Abstract
Making a request is a common occurrence during social interactions. In most social contexts, requesters may impose punishments and many behavioral studies have focused on the differential effects of reasonable and unreasonable requests during such interactions. However, few studies have explored whether reasonable or unreasonable requests involve differential neurocognitive mechanisms. In this study, we used transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to investigate the mechanistic effects of request within the context of peer punishment. We used a modified ultimatum game (UG) task as well as a modified dictator game (DG) task. Both unreasonable and reasonable requests induced the proposer to increase their monetary offer for both tasks. Moreover, in the modified UG task, cathodal tDCS over the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (rDLPFC) significantly decreased the effect of an unreasonable request when compared to sham stimulation. Cathodal stimulation did not impact the effect of a reasonable request on the modified UG task. For the modified DG task, no tDCS effect for either an unreasonable or reasonable request was observed. These findings suggest that rDLPFC was only involved in decision-making processes during unreasonable requests when there was an opportunity for peer punishment. Moreover, our results indicate that reasonable and unreasonable requests involve differential neurocognitive mechanisms in the context of possible peer punishment.
Highlights
Making a request is a widespread phenomenon during social interactions
For the modified dictator game (DG) task, no transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) effect for either an unreasonable or reasonable request was observed. These findings suggest that right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (rDLPFC) was only involved in decision-making processes during unreasonable requests when there was an opportunity for peer punishment
The results suggest that the proposer may perceive an unreasonable request as a threat when there is an opportunity for costly peer punishment (Rankin, 2003, 2006)
Summary
Making a request is a widespread phenomenon during social interactions. It is a useful, non-confrontational tactic to elicit a targeted response to a requester’s demand without external pressure (e.g., sanction, reputation). Experimental studies of charitable donation have used a two-player dictator game (DG) to investigate the effects of a request In this game, one player (proposer) suggests how an endowment will be split between the proposer and the other player (responder) who is forced to accept the offer (Bohnet and Frey, 1999; Charness and Rabin, 2005; Rankin, 2006; Andreoni and Rao, 2011). Larger reasonable requests resulted in larger offers whereas larger unreasonable requests resulted in smaller offers This result was found by Andreoni and Rao (2011), with other experimental studies confirming the power of the request in real-world situations with ecological validity (DellaVigna et al, 2012; Blanchard et al, 2016; Andreoni et al, 2017).
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