How to Model Heterogeneity in Costly Punishment: Insights from Responders' Response Times

We investigate what processes may underlie heterogeneity in social preferences. We address this question by examining participants' decisions and associated response times across 12 mini‐ultimatum games. Using a finite mixture model and cross‐validating its classification with a response time analysis, we identified four groups of responders: one group takes little to no account of the proposed split or the foregone allocation and swiftly accepts any positive offer; two groups process primarily the objective properties of the allocations (fairness and kindness) and need more time the more properties need to be examined; and a fourth group, which takes more time than the others, appears to take into account what they would have proposed had they been put in the role of the proposer. We discuss implications of this joint decision–response time analysis. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

真实和虚拟金钱奖赏影响风险决策行为*

在风险情境下人类如何决策是长久以来心理学和经济学研究中一个极具挑战性的核心问题。众多研究采用真实或虚拟金钱作为奖赏强化物来探索风险决策行为的过程和机制,但对金钱奖赏真实性如何影响决策了解很少。仿真气球冒险任务(BART：Balloon Analogue Risk Task)可以在实验室条件下有效评估个体在真实社会中的风险行为。本研究采用 BART任务,通过两个实验探讨和比较了真实与虚拟金钱奖赏对风险决策行为的影响。实验一的结果发现,与虚拟金钱奖赏相比,真实金钱奖赏情境下的风险决策更容易受上一次决策结果的影响,上一次决策失败会导致被试的风险偏好水平显著降低(平均吹气球的次数显著减少),同时决策失败(气球吹爆)次数也显著减少,提示真实金钱奖赏下有更强的反馈学习效应。实验二重复了实验一的结果,并进一步发现,虚拟金钱奖赏的幅度对被试的风险决策行为没有影响,而真实金钱奖赏的幅度能显著改变被试的风险决策行为,较大幅度的真实金钱奖赏可以显著降低被试的风险偏好水平,但这种奖赏幅度对风险偏好的调控效应只对感觉寻求水平低的被试有效,感觉寻求水平高的被试不受影响。这些发现表明真实与虚拟金钱奖赏对风险决策行为有不同的影响。我们的结果可以用风险决策的后悔理论或齐当别模型来解释。     

When do people cooperate? The neuroeconomics of prosocial decision making

Understanding the roots of prosocial behavior is an interdisciplinary research endeavor that has generated an abundance of empirical data across many disciplines. This review integrates research findings from different fields into a novel theoretical framework that can account for when prosocial behavior is likely to occur. Specifically, we propose that the motivation to cooperate (or not), generated by the reward system in the brain (extending from the striatum to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex), is modulated by two neural networks: a cognitive control system (centered on the lateral prefrontal cortex) that processes extrinsic cooperative incentives, and/or a social cognition system (including the temporo-parietal junction, the medial prefrontal cortex and the amygdala) that processes trust and/or threat signals. The independent modulatory influence of incentives and trust on the decision to cooperate is substantiated by a growing body of neuroimaging data and reconciles the apparent paradox between economic versus social rationality in the literature, suggesting that we are in fact wired for both. Furthermore, the theoretical framework can account for substantial behavioral heterogeneity in prosocial behavior. Based on the existing data, we postulate that self-regarding individuals (who are more likely to adopt an economically rational strategy) are more responsive to extrinsic cooperative incentives and therefore rely relatively more on cognitive control to make (un)cooperative decisions, whereas other-regarding individuals (who are more likely to adopt a socially rational strategy) are more sensitive to trust signals to avoid betrayal and recruit relatively more brain activity in the social cognition system. Several additional hypotheses with respect to the neural roots of social preferences are derived from the model and suggested for future research.     

Reinforcement sensitivity theory predicts positive and negative affect in daily life

Laboratory studies of Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory have associated sensitivity to punishment (SP) with negative affect and sensitivity to reward (SR) with positive affect. However, few studies have examined the expression of these systems and their response to cues of reward in daily life. The current study employed experience sampling methodology (ESM) to assess the association of SP and SR with affect and perceptions of situations in daily life. SP was positively associated with negative affect and negatively associated with positive affect in daily life, whereas SR was associated with positive affect and one aspect of negative affect, irritability/anger. Furthermore, high SP participants experienced smaller increases in positive affect and smaller decreases in negative affect in some situations that were perceived as positive, in comparison to low SP participants. In contrast, high SR participants experienced greater decreases in negative affect in some situations that were perceived as positive, in comparison to low SR participants.     

