Modulating Activity in the Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex Changes Punishment in the 3-Player Prisoner’s Dilemma: A Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Study
Altruistic punishment of social norm violations plays a crucial role in maintaining widespread cooperation in human societies, and punitive behavior has been suggested to be related to the activity level of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). This study used unilateral and bilateral transcra...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2019-10-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Neuroscience |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fnins.2019.01160/full |
| _version_ | 1811224665320849408 |
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| author | Shu Chen Shu Chen Shu Chen Jinchuan Shi Xiaolan Yang Xiaolan Yang Hang Ye Jun Luo |
| author_facet | Shu Chen Shu Chen Shu Chen Jinchuan Shi Xiaolan Yang Xiaolan Yang Hang Ye Jun Luo |
| author_sort | Shu Chen |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Altruistic punishment of social norm violations plays a crucial role in maintaining widespread cooperation in human societies, and punitive behavior has been suggested to be related to the activity level of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). This study used unilateral and bilateral transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to investigate how modulating the activity of the DLPFC affects cooperation and punishment in a 3-player prisoner’s dilemma. We found that none of the unilateral stimulations changed the participants’ cooperation behaviors, while left anodal/right cathodal stimulation increased the participants’ cooperation. For punitive behavior, we found that all unilateral stimulations (i.e., right anodal, right cathodal, left anodal, left cathodal) and bilateral stimulations (i.e., right anodal/left cathodal, left anodal/right cathodal) significantly decreased the punishment imposed by the cooperators toward the defectors. In addition, right anodal stimulation significantly decreased the participant’s third-party punishment (TPP) imposed by the cooperators toward the defectors. The other three unilateral stimulations also significantly decreased the participant’s TPP imposed by the cooperators toward the defectors, but only when the punishment was revealed to the punished person. Our findings indicate that the mechanisms of selfishness and negative emotions suggested by previous studies probably interact with different stimulations: for anodal stimulations, the mechanism of negative emotions may overwhelm the mechanism of selfishness, while for cathodal stimulations, the mechanism of selfishness may be more dominant than the mechanism of negative emotions. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-12T08:52:55Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-87bde828834542379535ad6215c545f6 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1662-453X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-12T08:52:55Z |
| publishDate | 2019-10-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Neuroscience |
| spelling | doaj.art-87bde828834542379535ad6215c545f62022-12-22T03:39:31ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Neuroscience1662-453X2019-10-011310.3389/fnins.2019.01160491164Modulating Activity in the Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex Changes Punishment in the 3-Player Prisoner’s Dilemma: A Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation StudyShu Chen0Shu Chen1Shu Chen2Jinchuan Shi3Xiaolan Yang4Xiaolan Yang5Hang Ye6Jun Luo7College of Economics, Interdisciplinary Center for Social Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, ChinaInstitute for Applied Microeconomics, University of Bonn, Bonn, GermanyAcademy of Financial Research, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, ChinaAcademy of Financial Research, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, ChinaSchool of Business and Management, Shanghai International Studies University, Shanghai, ChinaAcademy of Financial Research, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, ChinaCenter for Economic Behavior and Decision-Making, School of Economics, Zhejiang University of Finance and Economics, Hangzhou, ChinaCenter for Economic Behavior and Decision-Making, School of Economics, Zhejiang University of Finance and Economics, Hangzhou, ChinaAltruistic punishment of social norm violations plays a crucial role in maintaining widespread cooperation in human societies, and punitive behavior has been suggested to be related to the activity level of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). This study used unilateral and bilateral transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to investigate how modulating the activity of the DLPFC affects cooperation and punishment in a 3-player prisoner’s dilemma. We found that none of the unilateral stimulations changed the participants’ cooperation behaviors, while left anodal/right cathodal stimulation increased the participants’ cooperation. For punitive behavior, we found that all unilateral stimulations (i.e., right anodal, right cathodal, left anodal, left cathodal) and bilateral stimulations (i.e., right anodal/left cathodal, left anodal/right cathodal) significantly decreased the punishment imposed by the cooperators toward the defectors. In addition, right anodal stimulation significantly decreased the participant’s third-party punishment (TPP) imposed by the cooperators toward the defectors. The other three unilateral stimulations also significantly decreased the participant’s TPP imposed by the cooperators toward the defectors, but only when the punishment was revealed to the punished person. Our findings indicate that the mechanisms of selfishness and negative emotions suggested by previous studies probably interact with different stimulations: for anodal stimulations, the mechanism of negative emotions may overwhelm the mechanism of selfishness, while for cathodal stimulations, the mechanism of selfishness may be more dominant than the mechanism of negative emotions.https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fnins.2019.01160/fullpunishmentcooperation3-player prisoner’s dilemmadorsolateral prefrontal cortextranscranial direct current stimulation |
| spellingShingle | Shu Chen Shu Chen Shu Chen Jinchuan Shi Xiaolan Yang Xiaolan Yang Hang Ye Jun Luo Modulating Activity in the Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex Changes Punishment in the 3-Player Prisoner’s Dilemma: A Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Study Frontiers in Neuroscience punishment cooperation 3-player prisoner’s dilemma dorsolateral prefrontal cortex transcranial direct current stimulation |
| title | Modulating Activity in the Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex Changes Punishment in the 3-Player Prisoner’s Dilemma: A Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Study |
| title_full | Modulating Activity in the Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex Changes Punishment in the 3-Player Prisoner’s Dilemma: A Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Study |
| title_fullStr | Modulating Activity in the Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex Changes Punishment in the 3-Player Prisoner’s Dilemma: A Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Study |
| title_full_unstemmed | Modulating Activity in the Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex Changes Punishment in the 3-Player Prisoner’s Dilemma: A Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Study |
| title_short | Modulating Activity in the Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex Changes Punishment in the 3-Player Prisoner’s Dilemma: A Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Study |
| title_sort | modulating activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex changes punishment in the 3 player prisoner s dilemma a transcranial direct current stimulation study |
| topic | punishment cooperation 3-player prisoner’s dilemma dorsolateral prefrontal cortex transcranial direct current stimulation |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fnins.2019.01160/full |
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