Article

The Neural Basis of Economic Decision-Making in the Ultimatum Game

July 2003
Science 300(5626):1755-8

Source
PubMed

Authors:

The nascent field of neuroeconomics seeks to ground economic decisionmaking in the biological substrate of the brain. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging of Ultimatum Game players to investigate neural substrates of cognitive and emotional processes involved in economic decision-making. In this game, two players split a sum of money;one player proposes a division and the other can accept or reject this. We scanned players as they responded to fair and unfair proposals. Unfair offers elicited activity in brain areas related to both emotion (anterior insula) and cognition (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex). Further, significantly heightened activity in anterior insula for rejected unfair offers suggests an important role for emotions in decision-making.

Disrupting the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex attenuates the difference in decision-making for altruistic punishment between the gain and loss contexts

Preprint

Full-text available

Mar 2023

Altruistic punishment are primary responses to social norms violations, its neural mechanism has also attracted extensive attention from researchers. In the present studies, we applied a low-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) to the bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) while participants engaged in a modified Ultimatum Game (UG) (Study 1) and a modified third-party punishment game (Study 2) to probe the neural mechanisms affecting decision-making in altruistic punishment. Normally punishers intervene more often against and show more social outrage towards Dictators/Proposers who unfairly distribute losses than rather those who unfairly share gains. We found that disrupting the function of the left and right DLPFC with rTMS effectively obliterated this difference, making participants punish unfairly shared gains as often as they normally would punish unfairly shared losses. The inhibition of the DLPFC function will lead to the deviation of individual information integration ability and influence the moderating effect of gain and loss contexts on altruistic punishment. Our findings emphasize that DLPFC is closely related to altruistic punishment and provide causal neuroscientific evidence.

Worldview problems in neuroscience

Book

Full-text available

Mar 2023

Gennady G Knyazev

What is the meaning of life? What is the nature of the human mind, love, morality? All of these questions tend to be answered and explained in "natural science" terms. Life arose out of inanimate nature by random physical and chemical factors and one should hardly look for any sense in it; man is the product of natural selection and reason, love and morality, are the result of chemical and electrical processes in the brain. Since these questions are among the most important for human beings, due to the unquestionable authority of the natural sciences, the proposed answers can and already do have a major impact on all areas of human life, from economics and politics to mental health and the subjective well-being of the individual. Does this perception of the world and one's place in it make one happy? Sociological studies clearly say no. Adherents of this worldview, however, argue that no matter how unpleasant it may seem, one should have the courage to accept it, because it is consistent with the scientific evidence. But is this true? Does the modern scientific picture of the world really allow for all these far-reaching conclusions? People who are professionally involved in science know that it almost never provides answers to worldview questions. All empirical facts and scientific theories can be interpreted in different ways and the choice of one interpretation or another is largely determined by one's worldview position, not vice versa. Although the book is called "Worldview Problems of Neuroscience", and most of it is indeed devoted to neuroscientific problems and their philosophical interpretation, it deals with a wider range of questions, which form the basis of the worldview of most modern people. Author tries to understand whether the reductionist materialistic worldview that dominates today, especially in the neurosciences, is really capable of plausibly explaining the current evidence about the nature of the relationship between mental processes and the physical world. The book concludes by outlining modern philosophical positions alternative to orthodox physicalism and tries to summarize them in a unified system.

The Oxford Handbook of the Psychology of Competition

Article

Oct 2021

This handbook is currently in development, with individual articles publishing online in advance of print publication. At this time, we cannot add information about unpublished articles in this handbook, however the table of contents will continue to grow as additional articles pass through the review process and are added to the site. Please note that the online publication date for this handbook is the date that the first article in the title was published online. For more information, please read the site FAQs.

How strength of social ties modulates brain computations for Third-Party Punishment

Preprint

Full-text available

Feb 2023

Costly punishment of social norms transgressors by third-parties has been considered as a decisive stage in the evolution of human cooperation. An important facet of social relationship knowledge concerns the strength of the social ties between individuals, as measured by social distance. Yet, it is unclear how the enforcement of social norms is influenced by the social distance between a third-party and a norm violator at the behavioral and the brain system levels. Here, we investigated how social distance between punishers and norm-violators influences third-party punishment. Participants as third-party punished norm violators more severely as social distance between them increased. Using model-based fMRI, we disentangled key computations contributing to third-party punishment: inequity aversion, social distance with the norm violator and integration of the cost to punish with these signals. Inequity aversion increased activity in the anterior cingulate cortex and bilateral insula, and processing social distance engaged a bilateral fronto-parietal cortex brain network. These two brain signals and the cost to punish were integrated in a subjective value signal of sanctions that modulated activity in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. Taken together, our results reveal the neurocomputational underpinnings of third-party punishment and how social distance modulates enforcement of social norms in humans.

Experiencing sweet taste is associated with an increase in prosocial behavior

Article

Full-text available

Feb 2023

Taste may be the first sense that emerged in evolution. Taste is also a very important sense since it signals potential beneficial or dangerous effects of foods. Given this fundamental role of taste in our lives, it is not surprising that taste also affects our psychological perception and thinking. For example, previous research demonstrated remarkable psychological effects of sweet taste experiences, suggesting that sweetness may be a source domain for prosocial functioning. Recent research reports that briefly experiencing sweet taste made participants more helpful in their intentions and behavior. The current study aims to test this hypothesis and to examine the neural underpinnings of this effect by using an fMRI approach. Participants were asked to taste sweet, salty, and neutral taste while lying in the fMRI scanner. Subsequently their prosocial behavior was tested by playing the dictator game, a measure of prosocial behavior. Results showed that sweet taste was associated with an increase in prosocial behavior compared with previously experiencing salty taste but did not affect control stimuli ratings. FMRI results revealed a modulation of the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex associated with this sweetness effect. This brain area is known to play a central role for monitoring conflicts and decisions and has been directly linked to selfish and prosocial economic decisions. The results demonstrate that sweet taste has complex psychological effects including positive and socially desirable outcomes. We discuss the results with other studies on psychological sweetness effects and suggest possible implications of these findings.

Impacts of Distributive Comparison Behavior on Corporate Social Responsibility in Supply Chains: The Role of Small Firms

Article

Dec 2022

Problem definition: In this paper, we explore how a firm’s concern about profit distribution and the size of downstream firms in supply chains affect corporate social responsibility (CSR) investment strategy. Methodology/results: In a supply chain consisting of one supplier and one manufacturer, both players decide whether to invest to reduce CSR violations, and they negotiate over a wholesale price. Distributive comparison behavior makes the manufacturer compare the profit with his equitable payoff, which is determined by the supplier’s profit. Advantageous (resp. disadvantageous) inequality occurs when the manufacturer’s profit is higher (resp. lower) than the manufacturer’s equitable payoff. We compare this supply chain to the one without distributive comparison behavior. We find that when advantageous inequality occurs, or when neither inequality occurs and the manufacturer’s sensitivity to the supplier’s profit is low, the manufacturer’s distributive comparison behavior makes the manufacturer less (resp. supplier more) likely to invest in CSR, which we call negative (resp. positive) impacts of distributive comparison behavior; otherwise, it makes the manufacturer more (resp. supplier less) likely to invest. In most cases, the weak bargaining power of the small manufacturer leads to larger positive or smaller negative impacts of distributive comparison behavior. Also, the low efficiency of the small manufacturer to reduce CSR violations leads to smaller negative impacts of distributive comparison behavior. Managerial implications: Our results show that governments and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) should investigate firms’ distributive comparison behavior in supply chains. When downstream firms show the aversion to lower (resp. higher) profits than ones from upstream firms, the measures to monitor and support upstream (resp. downstream) firms’ CSR investments should be taken to avoid CSR violations. In the supply chains with small downstream firms, extra efforts should be made to induce firms’ distributive comparison behavior. Funding: M. Wang was supported partially by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grants 71931009 and 71671023]; X. Fang is grateful for the support under a Lee Kong Chian Fellowship and Retail Centre of Excellence Research Grant; Z. Wang was supported partially by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grants 72010107002, 71671023, and 72171212]; and Y. Chen was supported partially by the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China [HKUST C6020-21GF]. Supplemental Material: The e-companion is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/msom.2022.1172 .

Cooperative and conformist behavioural preferences predict the dual dimensions of political ideology

Article

Full-text available

Mar 2023

Decades of research suggest that our political differences are best captured by two dimensions of political ideology. The dual evolutionary framework of political ideology predicts that these dimensions should be related to variation in social preferences for cooperation and group conformity. Here, we combine data from a New Zealand survey and a suite of incentivised behavioural tasks (n = 991) to test whether cooperative and conformist preferences covary with a pair of widely used measures of the two dimensions of political ideology—Social Dominance Orientation (SDO) and Right Wing Authoritarianism (RWA)—and related policy views. As predicted, we find that cooperative behaviour is negatively related to SDO and economically conservative policy views, while conformist behaviour in the form of social information use is positively related to RWA and socially conservative policy views. However, we did not find the predicted relationships between punitive and rule following behaviours and RWA or socially conservative views, raising questions about the interpretation of punishment and rule following tasks and the nature of authoritarian conformist preferences. These findings reveal how cooperative and conformist preferences that evolved to help us navigate social challenges in our ancestral past continue to track our political differences even today.

