Beyond lottery-evoked ambiguity aversion: The neural signature of the types and the sources of uncertainty
Studies on decision-making under uncertainty have mainly focused on understanding preferences for either risk or ambiguity using standard lottery designs. However, people often face uncertainty that directly stems from interacting with other people, which may be processed differently from lottery-ba...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Elsevier
2022-05-01
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| Series: | NeuroImage |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053811922001367 |
| _version_ | 1818157397321973760 |
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| author | Kim Fairley Jana Vyrastekova Utz Weitzel Alan G. Sanfey |
| author_facet | Kim Fairley Jana Vyrastekova Utz Weitzel Alan G. Sanfey |
| author_sort | Kim Fairley |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Studies on decision-making under uncertainty have mainly focused on understanding preferences for either risk or ambiguity using standard lottery designs. However, people often face uncertainty that directly stems from interacting with other people, which may be processed differently from lottery-based uncertainty. Here, we substantially extend the investigation of uncertainty by examining a fourfold pattern of the sources and the types of uncertainty, assessing behavioral and neural responses to both risk and ambiguity across both social and non-social contexts. A key element in our research design was to control for participants’ naturally occurring social beliefs, and taking these a priori beliefs into account allow us to elicit individual preferences in accordance with economic approaches that stress the dynamics of ambiguity preference as a function of underlying likelihoods. Using this design, we find a behavioral main effect of ambiguity aversion, with increasing ambiguity aversion as a function of higher beliefs regarding the likelihood of reciprocity, and related neural activity in the right IPS. This brain region was primarily involved when participants experienced lottery-based uncertainty as opposed to social uncertainty. However, we found that the right IFG was more involved when participants made decisions under social, as compared to non-social, uncertainty. Overall, therefore, the IPS may activate an analytic mindset, which might resonate more with a lottery than a social context, whereas the IFG is engaged when the context requires players to resolve uncertainty, such as unraveling the intentions behind the choice of another person. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-11T15:13:32Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-d75d29d0ef6b41fb89d4aceefcf6a72c |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1095-9572 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-11T15:13:32Z |
| publishDate | 2022-05-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | NeuroImage |
| spelling | doaj.art-d75d29d0ef6b41fb89d4aceefcf6a72c2022-12-22T01:00:41ZengElsevierNeuroImage1095-95722022-05-01251119007Beyond lottery-evoked ambiguity aversion: The neural signature of the types and the sources of uncertaintyKim Fairley0Jana Vyrastekova1Utz Weitzel2Alan G. Sanfey3Institute of Tax Law and Economics, Department of Economics, Leiden University, Leiden, the Netherlands; Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands; Corresponding author at: Department of Economics, Leiden University, Steenschuur 25, 2311 ES Leiden, The Netherlands.Institute for Management Research, Radboud University, Nijmegen, the NetherlandsInstitute for Management Research, Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands; School of Economics and Business, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the NetherlandsDonders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands; Behavioral Science Institute, Radboud University, Nijmegen, the NetherlandsStudies on decision-making under uncertainty have mainly focused on understanding preferences for either risk or ambiguity using standard lottery designs. However, people often face uncertainty that directly stems from interacting with other people, which may be processed differently from lottery-based uncertainty. Here, we substantially extend the investigation of uncertainty by examining a fourfold pattern of the sources and the types of uncertainty, assessing behavioral and neural responses to both risk and ambiguity across both social and non-social contexts. A key element in our research design was to control for participants’ naturally occurring social beliefs, and taking these a priori beliefs into account allow us to elicit individual preferences in accordance with economic approaches that stress the dynamics of ambiguity preference as a function of underlying likelihoods. Using this design, we find a behavioral main effect of ambiguity aversion, with increasing ambiguity aversion as a function of higher beliefs regarding the likelihood of reciprocity, and related neural activity in the right IPS. This brain region was primarily involved when participants experienced lottery-based uncertainty as opposed to social uncertainty. However, we found that the right IFG was more involved when participants made decisions under social, as compared to non-social, uncertainty. Overall, therefore, the IPS may activate an analytic mindset, which might resonate more with a lottery than a social context, whereas the IFG is engaged when the context requires players to resolve uncertainty, such as unraveling the intentions behind the choice of another person.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053811922001367riskambiguitybeliefsneuroeconomics |
| spellingShingle | Kim Fairley Jana Vyrastekova Utz Weitzel Alan G. Sanfey Beyond lottery-evoked ambiguity aversion: The neural signature of the types and the sources of uncertainty NeuroImage risk ambiguity beliefs neuroeconomics |
| title | Beyond lottery-evoked ambiguity aversion: The neural signature of the types and the sources of uncertainty |
| title_full | Beyond lottery-evoked ambiguity aversion: The neural signature of the types and the sources of uncertainty |
| title_fullStr | Beyond lottery-evoked ambiguity aversion: The neural signature of the types and the sources of uncertainty |
| title_full_unstemmed | Beyond lottery-evoked ambiguity aversion: The neural signature of the types and the sources of uncertainty |
| title_short | Beyond lottery-evoked ambiguity aversion: The neural signature of the types and the sources of uncertainty |
| title_sort | beyond lottery evoked ambiguity aversion the neural signature of the types and the sources of uncertainty |
| topic | risk ambiguity beliefs neuroeconomics |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053811922001367 |
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