  Understanding human behaviour in decision problems and strategic interactions
has wide-ranging applications in economics, psychology, and artificial
intelligence. Game theory offers a robust foundation for this understanding,
based on the idea that individuals aim to maximize a utility function. However,
the exact factors influencing strategy choices remain elusive. While
traditional models try to explain human behaviour as a function of the outcomes
of available actions, recent experimental research reveals that linguistic
content significantly impacts decision-making, thus prompting a paradigm shift
from outcome-based to language-based utility functions. This shift is more
urgent than ever, given the advancement of generative AI, which has the
potential to support humans in making critical decisions through language-based
interactions. We propose sentiment analysis as a fundamental tool for this
shift and take an initial step by analyzing 61 experimental instructions from
the dictator game, an economic game capturing the balance between self-interest
and the interest of others, which is at the core of many social interactions.
Our meta-analysis shows that sentiment analysis can explain human behaviour
beyond economic outcomes. We discuss future research directions. We hope this
work sets the stage for a novel game theoretical approach that emphasizes the
importance of language in human decisions.