Neuronal mechanisms of dynamic strategic competition

Preprint

Full-text available

Jan 2023

Competitive social interactions, as in chess or poker, often involve multiple moves and countermoves deployed tactically within a broader strategic plan. Such maneuvers are supported by mentalizing or theory-of-mind—reasoning about the beliefs, plans, and goals of an opponent. The neuronal mechanisms underlying strategic competition remain largely unknown. To address this gap, we studied humans and monkeys playing a virtual soccer game featuring continuous competitive interactions. Humans and monkeys deployed similar tactics within broadly identical strategies, which featured unpredictable trajectories and precise timing for kickers, and responsiveness to opponents for goalies. We used Gaussian Process (GP) classification to decompose continuous gameplay into a series of discrete decisions predicated on the evolving states of self and opponent. We extracted relevant model parameters as regressors for neuronal activity in macaque mid-superior temporal sulcus (mSTS), the putative homolog of human temporo-parietal junction (TPJ), an area selectively engaged during strategic social interactions. We discovered two spatially-segregated populations of mSTS neurons that signaled actions of self and opponent, sensitivities to state changes, and previous and current trial outcomes. Inactivating mSTS reduced kicker unpredictability and impaired goalie responsiveness. These findings demonstrate mSTS neurons multiplex information about the current states of self and opponent as well as history of previous interactions to support ongoing strategic competition, consistent with hemodynamic activity found in human TPJ.

The interaction game: A reciprocity‐based minimal paradigm for the induction of social distance

Article

Full-text available

Mar 2023

The investigation of how social distance affects psychological phenomena has relied mostly on comparisons between strangers and acquaintances. Such an operationalization suffers from a confound between social distance and acquaintance. We propose an experimental paradigm that manipulates social distance while avoiding the aforementioned confound. By relying on reciprocity and known social tie formation mechanisms, the Interaction Game provides researchers with a powerful tool for the investigation of social distance effects without inducing negative affective or emotional states. Four preregistered experiments demonstrate the internal and external validity of the paradigm. The capability of manipulating social distance in a targeted manner constitutes a critical step towards advancing our knowledge of the impact of such metrics on human cognition and behavior. Moreover, Experiment 4 demonstrates that the Interaction Game can induce social distance that is free of acquaintanceship, and that such a minimal manipulation is sufficient for inducing close‐other favoritism in a social discounting task. These findings expand our understanding of social distance as a powerful mechanism underlying social judgments and behaviors.

La broma secreta del alma de Kant

Article

Full-text available

Dec 2022

Joshua D. Greene

Critical tests of fuzzy trace theory in brain and behavior: uncertainty across time, probability, and development

Article

Feb 2023

Uncertainty permeates decisions from the trivial to the profound. Integrating brain and behavioral evidence, we discuss how probabilistic (varied outcomes) and temporal (delayed outcomes) uncertainty differ across age and individuals; how critical tests adjudicate between theories of uncertainty (prospect theory and fuzzy-trace theory); and how these mechanisms might be represented in the brain. The same categorical gist representations of gains and losses account for choices and eye-tracking data in both value-allocation (add money to gambles) and risky-choice tasks, disconfirming prospect theory and confirming predictions of fuzzy-trace theory. The analysis is extended to delay discounting and disambiguated choices, explaining hidden-zero effects that similarly turn on categorical distinctions between some gain and no gain, certain gain and uncertain gain, gain and loss, and now and later. Bold activation implicates dorsolateral prefrontal and posterior parietal cortices in gist strategies that are not just one tool in a grab-bag of cognitive options but rather are general strategies that systematically predict behaviors across many different tasks involving probabilistic and temporal uncertainty. High valuation (e.g., ventral striatum; ventromedial prefrontal cortex) and low executive control (e.g., lateral prefrontal cortex) contribute to risky and impatient choices, especially in youth. However, valuation in ventral striatum supports reward-maximizing and gist strategies in adulthood. Indeed, processing becomes less “rational” in the sense of maximizing gains and more noncompensatory (eye movements indicate fewer tradeoffs) as development progresses from adolescence to adulthood, as predicted. Implications for theoretically predicted “public-health paradoxes” are discussed, including gist versus verbatim thinking in drug experimentation and addiction.

How do risks and benefits affect user’ privacy decisions? An event-related potential study on privacy calculus process

Article

Full-text available

Feb 2023

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine how risks and benefits affect users’ privacy-related decision-making processes. Design/methods/approach This study collected and analyzed the neural activity processes of users’ privacy-related decisions when faced with personalized services with different risks and benefits through an ERP experiment that included 40 participants. Findings/results The findings show that users subconsciously categorize personalized services based on benefit; Privacy calculus affects privacy decision by influencing the allocation of cognitive resources for personalized service, and the scarcity of cognitive resources increases the degree of privacy disclosure; Emotional change in privacy decision is the result of many factors, not the result of privacy risk alone. Originality/Discussion This study provides a new perspective to explain the process of privacy decision-making, and a new approach to investigate the privacy paradox.

Computer anthropomorphisation in a socio-economic dilemma

Article

Full-text available

Feb 2023
BEHAV RES METHODS

In the study of human behaviour, non-social targets are often used as a control for human-to-human interactions. However, the concept of anthropomorphisation suggests that human-like qualities can be attributed to non-human objects. This can prove problematic in psychological experiments, as computers are often used as non-social targets. Here, we assessed the degree of computer anthropomorphisation in a sequential and iterated prisoner’s dilemma. Participants ( N = 41) faced three opponents in the prisoner’s dilemma paradigm—a human, a computer, and a roulette—all represented by images presented at the commencement of each round. Cooperation choice frequencies and transition probabilities were estimated within subjects, in rounds against each opponent. We found that participants anthropomorphised the computer opponent to a high degree, while the same was not found for the roulette (i.e. no cooperation choice difference vs human opponents; p = .99). The difference in participants’ behaviour towards the computer vs the roulette was further potentiated by the precedent roulette round, in terms of both cooperation choice (61%, p = .007) and cooperation probability after reciprocated defection (79%, p = .007). This suggests that there could be a considerable anthropomorphisation bias towards computer opponents in social games, even for those without a human-like appearance. Conversely, a roulette may be a preferable non-social control when the opponent’s abilities are not explicit or familiar.

Activités oscillatoires haute fréquence et fonctions exécutives chez l’Homme

Thesis

Oct 2008

Julien Jung

Les bases neuronales des fonctions exécutives chez l’homme sont encore peu connues. Des données récentes chez l’animal et chez l’homme suggèrent que l’activité haute fréquence électro-encéphalographiques (EEG), dite activité gamma, est impliquée dans des processus cognitifs variés. Nous avons cartographié l’activité gamma corticale chez l’homme lors de deux processus exécutifs, l’attention sélective et l’évaluation des conséquences des actions. Les enregistrements ont été réalisés chez des patients épileptiques bénéficiant d’un enregistrement EEG invasif pré-chirurgical, permettant une mesure de l’activité cérébrale avec une haute résolution temporelle et spatiale. Les résultats montrent que l’attention sélective et l’évaluation des conséquences des actions se traduisent par des amplifications transitoires de l’activité gamma au sein de larges réseaux corticaux. En outre, ces deux processus peuvent également donner lieu à des suppressions focales de l’activité gamma. Ainsi, les modulations temporellement organisées de l’activité gamma corticale pourraient constituer des marqueurs robustes des fonctions exécutives chez l’homme permettant la réalisation de comportements adaptatifs.

Correlations between cortical gyrification and schizophrenia symptoms with and without comorbid hostility symptoms

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2023

Introduction Interest in identifying the clinical implications of the neuropathophysiological background of schizophrenia is rising, including changes in cortical gyrification that may be due to neurodevelopmental abnormalities. Inpatients with schizophrenia can show abnormal gyrification of cortical regions correlated with the symptom severity. Methods Our study included 36 patients that suffered an acute episode of schizophrenia and have undergone structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to calculate the local gyrification index (LGI). Results In the whole sample, the severity of symptoms significantly correlated with higher LGI in different cortical areas, including bilateral frontal, cingulate, parietal, temporal cortices, and right occipital cortex. Among these areas, patients with low hostility symptoms (LHS) compared to patients with high hostility symptoms (HHS) showed significantly lower LGI related to the severity of symptoms in bilateral frontal and temporal lobes. Discussion The severity of psychopathology correlated with higher LGI in large portions of the cerebral cortex, possibly expressing abnormal neural development in schizophrenia. These findings could pave the way for further studies and future tailored diagnostic and therapeutic strategies.

Response mode, compatibility, and dual-processes in the evaluation of simple gambles: An eye-tracking investigation

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2023
JUDGM DECIS MAK

We employed simple gambles to investigate information processing in relation to the compatibility effect. Subjects should be more likely to engage in a deliberative thinking strategy when completing a pricing task rather than a rating task. We used eye-tracking methodology to measure information acquisition and processing in order to test the above hypothesis as well as to show that losses and alternatives with uncertain outcomes are more likely than gains and alternatives with sure outcomes to be processed through a deliberative thinking process. Results showed that pupil dilations, fixation duration and number of fixations increased when subjects evaluated the gambles with a pricing task. Additionally, the number of fixations increased as the gamble outcome became increasingly negative and when the outcome was uncertain (vs. sure). Fixations were also predictive of subjects’ final evaluations of the gambles. We discuss our results in light of the cognitive processes underlying different response modes in economic preferences.

