scholarly journals Value computations underlying human proposer behaviour in the Ultimatum Game

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erdem Pulcu ◽  
Masahiko Haruno
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Ultimatum Game ◽  
Social Value Orientation ◽  
Social Decision ◽  
Optimal Decisions ◽  
Human Participants ◽  
Social Decision Making

AbstractInteracting with others to decide how finite resources should be allocated between parties which may have competing interests is an important part of social life. Considering that not all of our proposals to others are always accepted, the outcomes of such social interactions are, by their nature, probabilistic and risky. Here, we highlight cognitive processes related to value computations in human social interactions, based on mathematical modelling of the proposer behavior in the Ultimatum Game. Our results suggest that the perception of risk is an overarching process across non-social and social decision-making, whereas nonlinear weighting of others’ acceptance probabilities is unique to social interactions in which others’ valuation processes needs to be inferred. Despite the complexity of social decision-making, human participants make near-optimal decisions by dynamically adjusting their decision parameters to the changing social value orientation of their opponents through influence by multidimensional inferences they make about those opponents (e.g. how prosocial they think their opponent is relative to themselves).

scholarly journals Social Value Orientation Modulates Fairness Processing During Social Decision-Making: Evidence From Behavior and Brain Potentials

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xinmu Hu ◽  
Xiaoqin Mai
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Ultimatum Game ◽  
Value Orientation ◽  
Emotional Reactions ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Social Value ◽  
Social Value Orientation ◽  
Social Decision ◽  
Frontal Negativity ◽  
Social Decision Making

Abstract Social value orientation (SVO) characterizes stable individual differences by an inherent sense of fairness in outcome allocations. Using the event-related potential (ERP), this study investigated differences in fairness decision-making behavior and neural bases between individuals with prosocial and proself orientations using the Ultimatum Game (UG). Behavioral results indicated that prosocials were more prone to rejecting unfair offers with stronger negative emotional reactions compared with proselfs. ERP results revealed that prosocials showed a larger P2 when receiving fair offers than unfair ones in a very early processing stage, whereas such effect was absent in proselfs. In later processing stages, although both groups were sensitive to fairness as reflected by an enhanced medial frontal negativity (MFN) for unfair offers and a larger P3 for fair offers, prosocials exhibited a stronger fairness effect on these ERP components relative to proselfs. Furthermore, the fairness effect on the MFN mediated the SVO effect on rejecting unfair offers. Findings regarding emotional experiences, behavioral patterns, and ERPs provide compelling evidence that SVO modulates fairness processing in social decision-making, whereas differences in neural responses to unfair vs. fair offers as evidenced by the MFN appear to play important roles in the SVO effect on behavioral responses to unfairness.

scholarly journals Explicit and implicit markers of fairness preeminence in criminal judges

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hernando Santamaría-García ◽  
Jorge Martínez Cotrina ◽  
Nicolas Florez Torres ◽  
Carlos Buitrago ◽  
Diego Mauricio Aponte-Canencio ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Ultimatum Game ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Physiological Factors ◽  
Social Decision ◽  
Implicit Measurement ◽  
New Research ◽  
Social Decision Making ◽  
The Impact

AbstractAchieving justice could be considered a complex social decision-making scenario. Despite the relevance of social decisions for legal contexts, these processes have still not been explored for individuals who work as criminal judges dispensing justice. To bridge the gap, we used a complex social decision-making task (Ultimatum game) and tracked a heart rate variability measurement: the square root of the mean squared differences of successive NN intervals (RMSSD) at their baseline (as an implicit measurement that tracks emotion regulation behavior) for criminal judges (n = 24) and a control group (n = 27). Our results revealed that, compared to controls, judges were slower and rejected a bigger proportion of unfair offers. Moreover, the rate of rejections and the reaction times were predicted by higher RMSSD scores for the judges. This study provides evidence about the impact of legal background and expertise in complex social decision-making. Our results contribute to understanding how expertise can shape criminal judges’ social behaviors and pave the way for promising new research into the cognitive and physiological factors associated with social decision-making.

scholarly journals Pain and social decision-making: New insights from the social framing effect

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 221-238 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruolei Gu ◽  
Jie Liu ◽  
Fang Cui
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Brain Area ◽  
Framing Effect ◽  
Neural Activation ◽  
Social Emotions ◽  
Temporoparietal Junction ◽  
Social Decision ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Decision Making

