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Previous EEG research only investigated one stage ultimatum games (UGs). We investigated the influence of a second bargaining stage in an UG concerning behavioral responses, electro‐cortical correlates and their moderations by the traits altruism, anger, anxiety, and greed in 92 participants. We found that an additional stage led to more rejection in the 2‐stage UG (2SUG) and that increasing offers in the second stage compared to the first stage led to more acceptance. The FRN during a trial was linked to expectance evaluation concerning the fairness of the offers, while midfrontal theta was a marker for the needed cognitive control to overcome the respective default behavioral pattern. The FRN responses to unfair offers were more negative for either low or high altruism in the UG, while high trait anxiety led to more negative FRN responses in the first stage of 2SUG, indicating higher sensitivity to unfairness. Accordingly, the mean FRN response, representing the trait‐like general electrocortical reactivity to unfairness, predicted rejection in the first stage of 2SUG. Additionally, we found that high trait anger led to more rejections for unfair offer in 2SUG in general, while trait altruism led to more rejection of unimproving unfair offers in the second stage of 2SUG. In contrast, trait anxiety led to more acceptance in the second stage of 2SUG, while trait greed even led to more acceptance if the offer was worse than in the stage before. These findings suggest, that 2SUG creates a trait activation situation compared to the UG. Previous EEG research considered one stage ultimatum games (UG). We compared a 2‐stage Ultimatum Game (2SUG) with UG. We found more initial rejection, acceptance for increasing offers as well as more pronounced trait influence on behavior and electrophysiology in 2SUG. The FRN during trials was linked to expectancy (fairness) evaluation, while midfrontal theta (N3) expressed cognitive control to overcome default behavior. Also, trait‐like more negative FRN amplitudes indicated sensitivity for unfairness by predicting higher rejection rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The symmetry principle and the frame‐of‐reference perspective have each made contributions to improving the measurement of personality. Although each perspective is valuable in its own right, we argue that even greater improvement can be achieved through the combination of both. Therefore, the goal of the current article was to show the value of a combined lens‐model and frame‐of‐reference perspective. Method: We conducted a literature review to summarize relevant research findings that shed light on the interplay of both perspectives and developed an integrative model. Results: Based on the literature review and on theoretical grounds, we argue that a basic premise of the frame‐of‐reference literature––that personality items are open to interpretation and allow individuals to impose their own contextual framings––should be considered from a symmetry perspective. Unintended context‐specificity in items may "spread" to personality facets and domains, and thus, impact the symmetry of personality measures with other criteria. As the individuals´ frames‐of‐reference and (a)symmetric relationships are not always apparent, we term them as "hidden." Conclusions: The proposed combination of lens‐model and frame‐of‐reference perspectives provides further insights into current issues in personality research and uncovers important avenues for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study extends prior research on the relationships between personality constructs and types of psychological contracts by exploring how the Big Five traits predict balanced psychological contracts. Further, we determine whether epistemic curiosity and rule‐following behavior are key mediators of the proposed relationships. We tested our proposed hypotheses using three‐wave time‐lagged data from 469 respondents. The results indicated that openness to experience was positively associated and both conscientiousness and neuroticism were negatively associated with balanced contracts. Extraversion and agreeableness were not associated with balanced contracts. We also established the mediating role of epistemic curiosity in the relationships between personality traits and balanced contracts, but there was no support for the mediating role of rule‐following behavior in the present study. These findings have important implications for managers and organizations in terms of selecting the right person for a job (person‐job fit) and ensuring employee retention (person‐organization fit), hence having a bottom‐line effect on firm performance. Future research directions are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research challenges the importance of situation descriptions for situational judgment test (SJT) performance. This study contributes to resolving the ongoing debate on whether SJTs are situational measures, by incorporating findings on person × situation interactions into SJT research. Specifically, across three studies (NTotal = 1,239), we first tested whether situation construal (i.e., the individual perception of situations in SJTs) predicts responses to SJT items. Second, we assessed whether the relevance of situation construal for SJT performance depends on test elements (i.e., situation descriptions and response options) and item features (i.e., description‐dependent vs. description‐independent SJT items). Lastly, we determined whether situation construal has incremental validity for job‐related criteria over and above SJT performance. The results showed that, for most SJT items, situation construal significantly contributed to SJT performance, even if only response options were available. This was also true for SJT items that are significantly more difficult to solve when situation descriptions are omitted (i.e., description‐dependent SJT items). Finally, situation construal explained variance in relevant criteria over and above SJT performance. Despite recent efforts to reconceptualize SJTs, our results suggest that they can still be viewed as situational measures. However, situation descriptions may be less crucial for these underlying situational processes. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Punishment in economic games has been interpreted as "altruistic." However, it was shown that punishment is related to trait anger instead of trait altruism in a third‐party dictator game if compensation is also available. Here, we investigated the influence of state anger on punishment and compensation in the third‐party dictator game. Therefore, we used movie sequences for emotional priming, including the target states anger, happy, and neutral. We measured the Feedback‐Related Negativity (FRN) and midfrontal theta band activation, to investigate an electro‐cortical correlate of the processing of fair and unfair offers. Also, we assessed single‐trial FRN and midfrontal theta band activation as a predictor for punishment and compensation. We found that punishment was linked to state anger. Midfrontal theta band activation, which has previously been linked to altruistic acts and cognitive control, predicted less punishment. Additionally, trait anger led to enhanced FRN for unfair offers. This led to the interpretation that the FRN depicts the evaluation of fairness, while midfrontal theta band activation captures an aspect of cognitive control and altruistic motivation. We conclude that we need to redefine "altruistic punishment" into "costly punishment," as no direct link of altruism and punishment is given. Additionally, midfrontal theta band activation complements the FRN and offers additional insights into complex responses and decision processes, especially as a single trial predictor. In the literature about