Neural Synchronization as a Function of Engagement with the Narrative

Preprint

Full-text available

Jan 2023

We can all agree that a good story engages us, however, agreeing which story is good is far more debatable. In this study, we explored whether engagement with a narrative synchronizes listeners' brain responses, by examining individual differences in engagement to the same story. To do so, we pre-registered and re-analyzed a previously collected dataset by Chang et al. (2021) of functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) scans of 25 participants who listened to a one-hour story and answered questionnaires. We assessed the degree of their overall engagement with the story and their engagement with the main characters. The questionnaires revealed individual differences in engagement with the story, as well as different valence towards specific characters. Neuroimaging data showed that the auditory cortex, the default mode network (DMN) and language regions were involved in processing the story. Increased engagement with the story was correlated with increased neural synchronization within regions in the DMN (especially the medial prefrontal cortex), as well as regions outside the DMN such as the dorso-lateral prefrontal cortex and the reward system. Interestingly, positively and negatively engaging characters elicited different patterns of neural synchronization. Finally, engagement increased functional connectivity within and between the DMN, the dorsal attention network and the control network. Taken together, these findings suggest that engagement with a narrative synchronizes listeners' responses in regions involved in mentalizing, reward, working memory and attention. By examining individual differences in engagement, we revealed that these synchronization patterns are due to engagement, and not due to differences in the narrative's content.

Welfare effects of nudges: The emotional tax of calorie menu labeling

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2023
JUDGM DECIS MAK

Linda Thunström

Traditionally, information has been assumed to never harm consumers, a notion recently challenged. Salience nudges have been argued to evoke negative emotions, therefore acting as “emotional taxes”. I design a hypothetical restaurant meal experiment to analyze the emotional and short-term consumer welfare impact of a calorie salience nudge (calorie menu labeling) – a policy implemented nationwide in the U.S. in 2018. I find that a calorie salience nudge may act as an emotional tax, but only for some – there is considerable heterogeneity in the emotional response to the nudge. In particular, the nudge emotionally taxes people with low eating self-control, while it emotionally subsidizes those with higher levels of eating self-control. It therefore emotionally taxes the “right” people. However, people with lower levels of self-control may experience fewer benefits from the nudge – the nudge causes them to adjust their high calorie meal consumption by less than do those with higher self-control. It is therefore unsurprising that consumers with lower self-control attach a lower (a negative) value to the calorie salience nudge. Overall, the calorie salience nudge positively affects consumer welfare, although heterogeneity over consumers is substantial – the consumer value ranges from positive to negative. I find no distributional effects over income from the calorie salience nudge.

Reasoning

Book

Jan 2022

Valérie Dufour

Medios de comunicación de masas y sistema de valores. Un acercamiento al programa de Responsabilidad Social Corporativa de Telecinco

Article

Full-text available

Dec 2012

Vallejo Peña

A principios de la década de los 90 comenzaron su andadura en España las primeras cadenas privadas de televisión. Este importante cambio liberalizó la pequeña pantalla, cambió su concepto, así como la disputa por la audiencia, mucho más diversificada desde entonces. Este fenómeno tuvo notables repercusiones sobre la sociedad española, en general, y la socialización de las nuevas generaciones, en particular. Por otra parte, desde la extensión de los programas de Responsabilidad Social Corporativa (RSC) en el ámbito organizacional, algunas televisiones privadas han desarrollado el suyo. En el presente trabajo se aborda el programa de RSC desarrollado por Telecinco desde 2007, con objeto de valorar su diseño y aplicación. Para tal efecto, se ha aplicado análisis de contenido de los informes de la cadena, su programación, emisiones, así como su repercusión en prensa gráfica e Internet. Las críticas sufridas por la cadena relativas a una posible repercusión negativa de sus emisiones sobre el sistema de valores de nuestra sociedad, invitan a cuestionar algunos principios y prácticas que la propia entidad señala como propios en el citado programa y, por lo tanto, a realizar posteriores estudios de mayor profundidad desde la perspectiva psicosocial.

Intention-based evaluations of distributive actions by 4-month-olds

Article

Feb 2023
INFANT BEHAV DEV

Four-month-olds' ability to consider the intentions of agents performing distributive actions was investigated in four experiments, using the Violation of Expectation paradigm (VoE) (Experiments 1-3) and the Preferential Looking paradigm (Experiment 4). In Experiment 1, infants were presented with two events showing two types of failed attempts to perform a distribution. In an attempt to distribute fairly, the distributor first tried to reach one of the recipients to deliver an apple, he failed, and then attempted to reach the other recipient to deliver a second apple and also failed. In an attempt to distribute unfairly, a different distributor tried unsuccessfully to bring resources always to the same recipient. Infants looked reliably longer at failed fair distribution events, suggesting that they did not just react to the actions outcomes and they attended to agents' intentions. Experiments 2 and 3 assessed alternative explanations based on perceptual factors or affiliative behaviors. In Experiment 4, during the test trials, infants were shown both distributors simultaneously and they preferred to look at the fair rather than at the unfair distributor. Overall, these findings reveal an early ability to take into account distributors' intentions and a preference for watching agents that tried to distribute resources fairly.

Reputation risk during dishonest social decision-making modulates anterior insular and cingulate cortex activity and connectivity

Preprint

Full-text available

Nov 2022

To explore the neural underpinnings of (dis)honest decision making under quasi-ecological conditions, we used an fMRI adapted version of a card game in which deceptive or truthful decisions are made to an opponent, with or without the risk of getting caught by them. Dishonest decisions were associated to increased activity in a cortico-subcortical circuit including the bilateral anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), anterior insula (AI), left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, supplementary motor area, and right caudate. Crucially, deceptive immoral decisions under reputation risk enhanced activity of - and functional connectivity between - the bilateral ACC and left AI, suggesting the need for heightened emotional processing and cognitive control when making immoral decisions under reputation risk. Tellingly, more manipulative individuals required less involvement of the ACC during risky self-gain lies but more involvement during other-gain truths, pointing to the need of cognitive control only when going against one's own moral code.

Behavioral and physiological response to inequity in bonobos (Pan paniscus)

Article

Nov 2022
AM J PRIMATOL

Inequity aversion (IA), the affective, cognitive, and behavioral response to inequitable outcomes, allows individuals to avoid exploitation and therefore stabilizes cooperation. The presence of IA varies across animal species, which has stimulated research to investigate factors that might explain this variation, and to investigate underlying affective responses. Among great apes, IA is most often studied in chimpanzees. Here, we investigate IA in bonobos, a reputedly tolerant and cooperative species for which few IA studies are available. We describe how bonobos respond to receiving less preferred rewards than a partner in a token exchange task. We show that bonobos respond to receiving less preferred rewards by refusing tokens and rewards, and by leaving the experimental area. Bonobos never refused a trial when receiving preferred rewards, and thus showed no advantageous IA. We also investigate the variability in the disadvantageous IA response on a dyadic level, because the level of IA is expected to vary, depending on characteristics of the dyad. Like in humans and chimpanzees, we show that the tolerance towards inequity was higher in bonobo dyads with more valuable relationships. To study the affective component of IA, we included behavioral and physiological measures of arousal: a displacement behavior (rough self-scratching) and changes in salivary cortisol levels. Both measures of arousal showed large variability, and while analyses on rough self-scratching showed no significant effects, salivary cortisol levels seemed to be lower in subjects that received less than their partner, but higher in subjects that received more than their partner, albeit that both were not significantly different from the equity condition. This suggests that although overcompensated bonobos showed no behavioral response, they might be more aroused. Our data support the cooperation hypothesis on an interspecific and intraspecific level. They show inequity aversion in bonobos, a reputedly cooperative species, and suggest that the variability in IA in bonobos can be explained by their socioecology. Most successful cooperative interactions happen between mothers and their sons and among closely bonded females. The limited need to monitor the partners' investment within these dyads can result in a higher tolerance towards inequity. We therefore suggest future studies to consider relevant socioecological characteristics of the species when designing and analyzing IA studies.

Lerntheorien

Chapter

Nov 2022

Wir haben es in diesem Kapitel mit den Klassikern des Lernens zu tun: Pawlow und Skinner. Dabei schließen wir uns der These an, dass sich Pawlow geirrt hat. Der Hund hatte keinen Reflex, sondern eine Erwartungshaltung, und hat, weil er aktiv an seinem Essen interessiert war, gesabbert. Die Lerntheorie von Skinner ist kaum zu hinterfragen. Wir lernen durch Belohnung. Wir lernen aber auch durch Beobachtung, ohne eine Handlung selber ausgeführt zu haben. Das zeigt uns Bandura. Außerdem lernen wir den Ansatz von Hull kennen, wonach sich das Reaktionspotenzial einer Person auf einen Reiz aus einer Verknüpfung von Gewohnheit, Bedürfnisstärke, Reizstärke und sozialem Druck ergibt.

Neural implementation of computational mechanisms underlying the continuous trade-off between cooperation and competition

Article

Full-text available

Nov 2022

Social interactions evolve continuously. Sometimes we cooperate, sometimes we compete, while at other times we strategically position ourselves somewhere in between to account for the ever-changing social contexts around us. Research on social interactions often focuses on a binary dichotomy between competition and cooperation, ignoring people’s evolving shifts along a continuum. Here, we develop an economic game – the Space Dilemma – where two players change their degree of cooperativeness over time in cooperative and competitive contexts. Using computational modelling we show how social contexts bias choices and characterise how inferences about others’ intentions modulate cooperativeness. Consistent with the modelling predictions, brain regions previously linked to social cognition, including the temporo-parietal junction, dorso-medial prefrontal cortex and the anterior cingulate gyrus, encode social prediction errors and context-dependent signals, correlating with shifts along a cooperation-competition continuum. These results provide a comprehensive account of the computational and neural mechanisms underlying the continuous trade-off between cooperation and competition.

Advancing the Common Good Through Purpose-led Business: Catholic Social Teaching and a Blueprint for Better Business

Article

Mar 2023

In 2012, a group of UK business leaders approached the Catholic Archbishop of Westminster about what they perceived as a breakdown of trust between business—especially big business—and society. This led to an initiative called A Blueprint for Better Business, which became an independent UK-based charitable trust in 2014—separate from the Church, and also independent of business, funded by charitable foundations and individuals and latterly by corporate donations. Blueprint works with leadership teams in large companies to support and challenge them, fostering a movement of businesses and investors who want to change behavior and expectations of the role of business in society. This paper recounts how the initiative developed, drawing attention in the process to Catholic social teaching including Pope Francis’ encyclicals Laudato Si and Fratelli Tutti, both written after Blueprint was founded.