This paper focuses on the social function of painful experience as revealed by recent studies on social decision-making. Observing others suffering from physical pain evokes empathic reactions that can lead to prosocial behavior (e.g., helping others at a cost to oneself), which might be regarded as the social value of pain derived from evolution. Feelings of guilt may also be elicited when one takes responsibility for another’s pain. These social emotions play a significant role in various cognitive processes and may affect behavioral preferences. In addition, the influence of others’ pain on decision-making is highly sensitive to social context. Combining neuroimaging techniques with a novel decision paradigm, we found that when asking participants to trade-off personal benefits against providing help to other people, verbally describing the causal relationship between their decision and other people’s pain (i.e., framing) significantly changed participants’ preferences. This social framing effect was associated with neural activation in the temporoparietal junction (TPJ), which is a brain area that is important in social cognition and in social emotions. Further, transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on this region successfully modulated the magnitude of the social framing effect. These findings add to the knowledge about the role of perception of others’ pain in our social life.

scholarly journals Social Decision Making with Humans and Robots: Trust and Approachability Mediate Economic Decision Making

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie Tulk ◽  
Eva Wiese
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Ultimatum Game ◽  
Humanoid Robots ◽  
Trust Game ◽  
Social Decision ◽  
Economic Decisions ◽  
Economic Decision Making ◽  
Human Likeness ◽  
Social Decision Making

As humanoid robots become more advanced and commonplace, the average user may find themselves in the position of wondering if their robotic companion truly possesses a mind. It is important for scientists and designers to consider how this will likely affect our interactions with social robots. The current paper explores how social decision making with humanoid robots changes as the degree of their human-likeness changes. For that purpose, we created a spectrum of human-like agents via morphing that ranged from very robot-like to very human-like in physical appearance (in increments of 20%) and measured how this change in physical humanness affected decision-making in two economic games: Ultimatum Game (Experiment 1) and Trust Game (Experiment 2). We expected increases in human-like appearance to lead to a higher rate of punishment for unfair offers in the Ultimatum Game, and to a higher rate of trust in the Trust Game. While physical humanness did not have an impact on economic decisions in either of the experiments, follow-up analyses showed that both subjective ratings of trust and agent approachability mediated the effect of agent appearance on decision-making in both experiments. Possible consequences of these findings for human- robot interactions are discussed.

scholarly journals The effects of social comparison and depressive mood on adolescent social decision-making

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yixin Hu ◽  
Mengmeng Zhou ◽  
Yunru Shao ◽  
Jing Wei ◽  
Zhenying Li ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Comparison ◽  
Ultimatum Game ◽  
Depressive Mood ◽  
Acceptance Rate ◽  
Comparison Theory ◽  
Social Decision ◽  
Gain And Loss ◽  
Mood Group ◽  
Social Decision Making

Abstract Background Based on social comparison theory, two experiments were conducted to explore the effects of depression and social comparison on adolescents, using the ultimatum game (UG). Methods Before the formal experiment began, a preliminary experiment tested the effectiveness of social comparison settings. This study used the UG paradigm to explore adolescents’ social decision-making in the context of gain and loss through two experiments. These experiments were designed as a 2 (group: depressive mood group, normal mood group) × 2 (social comparison: upward, downward) × 3 (fairness level: fair 5:5, unfair 3:7, extremely unfair 1:9) three-factor hybrid study. Results (1) The fairer the proposal was, the higher the sense of fairness participants felt, and the higher their acceptance rate. (2) The acceptance rate of the participants for downward social comparison was significantly higher than that for upward social comparison, but there was no difference in fairness perception between the two social comparisons. (3) Under the context of gain, the acceptance rate of the depressive mood group was higher than that of the normal mood group, but there was no difference in the acceptance rate between the depressive mood group and the normal mood group under the loss context. Depressive mood participants had more feelings of unfairness in the contexts of both gain and loss. (4) The effects of depressive mood, social comparison and the fairness level of distribution on social decision-making interact. Conclusions The interaction of social comparison, depressive mood and proposal type demonstrates that besides one’s emotion, cognitive biases and social factors can also have an effect on social decision-making. These findings indicate that behavioral decision boosting may provide an avenue for appropriate interventions in helping to guide adolescents to make social decisions.

