Corticostriatal connectivity is associated with the reduction of intergroup bias and greater impartial giving in youth

Abstract

Although prosocial behavior is preferentially directed toward the in-group across many species, prioritizing the outcomes of both the in- and out-group earlier in development can reduce intergroup biases. The current study examined the role of corticostriatal recruitment and connectivity in buffering the effect of intergroup bias on costly giving behavior during childhood and adolescence, a period when other-oriented preferences and associated brain functions undergo significant change. During functional magnetic resonance imaging, youth (n = 51; 8–16 years) made decisions that could potentially benefit in-group and out-group peers at a cost to themselves. Youth were more prosocial toward in-group relative to out-group peers, but were relatively more prosocial to out-group peers when there was a greater discrepancy between potential rewards for others over oneself (i.e., higher reward inequity). Although they showed no differences in corticostriatal activation, youth evinced greater connectivity between the ventral striatum (VS) and posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) when considering more inequitable prosocial decisions that favored the outcomes of out-group peers, which attenuated intergroup biases in prosocial behavior. We found no age-related differences at the behavioral or neural level, suggesting that in-group preferences already bias prosocial behavior and its neurocognitive processes by late childhood and do not change across adolescence.