Doubts about Retribution: Is Punishment Non-Instrumentally Good or Right?

Chapter

Mar 2023

Isaac Wiegman

Retribution involves the presumption that acts of punishment are non-instrumentally good, right, fitting, or justified. On this view, punishment need not be organized in relation to some good outcome or purpose (separate from the act itself or its relationship to past wrongdoing) in order to have moral worth of some kind. Wiegman argues that this view has its roots in ancient psychological impulses like anger and vengefulness. He has argued elsewhere that the evolution of these impulses undercuts our primary reason to believe that punishment is good in itself. Here, he extends those arguments to also undercut the claim that punishment is right in itself.

The Preference for Reciprocity in Congress

Article

Mar 2023

Christian Fong

Most researchers assume legislators repay past favors to secure future rewards and avoid future punishments, but a growing literature shows that human beings are intrinsically motivated to reciprocate past favors. However, there is no systematic evidence as to whether legislators bring this preference for reciprocity to Congress. An original survey experiment, an observational study of end‐of‐career behavior, and a matching‐based analysis of responses to committee assignments provide consistent evidence that legislators have a preference for reciprocity.

Endocrine state is the physical manifestation of subjective beliefs

Article

Mar 2023
J ECON PSYCHOL

Trenton G. Smith

Moral transgression modulates fairness considerations in the ultimatum game: Evidence from ERP and EEG data

Article

Mar 2023

People tend to dislike and punish unfair behaviors in social interactions, and this disposition may be moderated by the characteristics of their interaction partner. We used a modified ultimatum game (UG) to investigate players' responses to fair and unfair offers from proposers described as having performed either a moral transgression or a neutral behavior, and recorded an electroencephalogram. The participants' behavior in the UG suggests that people quickly demand more fairness from proposers who have committed moral transgressions rather than neutral behavior. Event-related potentials (ERPs) revealed a significant effect of offer type and of proposer type on P300 activity. The prestimulus α-oscillation power in the neutral behavior condition was significantly lower than that in the moral transgression condition. The post-stimulus β-event-related synchronization (β-ERS) was larger for the moral transgression condition than the neutral behavior condition in response to the least fair offers, and larger for neutral behavior than the moral transgression condition in response to the fairest offers. In summary, β-ERS was influenced by both proposer type and offer type, which revealed different neural responses to the offer from either a morally transgressive or a neutral behavior proposer.

Az önvezető járművek elfogadása viselkedés-gazdaságtani szemléletben. A nudge szerepe a fenntartható városi mobilitás kialakításában

Article

Feb 2023

Neuroeconomics

Chapter

May 2018

The neuroscientific revolution in psychology and economics is reformulating long-held views of cognition and emotion and their effects on behaviour. In so doing, it is causing strategic management researchers to rethink a number of the core assumptions underpinning the behavioural microfoundations of the entire field.

How social information impacts action in rodents and humans: the role of the prefrontal cortex and its connections

Article

Feb 2023
NEUROSCI BIOBEHAV R

Day-to-day choices often involve social information and can be influenced by prior social experience. When making a decision in a social context, a subject might need to: 1) recognize the other individual or individuals, 2) infer their intentions and emotions, and 3) weigh the values of all outcomes, social and non-social, prior to selecting an action. These elements of social information processing all rely, to some extent, on the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). Patients with neuropsychiatric disorders often have disruptions in prefrontal cortical function, likely contributing to deficits in social reasoning and decision making. To better understand these deficits, researchers have turned to rodents, which have revealed prefrontal cortical mechanisms for contending with the complex information processing demands inherent to making decisions in social contexts. Here, we first review literature regarding social decision making, and the information processing underlying it, in humans and patient populations. We then turn to research in rodents, discussing current procedures for studying social decision making, and underlying neural correlates.

ÖRGÜTSEL DAVRANIŞ LİTERATÜRÜNDE YENİ BİR PERSPEKTİF: NÖROBİLİM

Article

Jul 2021

Salience-based information integration: An overarching function of the "social brain"?

Preprint

Full-text available

Jan 2023

Behavior in social contexts is routinely accompanied by neural activity in a brain network comprising the bilateral temporoparietal junction (TPJ), dorsomedial and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dmPFC and dlPFC), and precuneus. This network - often referred to as the "social brain network" (SBN) - is thought to have evolved in response to the information processing demands of life in social groups. However, its precise functional contributions to behavior are unclear, since many of its areas are also activated in non-social contexts requiring, for example, attentional orienting or context updating. Here we argue that these results may reflect a basic neural mechanism implemented by areas in this network that is commonly required in both social and non-social contexts: Integrating multiple sensory and memory inputs into salient configurations, such as social constellations or perceptual Gestalts. We tested this hypothesis using a numeracy paradigm that orthogonally varied the salience of sensory target configurations and the required motor responses. Even in this non-social task, several regions of the SBN (TPJ, dmPFC, and precuneus) showed higher activity when the goal required the brain to attend to more versus less salient perceptual configurations. This activation pattern was specific to configuration salience and did not reflect general task demand or switching to new contexts. Taken together, these results suggest that the integration of information into salient configurations may be a key function of SBN regions, thus offering a new perspective on the widespread recruitment of these areas across social and non-social contexts.

Distinct role of the right temporoparietal junction in advantageous and disadvantageous inequity: A tDCS study

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2023

Fairness is a hallmark of humans' ability to maintain cooperative relationships with large numbers of unrelated others. It influences many aspects of daily life, from how people share their resources with partners to how policymakers shape income distribution policy. The right temporoparietal junction (rTPJ) is a hub of the mentalizing network and it has been proposed to play a key role in guiding human reciprocal behavior; however, its precise functional contribution to fair behavior in situations of advantageous and disadvantageous inequity remains unclear. The purpose of this study was to clarify the role of the rTPJ in relation to fair behavior in situations of advantageous and disadvantageous inequity by modulating the activation of the rTPJ through transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). Anodal tDCS at 1.5 mA over the primary visual cortex (VC) or rTPJ was performed and participants subsequently played a binary-choice version of the Dictator Game . We found that anodal tDCS over the rTPJ increased the participants' equity choices in the disadvantageous inequity situation but not in the advantageous inequity situation. The tDCS effect is moderated by sex and, in particular, the tDCS effect increases female equity choices. The results suggest that the rTPJ plays a distinct role in inequity aversion in these two types of inequity situations.

Comparative survey of multigraph integration methods for holistic brain connectivity mapping

Article

Apr 2023
MED IMAGE ANAL

One of the greatest scientific challenges in network neuroscience is to create a representative map of a population of heterogeneous brain networks, which acts as a connectional fingerprint. The connectional brain template (CBT), also named network atlas, presents a powerful tool for capturing the most representative and discriminative traits of a given population while preserving its topological patterns. The idea of a CBT is to integrate a population of heterogeneous brain connectivity networks, derived from different neuroimaging modalities or brain views (e.g., structural and functional), into a unified holistic representation. Here we review current state-of-the-art methods designed to estimate well-centered and representative CBT for populations of single-view and multi-view brain networks. We start by reviewing each CBT learning method, then we introduce the evaluation measures to compare CBT representativeness of populations generated by single-view and multigraph integration methods, separately, based on the following criteria: Centeredness, biomarker-reproducibility, node-level similarity, global-level similarity, and distance-based similarity. We demonstrate that the deep graph normalizer (DGN) method significantly outperforms other multi-graph and all single-view integration methods for estimating CBTs using a variety of healthy and disordered datasets in terms of centeredness, reproducibility (i.e., graph-derived biomarkers reproducibility that disentangle the typical from the atypical connectivity variability), and preserving the topological traits at both local and global graph-levels.

The Image of Man

Chapter

Jan 2023

Christian Conrad

The following chapter analyzes human behavior in the economy. Here we will examine the image of man in the economic sciences, along with recent interdisciplinary research. First we will analyze the economic science postulation of Homo Oeconomicus as a benefit-maximizing selfish individual, and challenge Adam Smith’s “Invisible Hand” assumption of selfish utility maximization. Subsequently, recent experimental findings describe humans as social beings and we will then challenge both the economic-scientific behavioral assumption of egoism and benefit maximization.

Market and Competition

Chapter

Jan 2023

Christian Conrad

After familiarizing ourselves with the image of man and the basic tenets and societal objectives, we will now analyze the functions of the market and competition as the basis of our market system. We will show that the market and competition provide an allocation-efficient result and thus a welfare optimum. Which rules apply in the so-called market economy? How are human behavior, culture and human performance related? Is man made for competition? We will address these questions in the following.

