School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China.
Shanghai Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China.
Sci Rep. 2017 Oct 18;7(1):13498. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-13790-6.
Numerous studies have revealed the key role of social pressure on individuals' decision-making processes. However, the impact of social pressure on unfairness-related decision-making processes remains unclear. In the present study, we investigated how social pressure modulated men's and women's responses in an ultimatum game. Twenty women and eighteen men played the ultimatum game as responders in the scanner, where fair and unfair offers were tendered by proposers acting alone (low pressure) or by proposers endorsed by three supporters (high pressure). Results showed that men rejected more, whereas women accepted more unfair offers in the high versus low pressure context. Neurally, pregenual anterior cingulate cortex activation in women positively predicted their acceptance rate difference between contexts. In men, stronger right anterior insula activation and increased connectivity between right anterior insula and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex were observed when they receiving unfair offers in the high than low pressure context. Furthermore, more bilateral anterior insula and left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex activations were found when men rejected (relative to accepted) unfair offers in the high than low pressure context. These findings highlighted gender differences in the modulation of behavioral and neural responses to unfairness by social pressure.
许多研究揭示了社会压力对个体决策过程的关键作用。然而，社会压力对不公平相关决策过程的影响尚不清楚。在本研究中，我们调查了社会压力如何调节男性和女性在最后通牒博弈中的反应。20 名女性和 18 名男性作为响应者在扫描仪中玩最后通牒游戏，其中公平和不公平的提议由单独的提议者（低压力）或由三个支持者认可的提议者（高压力）提出。结果表明，在高压力与低压力环境下，男性拒绝的更多，而女性接受的不公平提议更多。从神经学上看，女性前扣带回皮质前部的活动与她们在不同环境下接受不公平提议的接受率差异呈正相关。在男性中，当他们在高压力环境下收到不公平的提议时，右侧前岛叶的激活更强，右侧前岛叶和背侧前扣带皮质之间的连接增加。此外，当男性在高压力环境下拒绝（相对于接受）不公平的提议时，发现双侧前岛叶和左侧背外侧前额叶皮质的激活更多。这些发现强调了社会压力对不公平行为和神经反应的调节存在性别差异。
