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Whether others were treated equally affects neural responses to unfairness in the Ultimatum Game

journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-08, 21:33 authored by Li Zheng, Xiuyan Guo, Lei Zhu, Jianqi Li, Luguang Chen, Zoltan DienesZoltan Dienes
People expect to be treated equivalently as others in like circumstances. The present study investigated that whether and how equal or unequal treatments of others in like circumstances affected individuals’ responses to unfairness through justifying their reference points for fairness considerations. Twenty-five participants were scanned while they were playing an adapted version of the Ultimatum Game as responders. During the experiment, the participant was not only informed of the offer given by her/his proposer, but also informed of the division scheme of another proposer-responder pair. It turned out that participants were more likely to accept unequal offers and reported higher fairness ratings when other responders received unequal offers compared to equal offers. Stronger bilateral anterior insula (AI) and dorsal anterior cingulate gyrus (dACC) activities were observed when only participants (but not other responders) received equal offers, whereas greater right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) activity was found when both of them received unequal offers, especially when participants accepted the unequal offers. Taken together, the results demonstrated that whether others in like circumstances were offered equally or not also plays an important role in responders’ fairness-related social decision making.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Published version

Journal

Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience

ISSN

1749-5016

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Issue

3

Volume

10

Page range

461-466

Department affiliated with

  • Psychology Publications

Full text available

  • No

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2015-07-10

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2015-07-10

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