DAVRANIŞSAL OYUN TEORİSİ ÇERÇEVESİNDE ÜLTİMATOM OYUNU

Chapter

Full-text available

Dec 2022

Prisoner’s dilemma game model Based on historical strategy information

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2023

In many dilemmas, decisions are determined not by a single factor, but by multiple ones, including memory, reputation, reward and punishment. In recent years, how to design a mechanism to promote cooperation has become a research hot-spot. However, most of the previous studies mainly consider the historical benefits of the game, and pay less attention to the stability of the strategy (the frequency of strategy changes in the length of memory) and the proportion of memory in decision-making. The decision-making process of group evolution involves the influence of memory information on cooperative evolution in multi round games. It makes up for the lack of stability factors and weights in previous studies. Based on the above factors, a new strategy update rule is proposed to study the influence of the stability of historical strategy information on the evolution of cooperation in prisoner’s dilemma game, and the influence of memory weight on cooperation is considered. The stability of the current strategy is measured by the strategy in historical memory (the number of times the strategy in memory is continuous and consistent with the current strategy), which can determine the probability of an individual learning the neighbor strategy next time. Numerical simulation shows that an appropriate increase in the length of historical memory is more conducive to the emergence of cooperation, and the greater the weight of historical strategy information is, the more conducive to promoting cooperation, which shows that historical strategy information is still the main factor in decision-making. This study will help us understand the cooperative evolution of many real systems, such as nature, biology, society and so on, and effectively design reasonable mechanisms to promote cooperation.

Multimodal neuroimaging data from a 5-week heart rate variability biofeedback randomized clinical trial

Preprint

Full-text available

Dec 2022

We present data from the Heart Rate Variability and Emotion Regulation (HRV-ER) randomized clinical trial testing effects of HRV biofeedback. Younger (N = 121, ages 18-31, 61 female) and older (N = 72, ages 55-80, 45 female) participants completed baseline magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) including T1-weighted, functional MRI (fMRI), pulsed continuous arterial spin labeling (PCASL), and proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H MRS). They also completed an emotion regulation task during fMRI. During fMRI scans, physiological measures (blood pressure, pulse, respiration, and end-tidal CO2) were continuously acquired. Participants were randomized to either increase heart rate oscillations or decrease heart rate oscillations during daily sessions. After 5 weeks of HRV biofeedback, they repeated the baseline measurements in addition to a few new measures (ultimatum game fMRI, training mimicking during blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) and PCASL fMRI). Participants also wore a wristband sensor to estimate sleep time. Psychological assessment comprised three cognitive tests as well as ten questionnaires related to emotional well-being. Data is publicly available via the OpenNeuro data sharing platform.

Ugliness Is in the Gut of the Beholder

Article

Full-text available

Dec 2022

Ryan Doran

I offer the first sustained defence of the claim that ugliness is constituted by the disposition to disgust. I advance three main lines of argument in support of this thesis. First, ugliness and disgustingness tend to lie in the same kinds of things and properties (the argument from ostensions). Second, the thesis is better placed than all existing accounts to accommodate the following facts: ugliness is narrowly and systematically distributed in a heterogenous set of things, ugliness is sometimes enjoyed, and ugliness sits opposed to beauty across a neutral midpoint (the argument from proposed intensions). And third, ugliness and disgustingness function in the same way in both giving rise to representations of contamination (the argument from the law of contagion). In making these arguments, I show why prominent objections to the thesis do not succeed, cast light on some of the artistic functions of ugliness, and, in addition, demonstrate why a dispositional account of disgustingness is correct, and present a novel problem for warrant-based accounts of disgustingness (the ‘too many reasons’ problem).

Mental state identification based on the classification of EEG signals

Conference Paper

Nov 2022

Computational models of subjective feelings in psychiatry

Article

Dec 2022
NEUROSCI BIOBEHAV R

Research in computational psychiatry is dominated by models of behavior. Subjective experience during behavioral tasks is not well understood, even though it should be relevant to understanding the symptoms of psychiatric disorders. Here, we bridge this gap and review recent progress in computational models for subjective feelings. For example, happiness reflects not how well people are doing, but whether they are doing better than expected. This dependence on recent reward prediction errors is intact in major depression, although depressive symptoms lower happiness during tasks. Uncertainty predicts subjective feelings of stress in volatile environments. Social prediction errors influence feelings of self-worth more in individuals with low self-esteem despite a reduced willingness to change beliefs due to social feedback. Measuring affective state during behavioral tasks provides a tool for understanding psychiatric symptoms that can be dissociable from behavior. When smartphone tasks are collected longitudinally, subjective feelings provide a potential means to bridge the gap between lab-based behavioral tasks and real-life behavior, emotion, and psychiatric symptoms.

Behavioral and Physiological Responses to Computers in the Ultimatum Game

Chapter

Oct 2022

This article describes how studies in the area of decision-making suggest clear differences in behavioral responses to humans versus computers. The current objective was to investigate decision-making in an economic game played only with computer partners. In Experiment 1, participants were engaged in the ultimatum game with computer agents and regular computers while their physiological responses were recorded. In Experiment 2, an identical setup of the game was used, but the ethnicity of the computer agents was manipulated. As expected, almost all equitable monetary splits offered by the computer were accepted. The acceptance rates gradually decreased when the splits became less fair. Although the obtained behavioral pattern implied a reaction to violation of the rule of fairness by the computer in the game, no evidence was found for participants' corresponding emotional involvement. The findings contribute to the body of research on human-computer interaction and suggest that social effects of computers can be attenuated.

Determinants of Green Consumer Behaviour among Indian Consumers: An ISM Approach

Article

Dec 2022

The dynamic changes in the environment and the global market scenario, has also changed the way consumers approach a product. In the recent past, it has been observed that consumers are getting more inclined towards green purchases. This has resulted in the emergence of a new field of research called ‘green consumerism’ or green consumer behaviour. Many researchers have highlighted the reasons, patterns, barriers and enablers of green consumer behaviour. With the help of previous literature and expert opinions, 11 key determinants of green consumer behaviour have been identified operating in the Indian market. Interpretive structural modelling (ISM) has been used to develop a framework to show the interrelationship among the identified determinants and how it affects the customer’s green purchase behaviour.

Complete List of References

Article

Sep 2018

Adriana Galvan

Biologische Psychologie – naturwissenschaftliche Grundlagen ökonomischen Verhaltens

Chapter

Nov 2022

NÖROEKONOMİ, SINIRLI RASYONALİTE ve KURUMLAR

Article

Full-text available

Oct 2022

Yıldırım Beyazıt Çiçen

Neoklasik iktisat varsayımlarında birey tam rasyoneldir ancak gerçek dünyada böyle değildir. Bu çalışmada öncelikle sınırlı rasyonellik kavramı açıklanmaktadır. Ardından 1990'lardan sonra gelişen nöroekonomi ve bu disiplinin metotları izah edilmektedir. Çalışmanın devamında nöroekonomi alanında yapılan araştırmalardan elde edilen bulgularla gerçek dünyada sınırlı rasyonelliğin oluşumu bilgi, risk ve belirsizlik, duygu, kültür ve marka bilinci, zamanlar arası seçim ve yaşlanma konuları üzerinden açıklanmaktadır. Sonuç kısmında ortaya çıkan bu sınırlı rasyonalitenin azaltılması için gerekli kurumlardan bahsedilmektedir.

Neuroanatomical correlates of hunger and satiation in humans using positron emission tomography

Article

Full-text available

Apr 1999
P NATL ACAD SCI USA

The central role of the hypothalamus in the origination and/or processing of feeding-related stimuli may be modulated by the activity of other functional areas of the brain including the insular cortex (involved in enteroceptive monitoring) and the prefrontal cortex (involved in the inhibition of inappropriate response tendencies). Regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF), a marker of neuronal activity, was measured in 11 healthy, normal-weight men by using positron emission tomography in a state of hunger (after 36-h fast) and a state of satiation (after a liquid meal). Hunger was associated with significantly increased rCBF in the vicinity of the hypothalamus and insular cortex and in additional paralimbic and limbic areas (orbitofrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, and parahippocampal and hippocampal formation), thalamus, caudate, precuneus, putamen, and cerebellum. Satiation was associated with increased rCBF in the vicinity of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and inferior parietal lobule. Changes in plasma insulin concentrations in response to the meal were negatively correlated with changes in rCBF in the insular and orbitofrontal cortex. Changes in plasma free fatty acid concentrations in response to the meal were negatively correlated with changes in rCBF in the anterior cingulate and positively correlated with changes in rCBF in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. In conclusion, these findings raise the possibility that several regions of the brain participate in the regulation of hunger and satiation and that insulin and free fatty acids may be metabolic modulators of postprandial brain neuronal events. Although exploratory, the present study provides a foundation for investigating the human brain regions and cognitive operations that respond to nutritional stimuli.

Artifact in social psychological research: The subject's view

Article

Full-text available

Jan 1977
New Zeal Psychol

A Functional Imaging Study of Cooperation in Two Person Reciprocal Exchange

Article

Full-text available

Oct 2001

Cooperation between individuals requires the ability to infer each other's mental states to form shared expectations over mutual gains and make cooperative choices that realize these gains. From evidence that the ability for mental state attribution involves the use of prefrontal cortex, we hypothesize that this area is involved in integrating theory-of-mind processing with cooperative actions. We report data from a functional MRI experiment designed to test this hypothesis. Subjects in a scanner played standard two-person "trust and reciprocity" games with both human and computer counterparts for cash rewards. Behavioral data shows that seven subjects consistently attempted cooperation with their human counterpart. Within this group prefrontal regions are more active when subjects are playing a human than when they are playing a computer following a fixed (and known) probabilistic strategy. Within the group of five noncooperators, there are no significant differences in prefrontal activation between computer and human conditions.

A Theory Of Fairness, Competition, and Cooperation

Article

Full-text available

Aug 1999

There is strong evidence that people exploit their bargaining power in competitive markets but not in bilateral bargaining situations. There is also strong evidence that people exploit free-riding opportunities in voluntary cooperation games. Yet, when they are given the opportunity to punish free riders, stable cooperation is maintained, although punishment is costly for those who punish. This paper asks whether there is a simple common principle that can explain this puzzling evidence. We show that if some people care about equity the puzzles can be resolved. It turns out that the economic environment determines whether the fair types or the selfish types dominate equilibrium behavior.

