When I’ve been gradually losing at a strategic game where it seems like my opponent is slightly stronger than me, but then I have a flash of insight and turn things around at the last minute.… I absolutely model what my opponent is feeling as they are surprised by my sudden comeback. My reaction to such an experience is usually to smile, or (if I’m alone playing the game remotely) perhaps chuckle with glee at their imagined dismay. I feel proud of myself, and happy to be winning.
On the other hand, if I’m beating someone who is clearly trying hard but outmatched, I often feel a bit sorry for them. In such a case my emotions maybe align somewhat with theirs, but I don’t think my slight feeling of pity, and perhaps superiority, is in fact a close match for what I imagine them feeling.
And both these emotional states are not what I’d feel in a real life conflict. A real life conflict would involve much more anxiety and stress, and concern for myself and sometimes the other.
I don’t just automatically feel what the simulated other person in my mind is feeling. I feel a reaction to that simulation, which can be quite different from what the simulation is feeling! I don’t think that increasing the accuracy and fidelity of the simulation would change this.
When I’ve been gradually losing at a strategic game where it seems like my opponent is slightly stronger than me, but then I have a flash of insight and turn things around at the last minute.… I absolutely model what my opponent is feeling as they are surprised by my sudden comeback. My reaction to such an experience is usually to smile, or (if I’m alone playing the game remotely) perhaps chuckle with glee at their imagined dismay. I feel proud of myself, and happy to be winning.
On the other hand, if I’m beating someone who is clearly trying hard but outmatched, I often feel a bit sorry for them. In such a case my emotions maybe align somewhat with theirs, but I don’t think my slight feeling of pity, and perhaps superiority, is in fact a close match for what I imagine them feeling.
And both these emotional states are not what I’d feel in a real life conflict. A real life conflict would involve much more anxiety and stress, and concern for myself and sometimes the other.
I don’t just automatically feel what the simulated other person in my mind is feeling. I feel a reaction to that simulation, which can be quite different from what the simulation is feeling! I don’t think that increasing the accuracy and fidelity of the simulation would change this.