Gong Xu, Sanfey Alan G
Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud Univeristy Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
PLoS One. 2017 Apr 7;12(4):e0175472. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0175472. eCollection 2017.
Successful navigation of our complex social world requires the capability to recognize and judge the relative status of others. Hence, social comparison processes are of great importance in our interactions, informing us of our relative standing and in turn potentially motivating our behavior. However, so far few studies have examined in detail how social comparison can influence interpersonal decision-making. One aspect of social decision-making that is of particular importance is cooperative behavior, and identifying means of maintaining and promoting cooperation in the provision of public goods is of vital interest to society. Here, we manipulated social comparison by grading performance rankings on a reaction time task, and then measured cooperative decisions via a modified Public Goods Game (PGG). Findings revealed that individuals ranked highest tended to be more cooperative as compared to those who placed in the bottom rank. Interestingly, this effect was regardless of whether the comparison group members were the subsequent players in the PGG or not, and this effect was stronger in those with higher social orientation. In summary, the present research shows how different social comparison processes (assessed via social rankings) can operate in our daily interaction with others, demonstrating an important effect on cooperative behavior.
在我们复杂的社会世界中成功导航需要具备识别和判断他人相对地位的能力。因此，社会比较过程在我们的互动中非常重要，它让我们了解自己的相对地位，进而可能激发我们的行为。然而，到目前为止，很少有研究详细考察社会比较如何影响人际决策。社会决策中一个特别重要的方面是合作行为，确定在提供公共物品时维持和促进合作的方法对社会至关重要。在这里，我们通过对反应时间任务的表现排名进行分级来操纵社会比较，然后通过修改后的公共物品博弈（PGG）来测量合作决策。研究结果显示，与排名靠后的人相比，排名最高的个体往往更具合作性。有趣的是，这种效应与比较组成员是否是PGG中的后续参与者无关，并且在社会取向较高的人身上这种效应更强。总之，本研究展示了不同的社会比较过程（通过社会排名评估）如何在我们与他人的日常互动中发挥作用，证明了其对合作行为的重要影响。