third‐party dictator games, punishment, and compensation were considered altruistic. Here, we show that punishment is linked to trait and state anger and less midfrontal theta‐band activation indicating less cognitive control. Thus, we extend the literature and proclaim the term "costly punishment" instead of altruistic punishment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Altruistic punishment is the attempt to penalize deviant behavior of another person even though it is accompanied by personal costs. Here, we investigated the influence of the reaction on the socioemotional level of the other person following altruistic punishment behavior on future decision making and neural responses. We used a modified ultimatum game, which included an emotional facial feedback of the proposer following the decision of the participant. We found higher acceptance rates for proposers showing a smile upon acceptance or a sad face upon rejection of an offer, compared to proposers showing a neutral facial expression. On the neural level, we found a reversed N2 effect for negative emotional faces in the context of altruistic punishment, compared to a control condition. Specifically, when following the rejection of an unfair offer, negative emotional faces showed a reward‐like positivity that might signal successful altruistic punishment. In addition, differential effects for P3 amplitudes might signal the subjective importance of a desired outcome. Our results are in line with the interpretation that rejection of unfair offers in the ultimatum game is due to intended altruistic punishment. Social cues may exhibit reward‐like properties when indicating successful altruistic punishment and can influence subsequent decision making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Facial expressions are an important aspect of social interaction, conveying not only information regarding emotional states, but also regarding intentions, personality, and complex social characteristics. The present research investigates how a smiling, compared to a nonsmiling, expression impacts decision making and underlying cognitive and emotional processes in economic bargaining. Our results using the ultimatum game show that facial expressions have an impact on decision making as well as the feedback-related negativity following the offer. Furthermore, a moderating effect of sex on decision making was observed, with differential effects of facial expressions from male compared to female proposers. It is concluded that predictions of bargaining behavior must account for aspects of social interactions as well as sex effects to obtain more precise estimates of behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theories of an optimal level of arousal suggest that underaroused humans seek stimulation to enhance their arousal. One way to increase arousal is risky behavior during gambling. In the current study, we show that the lower the participants' resting arousal, measured via resting heart rate, the riskier they acted in a gamble and the faster they responded, indicating less impulse control. Participants with low resting heart rate also perceived the risk options in the gamble as less arousing and less risky compared to participants with higher resting heart rate. Partial correlations show that resting heart rate, risk behavior, and ratings were interrelated. After physical exercise, participants tended to behave less risky in the gamble compared to a control condition without exercise. Thus, both trait and state arousal effects indicate an inverse relationship of arousal and risky behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The feedback negativity ( FN) has been repeatedly linked to expectancies about decision outcomes. Sequential outcome order is likely to influence such expectancies but has been widely disregarded. We therefore investigated whether the three-trial order of decision outcomes in a gambling task influences the FN as well as the P200 and P300. All three deflections were not only influenced by the outcome valence of the current trial but also by the outcomes of the two preceding trials. In detail, the FN and P300 to any current trial outcome were largest when the outcomes in the two preceding trials had an opposite valence. The P200 was highest in the context of two directly preceding wins, indicating that it may reflect representations of local outcome history. Our findings demonstrate that neural systems involved in decision outcome processing dynamically and continuously integrate the local outcome history for the evaluation of present outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent meta-analyses (e.g. ) found openness to experience, a factor in the five-factor model of personality, to be uncorrelated with job performance. We argue that, among others, insignificant validity is due to the broad and heterogeneous nature of the construct. In line with our hypotheses, we found internal structure of openness to be multidimensional. Further analyses on subdimensional and facet level revealed large differences in criterion- and construct-related validity. It could be demonstrated that a subdimension labeled epistemic curiosity and, especially, the facet openness to ideas, which includes aspects like curiosity, flexibility, willingness to learn, and creativity, are highly relevant for work-related criteria and so far understudied in organizational research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emojis are nowadays a common substitute for real facial expressions to integrate emotions in social interaction. In certain contexts, emojis possibly could also transport information beyond emotions, reflecting interindividual differences or social aspects. In this study, we investigated the influence of emojis as socioemotional feedback stimuli on behavior and neural responses in a social decision game. We modified the Ultimatum Game by including emotional feedback provided by the proposer as response to the decision of the participant as receiver. Therefore, we generated identities that differed in their feedback behavior to identify differences in the processing of emotional feedback in a positive (acceptance) versus negative (rejection) frame. Regarding offer sizes, we replicated the valence effect of feedback‐related negativity for small offer sizes evoking more negative brain potentials compared to larger ones. Further, we found an effect of affective emojis on distinct ERPs: A face‐detecting neural component (N170) was examined to be a part of the processing of emojis, which resulted in significantly more negative amplitudes in response to a sad‐looking emoji compared to smiling and neutral ones. Furthermore, P3 amplitudes indicate transmission effects from the feedback emoticons to the neural processing of different offer sizes. In contrast to previous findings, P3 responses of our subjects did not depend on the offer size, but rather by which kind of partner they were made. Since some evaluative processes did not reveal any effects, emojis seem to be less effective than real facial expressions, which convey more information that is socially meaningful. In face‐to‐face communication, information provided by facial expressions affects the social interaction itself. Nowadays, people partially transpose their ways of communication from direct conversation to messaging services. To put emphasis on the meaning of a message or to express mood, intentions, or feelings, emojis are often used. In consequence, this study aimed at investigating the influence of emojis as socioemotional feedback stimuli on behavior and neural responses in a social decision task. As a result, we found that emojis were able to influence neural processing of a certain interaction partner, whereas an impact on behavior was not found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]