Sex differences in the reciprocal relationships between mild and severe corporal punishment and children's internalizing problem behavior in a Chinese sample

The study aimed to investigate the sex differences in the reciprocal relations between parental corporal punishment and child internalizing problem behavior in China. Four hundred fifty-four Chinese elementary school-age children completed measures of their parental corporal punishment toward them and their own internalizing problem behavior at two time points, 6 months apart. Structural equation modeling revealed that both parental mild and severe corporal punishment significantly predicted child internalizing problem behavior for girls, but only parental severe corporal punishment marginally predicted child internalizing problem behavior for boys; child internalizing problem behavior predicted both mild and severe corporal punishment for boys but not for girls. The findings highlight the important role of severity of corporal punishment and child sex in understanding the relations between parental corporal punishment and child internalizing problem behavior and have implications for the intervention efforts aimed at reducing child internalizing symptoms or parental corporal punishment in China.     

Further evaluation of response interruption and redirection as treatment for stereotypy

The effects of 2 forms of response interruption and redirection (RIRD)-motor RIRD and vocal RIRD-were examined with 4 boys with autism to evaluate further the effects of this intervention and its potential underlying mechanisms. In Experiment 1, the effects of motor RIRD and vocal RIRD on vocal stereotypy and appropriate vocalizations were compared for 2 participants. In Experiment 2, the effects of both RIRD procedures on both vocal and motor stereotypy and appropriate vocalizations were compared with 2 additional participants. Results suggested that RIRD was effective regardless of the procedural variation or topography of stereotypy and that vocal RIRD functioned as a punisher. This mechanism was further explored with 1 participant by manipulating the schedule of RIRD in Experiment 3. Results were consistent with the punishment interpretation.     

Improving judgement with prepaid expert advice

Decision makers (“Judges”) often make decisions after obtaining advice from an Advisor. The two parties often share a psychological “contract” about what each contributes in expertise to the decision and receives in monetary outcomes from it. In a laboratory experiment, we varied Advisor Experitise and the opportunity for monetary rewards. As expected, these manipulations influenced advice quality, advice taking, and Judge post‐advice decision quality. The main contribution of the study, however, was the manipulation of the timing of monetary rewards (before or after the advising interaction). We found, as predicted, that committing money for expert—but not novice—advice increases Judges' use of advice and their subsequent estimation accuracy. Implications for advice giving and taking are discussed. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

建立诚信社会应该有制度性的奖惩安排

诚信不仅是一种美德,而且是做人、做事的基本要求。良好的社会应该是人与人之间相互信任的诚信社会。为了形成诚信文化,社会应该对不诚实行为进行惩罚,而且这种惩罚应该有一种制度性的安排,在这种安排中政府的诚信是关键的环节。     

Judgments in a hurry: Time pressure affects how judges assess unfairly shared losses and unfairly shared gains

Human society has evolved to allow third parties—the court system, parents or other societal arbitrators—to punish norm violators and compensate victims. Few studies explore the effect of stress or time pressure on a third‐party judge. Under time pressure, people will likely show a more instinctual reaction or judgment style. We investigated third‐party punishment and compensation within the context of unfairly shared losses and gains in a dictator game under time pressure. Our results show that under no time pressure, participants were inclined to punish dictators who unfairly split windfall gains; however, participants chose to compensate victims more than punish the norm‐violating dictators in the context of unfairly shared losses. With added time pressure, third‐parties were disposed to inflict punishment upon the dictator in both the gain and loss contexts—punishment became the action of choice. Our results shed light on the way observed behavior and stress affect social cognition and decision making in the context of altruistic social interventions and the enforcement of social norms.     

社会互动视角下人际公平形成的脑机制

最后通牒博弈任务被广泛用以探究公平行为, 以往研究大多集中于对博弈中某一方决策行为和神经机制的探讨, 但是人际公平可能是互动双方重复博弈的结果。因此只考察单个大脑活动, 并不足以揭示由互动双方共同完成的社会认知活动的脑机制。因此, 本研究结合修改版的最后通牒博弈任务和基于fNIRS的超扫描技术, 从群体脑水平上考察人际公平形成的脑机制。行为结果显示, 相比无惩罚条件, 惩罚下提议者的分配金额更高, 且惩罚力度越强, 分配越趋近公平分配。fNIRS的结果显示, 惩罚下右侧背外侧前额叶皮层、顶下小叶和颞-顶联合区的脑间活动同步性显著强于无惩罚条件, 而且两条件的分配金额差异越大, 右侧顶下小叶的脑间活动同步性差异也越大。综上, 脑间活动同步性可以作为惩罚下人际公平形成的客观脑指标, 研究为探讨人际公平的内在机制提供了新的视角。