Punishment cost affects third-parties' behavioral and neural responses to unfairness

Severity and deservedness determine signalled trustworthiness in third party punishment

“…The current experiments fill an important gap in the research as they isolate and explore the effect of deservedness and severity on perceived trustworthiness within commonly used TPP experimental paradigms. The current research enables quantification of signalled trustworthiness via other experimental paradigms such as trust games and partner preference choice tasks, and thus provides crucial exploratory data as the basis for further research examining TPP in more naturalistic environments (Cheng et al, 2022; Falk et al, 2005; Jordan & Rand, 2017).…”

The neurocomputational signature of decision-making for unfair offers in females under acute psychological stress

“…Moreover, we found that under the MU condition, the activation of the PFC in the stress group exhibited a stronger relationship with sensitivity to disadvantageous unfairness and fairness adaptability. These findings suggest that although acute psychosocial stress enhances mentalizing processes and reactivity in the rTPJ, the monitoring and inhibition of bottom-up emotional reactions by the frontal lobe are still necessary to facilitate behavioral changes in fairness-related decisions ( Cheng et al, 2022 ; Guo et al, 2014 ; Speer and Boksem, 2019 ; Speitel et al, 2019 ).…”

“…Notably, the existing studies examining the influence of acute psychosocial stress on decision-making during the UG have yet to investigate its underlying neural mechanisms. Previous studies have identified various brain regions associated with decision-making during the UG, including the right temporoparietal junction (rTPJ), prefrontal cortex (PFC), anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), the bilateral anterior insula ( Cheng et al, 2017 , 2022 ; Gabay et al, 2014 ; Guo et al, 2014 ; Lois et al, 2020 ; Ogawa et al, 2023 ; Pan et al, 2022 ; Servaas et al, 2015 ; Speer and Boksem, 2019 ; Speitel et al, 2019 ; Wu et al, 2015 , 2023 ). Given the important role of the rTPJ in mentalization processes, also known as theory of mind (ToM) ( Ogawa and Kameda, 2020 ; Park et al, 2021 ), it has been observed to be responsive to the disadvantageous inequity caused by unfair proposals and linked to decision utility that can affect the final decision-making behavior ( Guroglu et al, 2010 ; Ogawa et al, 2023 ; Wu et al, 2023 ).…”

“…Given the important role of the rTPJ in mentalization processes, also known as theory of mind (ToM) ( Ogawa and Kameda, 2020 ; Park et al, 2021 ), it has been observed to be responsive to the disadvantageous inequity caused by unfair proposals and linked to decision utility that can affect the final decision-making behavior ( Guroglu et al, 2010 ; Ogawa et al, 2023 ; Wu et al, 2023 ). The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) has been suggested to be involved in cognitive control during UG ( Servaas et al, 2015 ; Speer and Boksem, 2019 ), assisting responders in effectively navigating conflicts that may arise from unfair allocations ( Cheng et al, 2022 ; Guo et al, 2014 ; Zhou et al, 2014 ). A study using transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) found that increasing activation in the right dlPFC resulted in higher acceptance rate in the UG ( Speitel et al, 2019 ).…”

“…In our study, we formulated three specific predictions. Firstly, considering the known sensitivity of key brain regions in the UG, such as rTPJ and PFC, to stress exposure ( Ashare et al, 2016 ; Cheng et al, 2022 ; Datta and Arnsten, 2019 ; Ogawa and Kameda, 2020 ; Speer and Boksem, 2019 ), we anticipated observing notable differences in activation within these brain regions measured using fNIRS. Secondly, given the documented influence of trait coping styles on post-stress behaviors, particularly the escalation of negative emotions and rumination associated with NC ( Han et al, 2023 ; Jiang and Zhu, 1999 ; Yang et al, 2021 ; Zhou et al, 2016 ), we hypothesized that these coping styles would significantly modulate the interplay between acute psychosocial stress, decision-making in the UG, and corresponding brain activity.…”