In Search of Homo Economicus: Behavioral Experiments in 15 Small-Scale Societies

Article

Full-text available

May 2001
AM ECON REV

We can summarize our results as follows. First, the canonical model is not supported in any society studied. Second, there is considerably more behavioral variability across groups than had been found in previous cross-cultural research, and the canonical model fails in a wider variety of ways than in previous experiments. Third, group-level differences in economic organization and the degree of market integration explain a substantial portion of the behavioral variation across societies: the higher the degree of market integration and the higher the payoffs to cooperation, the greater the level of cooperation in experimental games. Fourth, individual-level economic and demographic variables do not explain behavior either within or across groups. Fifth, behavior in the experiments is generally consistent with economic patterns of everyday life in these societies.

A Perspective on Disgust

Article

Full-text available

Feb 1987

Approaches disgust as a food-related emotion and defines it as revulsion at the prospect of oral incorporation of offensive objects. These objects have contamination properties; if they contact an otherwise acceptable food, they tend to render it inedible. Issues considered include: the nature of the objects of disgust and why they are virtually all of animal origin, the meaning of oral incorporation, the belief that people take on the properties of the foods they eat, the nature of the contamination response and its relation to the laws of sympathetic magic (similarity and contagion), and the ontogeny of disgust, which is believed to develop during the 1st 8 yrs of life. The idea that feces, the universal disgust object, is also the 1st is explored, and the mechanisms for the acquisition of disgust are examined. Disgust is recommended as an easily studiable emotion, a model for cognitive–affective linkages, and a model for the acquisition of values and culture. (103 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Neuroimaging of genesis and satiation of thirst and an interoceptor-driven theory of origins of primary consciousness

Article

Full-text available

May 1999

There are defined hypothalamic functions in the genesis of thirst, but little is known of the cortical processes subserving consciousness of thirst notwithstanding the medical disorders that occur in psychiatric illness, addiction, and the attested decline of thirst with aging. In 10 adult males, positron emission tomography scans were made (i) during genesis of moderate thirst by infusion of i.v. hypertonic saline 0.51 M, (ii) after irrigation of the mouth with water to remove the sensation of dryness, and (iii) 3, 14, 45, and 60 minutes after drinking water to fully satiate thirst. The correlation of regional cerebral blood flow with thirst score showed the major activation to be in the posterior cingulate. Maximum thirst sensation evoked 13 highly significant activations and 9 deactivations in cingulate and parahippocampal gyri, insula, thalamus, amygdala, and mesencephalon. It is possible that cingulate sites (Brodmann’s areas 32, 24, and 31) that persisted with wet mouth but disappeared immediately after drinking to satiation may have an important role in the consciousness of thirst. Consciousness of thirst, a primal vegetative emotion, and satiation of thirst appear to be subserved by phylogenetically ancient brain regions. This is salient to current discussion on evolutionary emergence of primary consciousness.

Neural Activity Relating to Generation and Representation of Galvanic Skin Conductance Responses: A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study

Article

Full-text available

May 2000
J NEUROSCI

Central feedback of peripheral states of arousal influences motivational behavior and decision making. The sympathetic skin conductance response (SCR) is one index of autonomic arousal. The precise functional neuroanatomy underlying generation and representation of SCR during motivational behavior is undetermined, although it is impaired by discrete brain lesions to ventromedial prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate, and parietal lobe. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to study brain activity associated with spontaneous fluctuations in amplitude of SCR, and activity corresponding to generation and afferent representation of discrete SCR events. Regions that covaried with increased SCR included right orbitofrontal cortex, right anterior insula, left lingual gyrus, right fusiform gyrus, and left cerebellum. At a less stringent level of significance, predicted areas in bilateral medial prefrontal cortex and right inferior parietal lobule covaried with SCR. Generation of discrete SCR events was associated with significant activity in left medial prefrontal cortex, bilateral extrastriate visual cortices, and cerebellum. Activity in right medial prefrontal cortex related to afferent representation of SCR events. Activity in bilateral medial prefrontal lobe, right orbitofrontal cortex, and bilateral extrastriate visual cortices was common to both generation and afferent representation of discrete SCR events identified in a conjunction analysis. Our results suggest that areas implicated in emotion and attention are differentially involved in generation and representation of peripheral SCR responses. We propose that this functional arrangement enables integration of adaptive bodily responses with ongoing emotional and attentional states of the organism.

Fairness Versus Reason in the Ultimatum Game

Article

Full-text available

Oct 2000

In the Ultimatum Game, two players are offered a chance to win a certain sum of money. All they must do is divide it. The proposer suggests how to split the sum. The responder can accept or reject the deal. If the deal is rejected, neither player gets anything. The rational solution, suggested by game theory, is for the proposer to offer the smallest possible share and for the responder to accept it. If humans play the game, however, the most frequent outcome is a fair share. In this paper, we develop an evolutionary approach to the Ultimatum Game. We show that fairness will evolve if the proposer can obtain some information on what deals the responder has accepted in the past. Hence, the evolution of fairness, similarly to the evolution of cooperation, is linked to reputation.

An Integrative Theory of Prefrontal Cortex Function

Article

Full-text available

Feb 2001

The prefrontal cortex has long been suspected to play an important role in cognitive control, in the ability to orchestrate thought and action in accordance with internal goals. Its neural basis, however, has remained a mystery. Here, we propose that cognitive control stems from the active maintenance of patterns of activity in the prefrontal cortex that represent goals and the means to achieve them. They provide bias signals to other brain structures whose net effect is to guide the flow of activity along neural pathways that establish the proper mappings between inputs, internal states, and outputs needed to perform a given task. We review neurophysiological, neurobiological, neuroimaging, and computational studies that support this theory and discuss its implications as well as further issues to be addressed

Experimental Practices in Economics: A Methodological Challenge for Psychologists?

Article

Full-text available

Jul 2001

This target article is concerned with the implications of the surprisingly different experimental practices in economics and in areas of psychology relevant to both economists and psychologists, such as behavioral decision making. We consider four features of experimentation in economics, namely, script enactment, repeated trials, performance-based monetary payments, and the proscription against deception, and compare them to experimental practices in psychology, primarily in the area of behavioral decision making. Whereas economists bring a precisely defined "script" to experiments for participants to enact, psychologists often do not provide such a script, leaving participants to infer what choices the situation affords. By often using repeated experimental trials, economists allow participants to learn about the task and the environment; psychologists typically do not. Economists generally pay participants on the basis of clearly defined performance criteria; psychologists usually pay a flat fee or grant a fixed amount of course credit. Economists virtually never deceive participants; psychologists, especially in some areas of inquiry, often do. We argue that experimental standards in economics are regulatory in that they allow for little variation between the experimental practices of individual researchers. The experimental standards in psychology, by contrast, are comparatively laissez-faire. We believe that the wider range of experimental practices in psychology reflects a lack of procedural regularity that may contribute to the variability of empirical findings in the research fields under consideration. We conclude with a call for more research on the consequences of methodological preferences, such as the use on monetary payments, and propose a "do-it-both-ways" rule regarding the enactment of scripts, repetition of trials, and performance-based monetary payments. We also argue, on pragmatic grounds, that the default practice should be not to deceive participants.

ERC: A Theory of Equity, Reciprocity, and Competition

Article

Full-text available

Feb 2000
AM ECON REV

We demonstrate that a simple model, constructed on the premise that people are motivated by both their pecuniary payoff and their relative payoff standing, organizes a large and seemingly disparate set of laboratory observations as one consistent pattern. The model is incomplete information but nevertheless posed entirely in terms of directly observable variables. The model explains observations from games where equity is thought to be a factor, such as ultimatum and dictator, games where reciprocity is thought to play a role, such as the prisoner's dilemma and gift exchange, and games where competitive behavior is observed, such as Bertrand markets.

Experimental practices in economics: A methodological challenge for psychologists?

Article

Jun 2001

This target article is concerned with the implications of the surprisingly different experimental practices in economics and in areas of psychology relevant to both economists and psychologists, such as behavioral decision making. We consider four features of experimentation in economics, namely, script enactment, repeated trials, performance-based monetary payments, and the proscription against deception, and compare them to experimental practices in psychology, primarily in the area of behavioral decision making. Whereas economists bring a precisely defined “script” to experiments for participants to enact, psychologists often do not provide such a script, leaving participants to infer what choices the situation affords. By often using repeated experimental trials, economists allow participants to learn about the task and the environment; psychologists typically do not. Economists generally pay participants on the basis of clearly defined performance criteria; psychologists usually pay a flat fee or grant a fixed amount of course credit. Economists virtually never deceive participants; psychologists, especially in some areas of inquiry, often do. We argue that experimental standards in economics are regulatory in that they allow for little variation between the experimental practices of individual researchers. The experimental standards in psychology, by contrast, are comparatively laissez-faire. We believe that the wider range of experimental practices in psychology reflects a lack of procedural regularity that may contribute to the variability of empirical findings in the research fields under consideration. We conclude with a call for more research on the consequences of methodological preferences, such as the use on monetary payments, and propose a “do-it-both-ways” rule regarding the enactment of scripts, repetition of trials, and performance-based monetary payments. We also argue, on pragmatic grounds, that the default practice should be not to deceive participants.

