Abstract
We have a social preference to reduce inequity in the outcomes between oneself and others. Such a preference varies according to others. We performed functional magnetic resonance imaging during an economic game to investigate how the perceived moral traits of others modulate the neural activities that underlie inequity-aversion. The participants unilaterally allocated money to three partners (good, neutral, and bad). During presentation of the good and neutral partners, the anterior region of the rostral medial frontal cortex (arMFC) showed increased functional connectivity with the caudate head and the anterior insula, respectively. Following this, participants allocated more money to the good partner, and less to the bad partner, compared with the neutral partner. The caudate head and anterior insula showed greater activation during fair allocation to the good and unfair allocation to the neutral partners, respectively. However, these regions were silent during allocations to the bad partner. Therefore, the arMFC-caudate/insula circuit encompasses distinct neural processes that underlie inequity-aversion in monetary allocations that the different moral traits of others can modulate.
Highlights
We have a social preference to reduce inequity in the outcomes between oneself and others
Our analyses revealed that the right caudate head was positively modulated by the value of the decision utility in the good partner condition (P < 0.05, one-sample t-test; the family wise error (FWE) rate was corrected at the voxel level and a voxel threshold associated with a P < 0.05 for small volume correction (SVC) was t17 = 3.53; the number of voxels in the anatomical region of interest (ROI) for SVC was 256; Table 3, Fig. 4c,e)
The participants allocated more money to good partners and less money to bad partners compared to neutral partners
Summary
We have a social preference to reduce inequity in the outcomes between oneself and others. The caudate head and anterior insula showed greater activation during fair allocation to the good and unfair allocation to the neutral partners, respectively. These regions were silent during allocations to the bad partner. Individualistic value orientation refers to a preference for maximizing outcomes only for oneself, even when one has a partner. Each individual has both types of social value orientations, and individual social preference of inequity-aversion is characterized by weighing both orientations. We investigate the neural functions that modulate individual preferences of inequity-aversion based on the moral traits of others. This function requires an evaluation of the person-specific psychological properties of others, such as personality traits and dispositions, based on their behaviour and intention in a Cognitive Science, Graduate School of Arts and Science, The University of Tokyo, Meguro-ku, Tokyo, 153-8902, Japan. 4Department of Social Psychology, Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology, The University of Tokyo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-0033, Japan. 5Department of Neurophysiology, Juntendo University, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-8421, Japan. 6Brain Science Institute, Tamagawa University, Machida, Tokyo, 194-8610, Japan. 7Support Unit for Functional MRI, RIKEN Brain Science Institute, Wako, Saitama, 351-0198, Japan. 8Laboratory for Cognitive Brain Mapping, RIKEN Brain Science Institute, Wako, Saitama, 351-0198, Japan. 9Department of Life Science, Graduate www.nature.com/scientificreports/
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