in which these incentives are directly tied toparticipant’s performance and where real-time feedback is given regarding theparticipants earnings. Because many social scientists operate on a limitedbudget, EMOTLAB software has built in a feature that allows you to providemonetary incentives to participants at a reduced cost to the experimenter.

Compatible with Digital VideoEMOTLAB‘ Software was designed for laboratory settings in which theresearch participant is videotaped during the interaction. Although theresearcher must provide their own video equipment, EMOTLAB‘ software hasa feature that allows researchers to conserve disk space allotted to storage ofdigital video images. Specifically, EMOTLAB‘ software embeds a series oftones on the audio track of your digital videotape. These tones preciselydemarcate the beginning and end of each round of play, thus allowing theresearcher to identify the specific round of play for which they wish to analyzevideo data on the research participant. For researchers who do not wish tovideo tape participants or utilize expensive digital video equipment, aninexpensive internet-style webcam can be used to maintain the illusion that theparticipant’s image is being broadcast to their partner and visa versa

If you would like to receive a free copy of the early version of the software,please e-mail Tim Ketelaar at Ketelaar@nmsu.edu and put the words“EMOTLAB Software” in the subject heading.