scholarly journals Pair Bond-Induced Affiliation and Aggression in Male Prairie Voles Elicit Distinct Functional Connectivity in the Social Decision-Making Network

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kyle R. Gossman ◽  
Benjamin Dykstra ◽  
Byron H. García ◽  
Arielle P. Swopes ◽  
Adam Kimbrough ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Functional Connectivity ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Prairie Voles ◽  
Correlation Pattern ◽  
Social Decision ◽  
Social Encounter ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Decision Making

Complex social behaviors are governed by a neural network theorized to be the social decision-making network (SDMN). However, this theoretical network is not tested on functional grounds. Here, we assess the organization of regions in the SDMN using c-Fos, to generate functional connectivity models during specific social interactions in a socially monogamous rodent, the prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster). Male voles displayed robust selective affiliation toward a female partner, while exhibiting increased threatening, vigilant, and physically aggressive behaviors toward novel males and females. These social interactions increased c-Fos levels in eight of the thirteen brain regions of the SDMN. Each social encounter generated a distinct correlation pattern between individual brain regions. Thus, hierarchical clustering was used to characterize interrelated regions with similar c-Fos activity resulting in discrete network modules. Functional connectivity maps were constructed to emulate the network dynamics resulting from each social encounter. Our partner functional connectivity network presents similarities to the theoretical SDMN model, along with connections in the network that have been implicated in partner-directed affiliation. However, both stranger female and male networks exhibited distinct architecture from one another and the SDMN. Further, the stranger-evoked networks demonstrated connections associated with threat, physical aggression, and other aversive behaviors. Together, this indicates that distinct patterns of functional connectivity in the SDMN can be detected during select social encounters.

scholarly journals Insular Cortex Projections to Nucleus Accumbens Core Mediate Social Approach to Stressed Juvenile Rats

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Morgan M. Rogers-Carter ◽  
Anthony Djerdjaj ◽  
Katherine B. Gribbons ◽  
Juan A. Varela ◽  
John P. Christianson
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Nucleus Accumbens ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Insular Cortex ◽  
Male Rat ◽  
Nucleus Accumbens Core ◽  
Social Approach ◽  
Social Decision ◽  
Social Decision Making ◽  
Accumbens Core

Social interactions are shaped by features of the interactants including age, emotion, sex and familiarity. Age-specific responses to social affect are evident when an adult male rat is presented with a pair of unfamiliar male conspecifics, one of which is stressed via 2 footshocks and the other naïve to treatment. Adult test rats prefer to interact with stressed juvenile (PN30) conspecifics, but avoid stressed adult (PN50) conspecifics. This pattern depends upon the insular cortex (IC) which is anatomically connected to the nucleus accumbens core (NAc). The goal of this work was to test the necessity of IC projections to NAc during social affective behavior. Here, bilateral pharmacological inhibition of the NAc with tetrodotoxin (1µM; 0.5ul/side) abolished the preference for stressed PN30, but did not alter interactions with PN50 conspecifics. Using a combination of retrograding tracing and c-Fos immunohistochemistry, we report that social interactions with stressed PN30 conspecifics elicit greater Fos immunoreactivity in IC → NAc neurons than interactions with naïve PN30 conspecifics. Chemogenetic stimulation of IC terminals in the NAc increased social exploration with juvenile, but not adult, conspecifics, while chemogenetic inhibition of this tract blocked the preference to investigate stressed PN30 conspecifics, which expands upon our previous finding that optogenetic inhibition of IC projection neurons mediated approach and avoidance. These new findings suggest that outputs of IC to the NAc modulate social approach, which provides new insight to the neural circuitry underlying social decision-making.Significance StatementSocial decision-making underlies an animal’s behavioral response to others in a range of social contexts. Previous findings indicate the insular cortex (IC) and the nucleus accumbens (NAc) play important roles in a range of social behaviors, and human neuroimaging implicates both IC and NAc in autism and other psychiatric disorders characterized by aberrant social cognition. To test whether IC projections to the NAc are involved in social decision making, circuit-specific chemogenetic manipulations demonstrated that the IC → NAc pathway mediates social approach toward distressed juvenile, but not adult, conspecifics. This finding is the first to implicate this circuit in rodent socioemotional behaviors and may be a neuroanatomical substrate for integration of emotion with social reward.

