Speaker: Klaus Wälde, University of Mainz, Germany

Title:Emotional Economics 1.2: Emotional Tension, Personality and Communication

Abstract: Everybody knows how it feels to be emotionally tense. Everybody is angry at least occasionally. One's personality determines whether one reacts to this by emotional outbursts or whether one manages to stay calm. This paper presents a model of emotional tension and how it evolves over time. An individual chooses communication strategies to reduce tension. Embedded in optimal stopping theory, individuals can either smoothly talk or shout in some "uncontrolled way". We also analyse how communication behaviour affects the evolution of individuals' tension levels in a group where members affect each other emotionally. Some conclusions on how to avoid outburst cycles are drawn.

http://www.emotional.economics.uni-mainz.de/

Organizers: Gregory Veramendi and John Kennes