BOLD fMRI Identifies Limbic, Paralimbic, and Cerebellar Activation During Air Hunger

Article

Sep 2002

Air hunger (uncomfortable urge to breathe) is a component of dyspnea (shortness of breath). Three human H 2 ¹⁵ O positron emission tomography (PET) studies have identified activation of phylogenetically ancient structures in limbic and paralimbic regions during dyspnea. Other studies have shown activation of these structures during other sensations that alert the organism to urgent homeostatic imbalance: pain, thirst, and hunger for food. We employed blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine activation during air hunger. fMRI conferred several advantages over PET: enhanced signal-to-noise, greater spatial resolution, and lack of ionizing radiation, enabling a greater number of trials in each subject. Six healthy men and women were mechanically ventilated at 12–14 breaths/min. The primary experiment was conducted at mean end-tidal Pco 2 of 41 Torr. Moderate to severe air hunger was evoked during 42-s epochs of lower tidal volume (mean = 0.75 L). Subjects described the sensation as “like breath-hold,” “urge to breathe,” and “starved for air.” In the baseline condition, air hunger was consistently relieved by epochs of higher tidal volume (mean = 1.47 L). A control experiment in the same subjects under a background of mild hypocapnia (mean end-tidal PCO 2 = 33 Torr) employed similar tidal volumes but did not evoke air hunger, controlling for stimulus variables not related to dyspnea. During each experiment, we maintained constant end-tidal Pco 2 and PO 2 to avoid systematic changes in global cerebral blood flow. Whole-brain images were acquired every 5 s (T2*, 56 slices, voxel resolution 3 × 3 × 3 mm). Activations associated with air hunger were determined using voxel-based interaction analysis of covariance that compared data between primary and control experiments (SPM99). We detected activations not seen in the earlier PET study using a similar air hunger stimulus ( Banzett et al. 2000 ). Limbic and paralimbic loci activated in the present study were within anterior insula (seen in all 3 published studies of dyspnea), anterior cingulate, operculum, cerebellum, amygdala, thalamus, and basal ganglia. Elements of frontoparietal attentional networks were also identified. The consistency of anterior insular activation across subjects in this study and across published studies suggests that the insula is essential to dyspnea perception, although present data suggest that the insula acts in concert with a larger neural network.

A response to 'Science, psychology and deception'

Article

Jan 1975
Bull Br Psychol Soc

E.R. Oetting

When consent information refers to risk and deception: Implications for social research

Article

Jan 1987
J Soc Behav Pers

P.D. Finney

MacDonald III AW, Cohen JD, Stenger VA, Carter CS. Dissociating the role of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in cognitive control. Science 288: 1835-1838

Article

Jun 2000

Angus W MacDonald

Theories of the regulation of cognition suggest a system with two necessary components: one to implement control and another to monitor performance and signal when adjustments in control are needed. Event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging and a task-switching version of the Stroop task were used to examine whether these components of cognitive control have distinct neural bases in the human brain. A double dissociation was found. During task preparation, the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (Brodmann's area 9) was more active for color naming than for word reading, consistent with a role in the implementation of control. In contrast, the anterior cingulate cortex (Brodmann's areas 24 and 32) was more active when responding to incongruent stimuli, consistent with a role in performance monitoring.

Neural activation during acute capsaicin-evoked pain and allodynia assessed with PET

Article

May 1998
BRAIN

Michael Iadarola

The PET H2 15O-bolus method was used to image regional brain activity in normal human subjects during intense pain induced by intradermal injection of capsaicin and during post-capsaicin mechanical allodynia (the perception of pain from a normally non-painful stimulus). Images of regional cerebral blood flow were acquired during six conditions: (i) rest; (ii) light brushing of the forearm; (iii) forearm intradermal injection of capsaicin, (iv) and (v) the waning phases of capsaicin pain; and (vi) allodynia. Allodynia was produced by light brushing adjacent to the capsaicin injection site after ongoing pain from the capsaicin injection had completely subsided. Capsaicin treatment produced activation in many discrete brain regions which we classified as subserving four main functions: sensation-perception (primary somatosensory cortex, thalamus and insula); attention (anterior cingulate cortex); descending pain control (periaqueductal grey); and an extensive network related to sensory-motor integration (supplementary motor cortex, bilateral putamen and insula, anterior lobe and vermis of the cerebellum and superior colliculus). Comparison of the noxious and non-noxious stimuli yielded several new insights into neural organization of pain and tactile sensations. Capsaicin pain, which had no concomitant tactile component, produced little or no activation in secondary somatosensory cortex (SII), whereas light brushing produced a prominent activation of SII, suggesting a differential sensitivity of SII to tactile versus painful stimuli. The cerebellar vermis was strongly activated by capsaicin, whereas light brush and experimental allodynia produced little or no activation, suggesting a selective association with C-fibre stimulation and nociceptive second-order spinal neurons. The experimental allodynia activated a network that partially overlapped those activated by both pain and light brush alone. Unlike capsaicin-induced pain, allodynia was characterized by bilateral activation of inferior prefrontal cortex, suggesting that prefrontal responses to pain are context dependent.

Anomalies: The Ultimatum Game

Article

Nov 1988
J ECON PERSPECT

Richard H. Thaler

Economics can be distinguished from other social sciences by the belief that most (all?) behavior can be explained by assuming that agents have stable, well-defined preferences and make rational choices consistent with those preferences in markets that (eventually) clear. An empirical result qualifies as an anomaly if it is difficult to "rationalize," or if implausible assumptions are necessary to explain it within the paradigm. This column will present a series of such anomalies. Readers are invited to suggest topics for future columns by sending a note with some references to (or better yet copies of) the relevant research. Comments on anomalies printed here are also welcome. The address is: Richard Thaler, c/o Journal of Economic Perspectives, Johnson

College Students' Reactions to Social Psychological Experiments Involving Deception

Article

Feb 1979

Eugenia Proctor Gerdes

Male and female college students (N = 655) participated in 15 experiments involving various degrees and types of deception. After a thorough debriefing, they rated their experiment on five items dealing with its value, the offensiveness of the deception, and willingness to have a friend participate. The generally positive evaluation of these experiments is discussed in terms of the use of college students and procedural factors which increased their choice about whether to participate.

Judgments of acceptability of deception in psychological research

Article

Jul 1987

James H. Korn

Examined the reasoning used in making ethical judgments of deceptive research. Ss were 8 undergraduates, 6 faculty in philosophy or theology, and 10 graduate students in those disciplines. After reading the introduction and method sections of 4 published articles, Ss rated the acceptability of the deception in each article and were asked to explain their ratings. The most acceptable ratings were made by undergraduates; the least acceptable were made by faculty. Multiple-principle reasoning and 2 kinds of single-principle reasoning are described. A model of ethical reasoning is applied to the results. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

A re-assessment of role-playing as a technique in social psychology

Article

Jan 1977

Edward Krupat

Reviews the problems of laboratory deception research, highlighting the problem of increasing S awareness of deception and distrust of laboratory settings. Suggestions for innovative "honest" techniques are considered, especially active role-playing. It is proposed that role-playing techniques which envelop Ss and require them to act (rather than to passively make judgments) successfully deal with prior criticisms of lack of spontaneity and realism. Moreover, role-playing has the advantage of being able to assess S involvement more directly than deception research can assess suspicion. It is concluded that although the legitimacy of role-playing data cannot be determined empirically, role-playing and other nondeceptive techniques can produce findings which complement other methods and are capable of standing on their own. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Role-enactment and deception methodologies? Alternative paradigms?

Article

Aug 1976

Presents a theoretical analysis and review of the uses of role-playing and deception methods which support the position that role-playing methods are based on a more comprehensive and inclusive conceptualization of human behavior than are deception methods. It is also shown that role-playing assumptions better support empirical findings in the laboratory. It follows that role-playing studies should be the standard against which deception studies are compared rather than vice versa, as is the current practice. Several recent developments in role-enactment methods are discussed, and these innovations are categorized according to whether their major functions are for exploratory, descriptive, or parametric analyses. (11/2 p ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Ineffective deception in conformity research: Some causes and consequences

Article

Jul 1976
EUR J SOC PSYCHOL

David J. Stang

Suspiciousness of deception threatens the internal validity of the conformity experiment, and analyses suggest it is becoming more widespread. After being led to believe their own ability in a visual judgment task was higher, lower, or the same as the ability of the other group members, 65 undergraduate women made visual and informational judgments in the Crutchfield apparatus. Major findings include treatment effects on suspiciousness, less conformity by suspicious Ss, and ‘significant’ treatment effects on conformity only when suspicious Ss were removed from the analyses. Measures of self-confidence and confidence in others were significantly related to and likely determinants of suspiciousness. Implications for improving deception in conformity research are discussed.

Experimental economics and deception

Article

Jun 1998
J ECON PSYCHOL

Shane Bonetti

Several leading experimental economists have independently proposed that deception should be proscribed on methodological grounds as an experimental technique. The basis for this prescription is the assertion that the psychological reaction to suspected manipulation jeopardises experimental control and validity, and contaminates the subject pool. According to this view, honesty is a methodological public good and deception is equivalent to not contributing. This paper reviews the literature on the consequences of the use of deception. It is concluded that there is little evidence to support the argument that deception should be proscribed. It is argued that there are potential gains from deception in data validity and experimental control. These gains are illustrated by examining ultimatum games and public good experiments.

A Specific Neural Substrate for Perceiving Facial Expressions of Disgust

Article

Nov 1997

Recognition of facial expressions is critical to our appreciation of the social and physical environment, with separate emotions having distinct facial expressions. Perception of fearful facial expressions has been extensively studied, appearing to depend upon the amygdala. Disgust-literally 'bad taste'-is another important emotion, with a distinct evolutionary history, and is conveyed by a characteristic facial expression. We have used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine the neural substrate for perceiving disgust expressions. Normal volunteers were presented with faces showing mild or strong disgust or fear. Cerebral activation in response to these stimuli was contrasted with that for neutral faces. Results for fear generally confirmed previous positron emission tomography findings of amygdala involvement. Both strong and mild expressions of disgust activated anterior insular cortex but not the amygdala; strong disgust also activated structures linked to a limbic cortico-striatal-thalamic circuit. The anterior insula is known to be involved in responses to offensive tastes. The neural response to facial expressions of disgust in others is thus closely related to appraisal of distasteful stimuli.

