Electrophysiological Markers of Fairness and Selfishness Revealed by a Combination of Dictator and Ultimatum Games
Individual behavior during financial decision making is motivated by fairness, but an unanswered question from previous studies is whether particular patterns of brain activity correspond to different profiles of fairness. Event Related Potentials (ERPs) were recorded from 39 participants who played...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2022-05-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnsys.2022.765720/full |
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| author | Ali M. Miraghaie Ali M. Miraghaie Hamidreza Pouretemad Alessandro E. P. Villa Mohammad A. Mazaheri Reza Khosrowabadi Alessandra Lintas Alessandra Lintas |
| author_facet | Ali M. Miraghaie Ali M. Miraghaie Hamidreza Pouretemad Alessandro E. P. Villa Mohammad A. Mazaheri Reza Khosrowabadi Alessandra Lintas Alessandra Lintas |
| author_sort | Ali M. Miraghaie |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Individual behavior during financial decision making is motivated by fairness, but an unanswered question from previous studies is whether particular patterns of brain activity correspond to different profiles of fairness. Event Related Potentials (ERPs) were recorded from 39 participants who played the role of allocators in a Dictator Game (DG) and responders in an Ultimatum Game (UG). Two very homogeneous groups were formed by fair and selfish individuals. At fronto-central cortical sites, the latency of ERP early negativity (N1) was 10 ms shorter in selfish participants than in fair participants. In fair DG players, the subsequent positive wave P2 suggested that more cognitive resources were required when they allocated the least gains to the other party. P2 latency and amplitude in the selfish group supported the hypothesis that these participants tended to maximize their profit. During UG, we observed that medial frontal negativity (MFN) occurred earlier and with greater amplitude when selfish participants rejected less favorable endowment shares. In this case, all players received zero payoffs, which showed that MFN in selfish participants was associated with a spiteful punishment. At posterior-parietal sites, we found that the greater the selfishness, the greater the amplitude of the late positive component (LPC). Our results bring new evidence to the existence of specific somatic markers associated with the activation of distinct cerebral circuits by the evaluation of fair and unfair proposals in participants characterized by different expressions of perceived fairness, thus suggesting that a particular brain dynamics could be associated with moral decisions. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-09T21:52:07Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-7b08c57c9f414294a258f7745d708518 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1662-5137 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-09T21:52:07Z |
| publishDate | 2022-05-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience |
| spelling | doaj.art-7b08c57c9f414294a258f7745d7085182023-03-24T13:46:55ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience1662-51372022-05-011610.3389/fnsys.2022.765720765720Electrophysiological Markers of Fairness and Selfishness Revealed by a Combination of Dictator and Ultimatum GamesAli M. Miraghaie0Ali M. Miraghaie1Hamidreza Pouretemad2Alessandro E. P. Villa3Mohammad A. Mazaheri4Reza Khosrowabadi5Alessandra Lintas6Alessandra Lintas7Faculty of Psychology, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, IranNeuroHeuristic Research Group, HEC-Lausanne, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, SwitzerlandDepartment of Clinical and Health Psychology, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, IranNeuroHeuristic Research Group, HEC-Lausanne, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, SwitzerlandDepartment of Clinical and Health Psychology, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, IranInstitute for Cognitive and Brain Science, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, IranNeuroHeuristic Research Group, HEC-Lausanne, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, SwitzerlandLABEX, HEC-Lausanne, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, SwitzerlandIndividual behavior during financial decision making is motivated by fairness, but an unanswered question from previous studies is whether particular patterns of brain activity correspond to different profiles of fairness. Event Related Potentials (ERPs) were recorded from 39 participants who played the role of allocators in a Dictator Game (DG) and responders in an Ultimatum Game (UG). Two very homogeneous groups were formed by fair and selfish individuals. At fronto-central cortical sites, the latency of ERP early negativity (N1) was 10 ms shorter in selfish participants than in fair participants. In fair DG players, the subsequent positive wave P2 suggested that more cognitive resources were required when they allocated the least gains to the other party. P2 latency and amplitude in the selfish group supported the hypothesis that these participants tended to maximize their profit. During UG, we observed that medial frontal negativity (MFN) occurred earlier and with greater amplitude when selfish participants rejected less favorable endowment shares. In this case, all players received zero payoffs, which showed that MFN in selfish participants was associated with a spiteful punishment. At posterior-parietal sites, we found that the greater the selfishness, the greater the amplitude of the late positive component (LPC). Our results bring new evidence to the existence of specific somatic markers associated with the activation of distinct cerebral circuits by the evaluation of fair and unfair proposals in participants characterized by different expressions of perceived fairness, thus suggesting that a particular brain dynamics could be associated with moral decisions.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnsys.2022.765720/fullcooperationEEGN1P2MFNlate positive potential |
| spellingShingle | Ali M. Miraghaie Ali M. Miraghaie Hamidreza Pouretemad Alessandro E. P. Villa Mohammad A. Mazaheri Reza Khosrowabadi Alessandra Lintas Alessandra Lintas Electrophysiological Markers of Fairness and Selfishness Revealed by a Combination of Dictator and Ultimatum Games Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience cooperation EEG N1 P2 MFN late positive potential |
| title | Electrophysiological Markers of Fairness and Selfishness Revealed by a Combination of Dictator and Ultimatum Games |
| title_full | Electrophysiological Markers of Fairness and Selfishness Revealed by a Combination of Dictator and Ultimatum Games |
| title_fullStr | Electrophysiological Markers of Fairness and Selfishness Revealed by a Combination of Dictator and Ultimatum Games |
| title_full_unstemmed | Electrophysiological Markers of Fairness and Selfishness Revealed by a Combination of Dictator and Ultimatum Games |
| title_short | Electrophysiological Markers of Fairness and Selfishness Revealed by a Combination of Dictator and Ultimatum Games |
| title_sort | electrophysiological markers of fairness and selfishness revealed by a combination of dictator and ultimatum games |
| topic | cooperation EEG N1 P2 MFN late positive potential |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnsys.2022.765720/full |
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