Abstract
Numerous experimental studies have replicated the social framing effect-the observation that people’s decisions related to economic benefits and feelings depend on the method of presentation. Previous neuroimaging studies have shown that the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) plays a part in the influence of framing and how individuals think about the feelings of others. Based on this, we used transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to modulate neuronal activity in the VMPFC to determine the likelihood of a direct association between VMPFC activity and the social framing effect. Subsequently, in three stimulation treatments, we assessed the presence of the social framing effect, as demonstrated by a disparity between harm degree and help degree. The findings revealed a social framing effect in the participants in the control group and the sham treatment but no social framing effect in the participants in the anodal or cathodal treatments. Furthermore, sex differences were observed in the sham treatment’s social framing effect, whereas no sex differences were observed in the anodal or cathodal treatments. The participants tended to harm the victim after receiving anodal or cathodal tDCS over the VMPFC and did not change their helping behaviour in any stimulations. Consequently, a clear causal link between the behaviour of the VMPFC and the social framing effect was found in the present research.
Highlights
Human decisions are always influenced by the way information is presented
Our results provide evidence that social decision-making is influenced by verbal representation and that the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) plays a role in the social framing effect
We found that modulating the activity of the VMPFC with transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) lowered the social framing effect
Summary
Equivalent information can be presented with positive or negative connotations depending on what features are highlighted This phenomenon is called the framing effect. Individuals tend to avoid risks when a positive frame is presented but seek risks when a tDCS Alters the Framing Effect negative frame is presented (Tversky and Kahneman, 1981) This phenomenon is a within-subjects risky-choice framing problem (Mahoney et al, 2011), which is produced by within-subjects rather than inter-subjects risk choice. Liu et al (2020) distinguished the social framing effect from the nonsocial effect according to whether a social dilemma between oneself and others is involved in the scenario In their opinion, a social framing effect manifests when changing the description of a social dilemma significantly modulates the preference of decision-makers for various options. Nonsocial framing, such as gamble framing, is thought to occur, so people can maximize the utility of their choices to be more beneficial or less risky
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