Graduate Institute of International Human Resource Development, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan.
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
Hum Brain Mapp. 2022 Oct 1;43(14):4422-4432. doi: 10.1002/hbm.25963. Epub 2022 Jun 4.
Social power differences fundamentally shape the behavioral interaction dynamics of groups and societies. While it has long been recognized that individual socio-cultural preferences mitigate social interactions involving persons of power, there is limited empirical data on the underlying neural correlates. To bridge this gap, we asked university student participants to decide whether they were willing to engage in social activities involving their teachers (higher power status), classmates (equal power status), or themselves (control) while functional brain images were acquired. Questionnaires assessed participants' preferences for power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and cultural intelligence. As expected, participants generally accepted more social interactions with classmates than teachers. Also, left inferior frontal activity was higher when accepting than when rejecting social interactions with teachers. Critically, power distance preferences further modulated right lateral frontoparietal activity contrasting approach relative to avoidance decisions towards teachers. In addition, uncertainty avoidance modulated activity in medial frontal, precuneus, and left supramarginal areas distinguishing approach decisions towards teachers relative to classmates. Cultural intelligence modulated neural responses to classmate approach/avoidance decisions in anterior cingulate and left parietal areas. Overall, functional activities in distinct brain networks reflected different personal socio-cultural preferences despite observed social decisions to interact with others of differential power status. Such findings highlight that social approach or avoidance behaviors towards powerful persons involves differential subjective neural processes possibly involved in computing implicit social utility.
社会权力差异从根本上塑造了群体和社会的行为互动动态。虽然人们早就认识到，个人的社会文化偏好会减轻涉及权力人物的社会互动，但关于潜在的神经相关性的实证数据有限。为了弥补这一差距，我们要求大学生参与者在获得功能脑图像的同时，决定他们是否愿意参与涉及他们的老师（更高权力地位）、同学（同等权力地位）或自己（控制）的社交活动。问卷调查评估了参与者对权力距离、不确定性规避和文化智力的偏好。正如预期的那样，参与者通常更愿意接受与同学的更多社交互动，而不是与老师的社交互动。此外，当接受而不是拒绝与老师的社交互动时，左侧额下回的活动更高。至关重要的是，权力距离偏好进一步调节了右侧额顶叶的活动，对比了接近相对于回避决策朝向老师。此外，不确定性规避调节了内侧额、楔前叶和左侧缘上回区域的活动，区分了朝向老师的接近决策与朝向同学的接近决策。文化智力调节了前扣带和左侧顶叶区域对同学接近/回避决策的神经反应。总的来说，尽管观察到与不同权力地位的人进行社交互动的社会决策，但不同大脑网络中的功能活动反映了不同的个人社会文化偏好。这些发现强调了，对有权势的人的社交接近或回避行为涉及可能涉及计算隐含社交效用的不同主观神经过程。
