scholarly journals Social reward, punishment and prosociality in paranoia

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nichola Raihani ◽  
Daniel Martinez-Gatell ◽  
Vaughan Bell ◽  
Lucy Foulkes
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Dictator Game ◽  
Social Reward ◽  
Social Decision ◽  
Economic Games ◽  
Main Effect ◽  
Negative Social Interactions ◽  
Social Decision Making ◽  
Malicious Intent

Paranoia is the exaggerated belief that harm will occur and is intended by others. Although commonly framed in terms of attributing malicious intent to others, recent work has explored how paranoia also affects social decision-making, using economic games. Previous work found that paranoia is associated with decreased cooperation and increased punishment in the Dictator Game (where cooperating and punishing involve paying a cost to respectively increase or decrease a partner’s income). These findings suggest that paranoia might be associated with variation in subjective reward from positive and/or negative social decision-making; a possibility we explore using a pre-registered experiment with US-based participants (n=2,004). Paranoia was associated with increased self-reported enjoyment of negative social interactions and decreased self-reported enjoyment of prosocial interactions. More paranoid participants attributed stronger harmful intent to a partner. Harmful intent attributions and the enjoyment of negative social interactions positively predicted the tendency to pay to punish the partner. Cooperation was positively associated with the tendency to enjoy prosocial interactions, and increased with participant age. There was no main effect of paranoia on tendency to cooperate in this setting. We discuss these findings in light of previous research.

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 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.

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.

scholarly journals Altered social and non-social decision-making in recreational and dependent cocaine users

2013 ◽  
Vol 44 (5) ◽  
pp. 1015-1028 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. M. Hulka ◽  
C. Eisenegger ◽  
K. H. Preller ◽  
M. Vonmoos ◽  
D. Jenni ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Interaction ◽  
Delay Discounting ◽  
Iowa Gambling Task ◽  
Treatment Success ◽  
Dictator Game ◽  
Gambling Task ◽  
Social Decision ◽  
Cocaine Users ◽  
Social Decision Making

BackgroundMaladaptive decision-making is assumed to be a core feature of cocaine addiction. Indeed, numerous studies have reported deficits in non-social decision-making tasks and reward-related impulsivity in dependent cocaine users. However, social decision-making has not been examined in cocaine users yet. Moreover, it is unknown if even recreational and non-dependent cocaine use is linked to decision-making deficits. Therefore, we investigated whether recreational and dependent cocaine users exhibit alterations in social and non-social decision-making.MethodThe performance of healthy controls (n = 68), recreational cocaine users (n = 68) and dependent cocaine users (n = 30) in classical decision-making paradigms (Iowa Gambling Task, Delay Discounting) and in social interaction paradigms (Distribution Game, Dictator Game) was assessed.ResultsDecisions in the social interaction tasks of both cocaine user groups were more self-serving compared with controls as cocaine users preferred higher monetary payoffs for themselves. In the Iowa Gambling Task, only dependent cocaine users were more likely to choose disadvantageous card decks, reflecting worse decision-making. They were also more likely to choose immediate smaller rewards over larger delayed rewards in the Delay Discounting task.ConclusionsOur results imply that both recreational and dependent cocaine users are more concerned with their own monetary gain when interacting with another person. Furthermore, primarily dependent cocaine users are less foresighted and more impulsive regarding immediate reward. Overall, social interaction deficits are already present in recreational users, while non-social decision-making deficits occur predominantly in dependent cocaine users. Thus, social interaction training and cognitive remediation strategies may improve treatment success and quality of life in cocaine dependence.

scholarly journals The benefits of beauty – Individual differences in the pro-attractiveness bias in social decision making

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marlene Voit ◽  
Martin Weiß ◽  
Johannes Hewig
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Social Situations ◽  
Social Decision ◽  
Economic Games ◽  
Online Study ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Economic Decisions ◽  
Opposite Sex ◽  
Social Decision Making

AbstractWhile there already is a huge body of research examining the advantages and disadvantages of physical attractiveness in social and economic decisions, little research has been made to explore the role of individual differences in social decision-making with regard to beauty. To close this scientific gap, we conducted a multiparadigm online study (N = 210; 52% females) in which participants were asked to make decisions in four different economic games facing differently attractive counterparts. Additionally, the personality trait agreeableness was assessed to test for individual differences in decision-making. In exploratory analyses, we also assessed which facet of agreeableness is the most appropriate to predict individual differences in the various economic games. In the study, we were able to replicate the finding of a beauty premium and a plainness penalty but did not find any support for the idea of a beauty penalty. Furthermore, evidence for an opposite-sex advantage was found, which was greater when men were facing women than the other way around. While agreeableness as an overall trait influenced decision making across various paradigms, interactions of distinct facets of agreeableness with the partners’ attractiveness remain heterogeneous and ambiguous. This underlines the importance of integrating the specificity of certain traits in experimental research and the necessity of combining them with different social situations.

scholarly journals Prosocial Gains and Losses: Modulations of Human Social Decision-Making by Loss-Gain Context

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chunliang Feng ◽  
Yijie Zhang ◽  
Zhixin Zhang ◽  
Jie Yuan
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Ongoing Debate ◽  
Social Decision ◽  
Economic Games ◽  
Current Perspective ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
Deliberative Processes ◽  
Social Decision Making ◽  
Gains And Losses

The role of the loss-gain context in human social decision-making remains heavily debated, with mixed evidence showing that losses (vs. gains) boost both selfish and prosocial motivations. Herein, we propose that the loss context, compared to the gain context, exacerbates intuitive reactions in response to the conflict between self-interest and prosocial preferences, regardless of whether those dominant responses are selfish or altruistic. We then synthesize evidence from three lines of research to support the account, which indicates that losses may either enhance or inhibit altruistic behaviors depending on the dominant responses in the employed interactive economic games, prosocial/proself traits, and the explicit engagement of deliberative processes. The current perspective contributes to the ongoing debate on the association between loss-gain context and human prosociality by putting forward a theoretical framework to integrate previous conflicting perspectives.

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