Department of Social Psychology and Social Neuroscience, Institute of Psychology, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
Department of Psychology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.
Sci Rep. 2018 Jul 12;8(1):10513. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-28853-5.
Fairness norm compliance is critical in any society. However, norm compliant behavior is very heterogeneous. Some people are reliably fair (voluntary compliers). Some are fair to avoid sanctions (sanction-based compliers), and some are reliably unfair (non-compliers). These types play divergent roles in society. However, they remain poorly understood. Here, we combined neural measures (resting electroencephalography and event-related potentials) and economic paradigms to better understand these types. We found that voluntary compliers are characterized by higher baseline activation in the right temporo-parietal junction, suggesting better social cognition capacity compared to sanction-based compliers and non-compliers. The latter two types are differentiated by (a) baseline activation in the dorso-lateral prefrontal cortex, a brain area known to be involved in self-control processes, and (b) event-related potentials in a classic self-control task. Both results suggest that sanction-based compliers have better self-control capacity than non-compliers. These findings improve our understanding of fairness norm compliance. Broadly, our findings suggest that established training techniques that boost self-control might help non-compliers adhere to fairness norms.
公平规范的遵守在任何社会中都至关重要。然而，规范遵守行为具有很大的异质性。有些人是可靠的公平（自愿遵守者）。有些人是为了避免制裁而公平（基于制裁的遵守者），而有些人则是可靠的不公平（不遵守者）。这些类型在社会中扮演着不同的角色。然而，它们仍然被人们所误解。在这里，我们结合神经测量（静息脑电图和事件相关电位）和经济范式来更好地理解这些类型。我们发现，自愿遵守者的右侧颞顶联合区的基线激活较高，这表明他们的社会认知能力比基于制裁的遵守者和不遵守者更好。后两种类型则通过（a）背外侧前额叶皮层的基线激活，（b）经典自我控制任务中的事件相关电位来区分。这两个结果都表明，基于制裁的遵守者的自我控制能力强于不遵守者。这些发现提高了我们对公平规范遵守的理解。从广义上讲，我们的发现表明，提高自我控制能力的既定训练技术可能有助于不遵守者遵守公平规范。
