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There is a growing body of research in the literature that investigates the relationship between emotions and decision-making in socio-economic contexts. Previous research has used Serious Games (SGs) based on game theory paradigms with socio-economic contexts to explore this relationship in controlled settings, but it is unclear whether such SGs can be applied in the wild, which would improve their usability in natural settings. The emergence and widespread availability of mobile computing technologies have enabled the creation of diverse SG implementations. We developed a mobile SG that combines four socio-economic interactions (trust game, ultimatum game, dictator game, prisoner’s dilemma game) into one narrative and conducted an initial experiment with eight participants. This study discusses the challenges of deploying SGs in the wild and proposes solutions to overcome them. The results from the preliminary user experience experiment indicate that the SG is a suitable tool for emotion elicitation in the wild and that the results are similar to those observed in previous studies under controlled environments. We argue that these findings suggest that mobile SGs have potential for studying the relationship between emotions and decision-making in socio-economic contexts in the wild, improving the reach of these methods beyond laboratory settings.

The relationship between Decision-Making and emotions has been investigated in literature both through theoretical and empirical research. Particularly, some paradigms have been defined, rooted in the Game Theory, that use socio-economic and/or trust based contexts to produce specific emotional responses in people. However, experiments with such game paradigms have most frequently been carried out in controlled settings only. As these methods have a potential usefulness in a variety of areas, we are interested in verifying their applicability "in the wild". To this end, we have developed a mobile game that integrates in a single plot four of the above mentioned socio-economic and trustbased game paradigms and aims at eliciting specific types and valences of emotions in different interactions. The paper discusses the outcomes of an experiment we carried out with eight participants in order to preliminarily test the usability of our game in authentic contexts of use. The results confirm that the designed game interactions are able to elicit emotional responses in the participants, also in ecological settings, that were expected based on the literature.