Wellcome Trust Centre for Imaging Neuroscience, Institute of Neurology, University College London, London WC1N 3BG, United Kingdom.
J Neurosci. 2011 Apr 6;31(14):5244-52. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3138-10.2011.
Perception of fairness can influence outcomes in human exchange. However, an inherent subjectivity in attribution renders it difficult to manipulate fairness experimentally. Here using a modified ultimatum game, within a varying social context, we induced a bias in human subjects' acceptance of objectively identical offers. To explain this fairness-related behavior, we use a computational model to specify metrics for the objective and contextual aspects of fairness, testing for correlations between these model parameters and brain activity determined using functional magnetic resonance imaging. We show that objective social inequality, as defined by our model, is tracked in posterior insula cortex. Crucially, this inequality is integrated with social context in posterior and mid-insula, consistent with construction of a fairness motivation that flexibly adapted to the social environment. We suggest that the dual importance of objective and contextual aspects to fairness we highlight might explain seemingly inconsistent societal phenomena, including public attitudes to income disparities.
公平感会影响人类交换中的结果。然而，归因的内在主观性使得公平感很难在实验中被操控。在这里，我们使用改良的最后通牒博弈，在不同的社会情境中，诱导人类被试对客观上相同的提议产生接受偏见。为了解释这种与公平相关的行为，我们使用计算模型来指定公平的客观和情境方面的指标，测试这些模型参数与使用功能磁共振成像确定的大脑活动之间的相关性。我们表明，由我们的模型定义的客观社会不平等在后脑岛皮层中被追踪。至关重要的是，这种不平等在后脑岛和中脑岛与社会情境相结合，这与构建一个灵活适应社会环境的公平动机是一致的。我们认为，我们强调的公平的客观和情境方面的双重重要性可能解释了看似不一致的社会现象，包括公众对收入差距的态度。
