We develop a new experimental paradigm to study how emotions affect decision-making. We use it to investigate the impact of short-term fluctuations in incidental happiness on economic decisions. Experimental subjects watch an NFL football game in a sports bar. At various commercial breaks, we measure subjects’ happiness and observe their decisions regarding charitable giving, willingness to pay for a consumer good, risk taking, and trust. We find that events in the game impact the incidental happiness of our subjects, and these changes lead to predictable changes in choices. We provide a simple model that rationalizes how subjects’ behavior varies with incidental happiness and provides insight into how mood can be tractably included in economics models. Our experimental paradigm can be leveraged by other researchers interested in exploring the impact of emotions on behavior.

我们开发了一种新的实验范式来研究情绪如何影响决策。我们用它来研究偶然幸福的短期波动对经济决策的影响。实验对象在体育酒吧观看NFL足球比赛。在各种商业活动中，我们会评估对象的幸福感，并观察他们在慈善捐赠，为消费者购买商品的意愿，承担风险和信任方面的决定。我们发现游戏中的事件会影响对象的偶然快乐，而这些变化会导致可预测的选择变化。我们提供了一个简单的模型，可以合理化主体的行为如何随偶然的幸福而变化，并提供有关如何将情绪轻松地纳入经济学模型的见解。