Social-economical decision making in current and remitted major depression

2014 ◽  
Vol 45 (6) ◽  
pp. 1301-1313 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Pulcu ◽  
E. J. Thomas ◽  
P. D. Trotter ◽  
M. McFarquhar ◽  
G. Juhasz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Ultimatum Game ◽  
Clinical Status ◽  
Charitable Donation ◽  
Social Decision ◽  
Personal Cost ◽  
Depressed Patients ◽  
Full Remission ◽  
Social Decision Making ◽  
The Impact

Background.Prosocial emotions related to self-blame are important in guiding human altruistic decisions. These emotions are elevated in major depressive disorder (MDD), such that MDD has been associated with guilt-driven pathological hyper-altruism. However, the impact of such emotional impairments in MDD on different types of social decision-making is unknown.Method.In order to address this issue, we investigated different kinds of altruistic behaviour (interpersonal cooperation and fund allocation, altruistic punishment and charitable donation) in 33 healthy subjects, 35 patients in full remission (unmedicated) and 24 currently depressed patients (11 on medication) using behavioural-economical paradigms.Results.We show a significant main effect of clinical status on altruistic decisions (p = 0.04) and a significant interaction between clinical status and type of altruistic decisions (p = 0.03). More specifically, symptomatic patients defected significantly more in the Prisoner's Dilemma game (p < 0.05) and made significantly lower charitable donations, whether or not these incurred a personal cost (p < 0.05 and p < 0.01, respectively). Currently depressed patients also reported significantly higher guilt elicited by receiving unfair financial offers in the Ultimatum Game (p < 0.05).Conclusions.Currently depressed individuals were less altruistic in both a charitable donation and an interpersonal cooperation task. Taken together, our results challenge the guilt-driven pathological hyper-altruism hypothesis in depression. There were also differences in both current and remitted patients in the relationship between altruistic behaviour and pathological self-blaming, suggesting an important role for these emotions in moral and social decision-making abnormalities in depression.

The Neurobiology of Trust and Social Decision-Making

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan B. Engelmann ◽  
Ernst Fehr
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Social Neuroscience ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Strong Impact ◽  
Social Decision ◽  
Social Decisions ◽  
Social Decision Making ◽  
Economic Considerations

There is accumulating evidence suggesting that emotions can have a strong impact on social decision-making. However, the neural mechanisms of emotional influences on choice are less well understood to date. This chapter integrates recent results from two independent but related research streams in social neuroeconomics and social neuroscience, which together identify the neural mechanisms involved in the influences of emotions on social choice. Specifically, research in social neuroeconomics has shown that social decisions, such as trust-taking, involve commonly ignored emotional considerations in addition to economic considerations related to payouts. These results are paralleled by recent findings in social neuroscience that underline the role of emotions in social interactions. Because anticipatory emotions associated with social approval and rejection can have important, but often ignored, influences on social choices the integration of emotions into theories of social decision-making is necessary.

Trust and Approachability Mediate Social Decision Making in Human-Robot Interaction

2018 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 704-708
Author(s):  
Stephanie Tulk ◽  
Eva Wiese
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Ultimatum Game ◽  
Humanoid Robots ◽  
Human Robot Interaction ◽  
Trust Game ◽  
Social Decision ◽  
Economic Decisions ◽  
Social Decisions ◽  
Human Likeness ◽  
Social Decision Making

As humanoid robots become more advanced and commonplace, the average user may perceive their robotic companion as human-like entities that can make social decisions, such as the deliberate choice to act fairly or selfishly. It is important for scientists and designers to consider how this will affect our interactions with social robots. The current paper explores how social decision making with humanoid robots changes as the degree of their human-likeness changes. For that purpose, we created a spectrum of human-like agents via morphing that ranged from very robot-like to very human-like in physical appearance (i.e., in increments of 20%) and measured how this change in physical humanness affected decision-making in two economic games: the Ultimatum Game (Experiment 1) and Trust Game (Experiment 2). We expected increases in human-like appearance to lead to higher rates of punishment for unfair offers and higher ratings of trust in both games. While physical humanness did not have an impact on economic decisions in either of the ex-periments, follow-up analyses showed that both subjective ratings of trust and agent approachability medi-ated the effect of agent appearance on decision-making in both experiments. Possible consequences of these findings for human-robot interactions are discussed.

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