Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Affective and Social Cognitive Science, School of Psychology, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518061, China.
Research Center of Brain and Cognitive Neuroscience, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian 116029, China.
Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2021 Mar 24;16(4):439-452. doi: 10.1093/scan/nsaa167.
Social comparison is a common behavior that largely determines people's experience of decision outcome. Previous research has showed that interpersonal relationship plays a pivotal role in social comparison. In the current study, we investigated whether the manipulation of context-based relationship would affect participants' comparison of self-outcome and other-outcome. Participants first finished a trust game with likeable (dislikeable) partner and then they were involved in a gambling task and observed the outcomes for themselves and for partners. According to self-reports, participants were more satisfied with likeable partner's gains than losses only when they received gains, but they were always more satisfied with dislikeable player's losses compared to gains. Event-related potentials including the feedback-related negativity (FRN), P3 and late positive component (LPC) were sensitive to context-based relationship. Specifically, the prediction error signal (indexed by the FRN) was largest when participants received losses but dislikeable player received gains. Meanwhile, the P3 indicates that participants had stronger motivation to outperform dislikeable player. Finally, the LPC was larger when participants received the same outcomes with dislikeable players. In general, our results support the key point of the self-evaluation maintenance model that personal closeness modulates subjective sensitivity when drawing a comparison of one's outcomes with other's outcomes.
社会比较是一种常见的行为，在很大程度上决定了人们对决策结果的体验。先前的研究表明，人际关系在社会比较中起着关键作用。在本研究中，我们考察了基于情境的人际关系的操纵是否会影响参与者对自我结果和他人结果的比较。参与者首先与可爱（不可爱）的伙伴完成了一个信任游戏，然后他们参与了一个赌博任务，并观察了自己和伙伴的结果。根据自我报告，只有当参与者自己获得收益而不是损失时，他们才会对可爱伙伴的收益比对损失更满意，但他们总是对不可爱玩家的损失比对收益更满意。包括反馈相关负波（FRN）、P3 和晚期正成分（LPC）在内的事件相关电位对基于情境的关系敏感。具体来说，当参与者遭受损失而不可爱玩家获得收益时，预测误差信号（由 FRN 表示）最大。同时，P3 表明参与者有更强的动机超越不可爱玩家。最后，当参与者与不可爱玩家获得相同的结果时，LPC 更大。总的来说，我们的结果支持自我评估维持模型的要点，即个人亲密关系调节了将自己的结果与他人的结果进行比较时的主观敏感性。