Neuropsychology of fear and loathing

Article

Jun 2001
NAT REV NEUROSCI

For over 60 years, ideas about emotion in neuroscience and psychology have been dominated by a debate on whether emotion can be encompassed within a single, unifying model. In neuroscience, this approach is epitomized by the limbic system theory and, in psychology, by dimensional models of emotion. Comparative research has gradually eroded the limbic model, and some scientists have proposed that certain individual emotions are represented separately in the brain. Evidence from humans consistent with this approach has recently been obtained by studies indicating that signals of fear and disgust are processed by distinct neural substrates. We review this research and its implications for theories of emotion.

Variables Affecting Subjects' Ethical Ratings of Proposed Experiments

Article

Mar 1979

The present study examined students' ratings of ethics in psychological research. Four levels of research presentation were employed: traditional deception, sensitization, consumer-review, and informed consent. The results reaffirmed findings that students responded with significantly less concern about traditional deception in experimentation than did psychologists. Some differences were noted as a function of how the research was presented; sensitized students and consumer-review students responded in a somewhat more ethically stringent manner than did students in the other groups.

Misinformed consent: an enigma in modern social science research

Article

Feb 1977
Ethics Sci Med

T Shipley

Pain processing during three levels of noxious stimulation produces differential patterns of central activity

Article

Jan 1998

Previous functional imaging studies have demonstrated a number of discrete brain structures that increase activity with noxious stimulation. Of the commonly identified central structures, only the anterior cingulate cortex shows a consistent response during the experience of pain. The insula and thalamus demonstrate reasonable consistency while all other regions, including the lentiform nucleus, somatosensory cortex and prefrontal cortex, are active in no more than half the current studies. The reason for such discrepancy is likely to be due in part to methodological variability and in part to individual variability. One aspect of the methodology which is likely to contribute is the stimulus intensity. Studies vary considerably regarding the intensity of the noxious and non-noxious stimuli delivered. This is likely to produce varying activation of central structures coding for the intensity, affective and cognitive components of pain. Using twelve healthy volunteers and positron emission tomography (PET), the regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) responses to four intensities of stimulation were recorded. The stimulation was delivered by a CO2 laser and was described subjectively as either warm (not painful), pain threshold just painful), mildly painful or moderately painful. The following group subtractions were made to examine the changing cerebral responses as the stimulus intensity increased: (1) just painful - warm; (2) mild pain - warm; and (3) moderate pain - warm. In addition, rCBF changes were correlated with the subjective stimulus ratings. The results for comparison '1' indicated activity in the contralateral prefrontal (area 10/46/44), bilateral inferior parietal (area 40) and ipsilateral premotor cortices (area 6), possibly reflecting initial orientation and plans for movement. The latter comparisons and correlation analysis indicated a wide range of active regions including bilateral prefrontal, inferior parietal and premotor cortices and thalamic responses, contralateral hippocampus, insula and primary somatosensory cortex and ipsilateral perigenual cingulate cortex (area 24) and medial frontal cortex (area 32). Decreased rCBF was observed in the amygdala region. These responses were interpreted with respect to their contribution to the multidimensional aspects of pain including fear avoidance, affect, sensation and motivation or motor initiation. It is suggested that future studies examine the precise roles of each particular region during the central processing of pain.

Conflict monitoring versus selection-for-action in anterior cingulate cortex

Article

Dec 1999

The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), on the medial surface of the frontal lobes of the brain, is widely believed to be involved in the regulation of attention. Beyond this, however, its specific contribution to cognition remains uncertain. One influential theory has interpreted activation within the ACC as reflecting 'selection-for-action', a set of processes that guide the selection of environmental objects as triggers of or targets for action. We have proposed an alternative hypothesis, in which the ACC serves not to exert top-down attentional control but instead to detect and signal the occurrence of conflicts in information processing. Here, to test this theory against the selection-for-action theory, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to measure brain activation during performance of a task where, for a particular subset of trials, the strength of selection-for-action is inversely related to the degree of response conflict. Activity within the ACC was greater during trials featuring high levels of conflict (and weak selection-for-action) than during trials with low levels of conflict (and strong selection-for-action), providing evidence in favour of the conflict-monitoring account of ACC function.

Subcortical and Cortical Brain Activity During the Feeling of Self-Generated Emotions

Article

Nov 2000

In a series of [15O]PET experiments aimed at investigating the neural basis of emotion and feeling, 41 normal subjects recalled and re-experienced personal life episodes marked by sadness, happiness, anger or fear. We tested the hypothesis that the process of feeling emotions requires the participation of brain regions, such as the somatosensory cortices and the upper brainstem nuclei, that are involved in the mapping and/or regulation of internal organism states. Such areas were indeed engaged, underscoring the close relationship between emotion and homeostasis. The findings also lend support to the idea that the subjective process of feeling emotions is partly grounded in dynamic neural maps, which represent several aspects of the organism's continuously changing internal state.

A confederate's Perspective on Deception

Article

Feb 1991

Adam Oliansky

In this article, I outline my position regarding the use of deception in psychology experiments, based on my experience as a confederate. I describe an experiment I participated in and the problems resulting from the study: subjects' differing responses to the deception; angry reactions of some subjects to the experiment; and the general discomfort of both the subjects and the confederates, in particular, who had their doubts concerning the external validity of the study and the ethics involved in running it. Issues of informed consent and debriefing are also addressed; it is argued that the success of deception depends on the subject being misinformed as to the experiment's true nature and that debriefing itself sometimes angers subjects. I encourage a decrease in the use of deception and the reexamination of a system that attempts to balance the pain of experimental participants with anticipated benefit to scientific knowledge.

Attitudes toward the Use of Deception in Psychologically Induced Pain

Article

Nov 1993

Prefrontal Contributions to Executive Control: fMRI Evidence for Functional Distinctions within Lateral Prefrontal Cortex

Article

Jan 2002

The prefrontal cortex (PFC) plays a fundamental role in internally guided behavior. Although it is generally accepted that PFC subserves working memory and executive control operations, it remains unclear whether the subregions within lateral PFC support distinct executive control processes. An event-related fMRI study was implemented to test the hypothesis that ventrolateral and dorsolateral PFC are functionally distinct, as well as to assess whether functional specialization exists within ventrolateral PFC. Participants performed two executive control tasks that differed in the types of control processes required. During rote rehearsal, participants covertly rehearsed three words in the order presented, thus requiring phonological access and maintenance. During elaborative rehearsal, participants made semantic comparisons between three words held in working memory, reordering them from least to most desirable. Thus, in addition to maintenance, elaborative rehearsal required goal-relevant coding of items in working memory ("monitoring") and selection from among the items to implement their reordering. Results revealed that left posterior ventrolateral PFC was active during performance of both tasks, whereas right dorsolateral PFC was differentially engaged during elaborative rehearsal. The temporal characteristics of the hemodynamic responses further suggested that dorsolateral activation lagged ventrolateral activation. Finally, differential activation patterns were observed within left ventrolateral PFC, distinguishing between posterior and anterior regions. These data suggest that anatomically separable subregions within lateral PFC may be functionally distinct and are consistent with models that posit a hierarchical relationship between dorsolateral and ventrolateral regions such that the former monitors and selects goal-relevant representations being maintained by the latter.

Anonymity Versus Punishment in Ultimatum Bargaining

Article

Jul 1995
GAME ECON BEHAV

Evidence shows that real-effort investments can affect bilateral bargaining outcomes. This paper investigates whether similar investments can inhibit equilibrium convergence of experimental markets. In one treatment, sellers’ relative effort affects the allocation of production costs, but a random productivity shock ensures that the allocation is not necessarily equitable. In another treatment, sellers’ effort increases the buyers’ valuation of a good. We find that effort investments have a short-lived impact on trading behavior when sellers’ effort benefits buyers, but no effect when effort determines cost allocation. Efficiency rates are high and do not differ across treatments.

Unfairness, Anger, and Spite: Emotional Rejections of Ultimatum Offers

Article

Dec 1996
ORGAN BEHAV HUM DEC

This study explores the ways in which information about other individual's action affects one's own behavior in a dictator game. The experimental design discriminates behaviorally between three possible effects of recipient's within-game reputation on the dictator's decision: Reputation causing indirect reciprocity, social influence, and identification. The separation of motives is an important step in trying to understand how impulses towards selfish or generous behavior arise. The statistical analysis of experimental data reveals that the reputation effects have a stronger impact on dictators' actions than the social influence and identification.

In Search of Homo Economicus: Behavioral Experiments in 15 Small-Scale Societies

Article

Sep 2001

al behavior better explained statistically by individuals' attributes such as their sex, age, or relative wealth, or by the attributes of the group to which the individuals belong? Are there cultures that approximate the canonical account of self-regarding behavior? Existing research cannot answer such questions because virtually all subjects have been university students, and while there are cultural differences among student populations throughout the world, these differences are small compared to the range of all social and cultural environments. To address the above questions, we and our collaborators undertook a large cross-cultural study of behavior in ultimatum, public good, and dictator games. Twelve experienced field researchers, working in 12 countries on five continents, recruited subjects from 15 small-scale societies exhibiting a wide variety of economic and cultural conditions. Our sample consists of three foraging societies, six that practice slash-and-burn horticulture

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The Neural Basis of Economic Decision-Making in the Ultimatum Game

Abstract

No full-text available

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