Wang Ailian, Zhu Lian, Lyu Dong, Cai Danfeng, Ma Qingguo, Jin Jia
Laboratory of Applied Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Shanghai International Studies University, 550# Dalian west Road, 200083, Shanghai, China.
School of Business and Management, Shanghai International Studies University, 200083, Shanghai, China.
Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci. 2022 Feb;22(1):99-111. doi: 10.3758/s13415-021-00934-5. Epub 2021 Aug 9.
There is ample experimental evidence showing that the proposers' social role is related to individuals' fairness perception in the Ultimatum Game (UG). However, various social roles, e.g., degree of economic neediness, have different influences on fairness perception, yet it has not been well studied. In this study, we adapted the UG paradigm and recorded electroencephalography (EEG) to probe the neural signatures of whether and how the degree of neediness influences fairness perception. Behavioral results showed that responders are prone to accept unfair offers from proposers in need more than those who are not in need. At the brain level, MFN (medial frontal negativity) was more negative-going in response to unfair than fair offers for not-in-need proposers. In contrast, we found a reversed MFN difference response to unfair and fair offers for in-need proposers, showing a strongly pure altruistic phenomenon. Moreover, we found smaller P300 amplitude was induced in the proposer-in-need condition, compared with its counterpart, while a negative correlation between empathy rating and P300 amplitude in the proposer-in-need condition regardless of the offers' fairness. The current results indicate that the degree of neediness might reduce fairness perception by promoting the empathic concern toward the in-need proposers rather than decreasing the empathic concern for the not-in-need proposers.
有大量实验证据表明，在最后通牒博弈（UG）中，提议者的社会角色与个体的公平感相关。然而，各种社会角色，如经济贫困程度，对公平感有不同影响，但尚未得到充分研究。在本研究中，我们采用UG范式并记录脑电图（EEG），以探究贫困程度是否以及如何影响公平感的神经特征。行为结果表明，与非贫困提议者相比，响应者更容易接受贫困提议者的不公平提议。在大脑层面，对于非贫困提议者，内侧额叶负波（MFN）对不公平提议的反应比对公平提议的反应更负向。相比之下，我们发现贫困提议者对不公平和公平提议的MFN差异反应相反，呈现出强烈的纯粹利他现象。此外，我们发现与非贫困提议者相比，贫困提议者条件下诱发的P300波幅更小，且在贫困提议者条件下，无论提议是否公平，共情评分与P300波幅之间呈负相关。目前的结果表明，贫困程度可能通过促进对贫困提议者的共情关注而非减少对非贫困提议者的共情关注来降低公平感。
