Hao Su, Jiali Pan, Xiaomin Zhang, Xiaoqin Wang, Lina Lu, Xin Qing, Qin Liu
School of Economics and Management, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu, China.
Key Laboratory of Energy Security and Low-carbon Development, Chengdu, China.
Front Neurosci. 2023 Jun 22;17:1184601. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2023.1184601. eCollection 2023.
A contest usually involves expenditures, termed "overbidding," exceeding the theoretical Nash equilibrium. A considerable number of studies have shown that group identity can affect decision-making and competitive behavior, thus providing a new perspective on alleviating the overbidding problem. How group identity influences brain activity when competitors bid in different groups is not yet clear, however. In this study, we implemented group identity manipulation into the lottery contest game and we recorded behavioral and electroencephalography (EEG) data at the same time. Two experimental treatments were conducted to study the effect of group identity on bidding behavior. The event-related potentials (ERP) and event-related oscillations (ERO) techniques were utilized to explore brain activity differences caused by participants' different bidding behaviors under in-group and out-group conditions. Behavioral results showed that individual expenditure was significantly lower when bidding with in-group opponents than with out-group opponents. Analyses of EEG results revealed that compared to in-group conditions, greater N2 amplitudes and theta power were found under out-group conditions. To extend previous studies, we performed supplementary analysis to explore whether enhancement of group identity had effects on conflict alleviation. Behavioral results indicated that individual expenditure was significantly lower after enhancing group identity when bidding with in-group, and EEG results showed more negative N2 amplitudes, smaller P3 amplitudes and larger theta power after enhancing group identity. Collectively, these findings indicate that group identity modulated bidding behavior, and they provide insight into a mechanism to de-escalate group conflict by enhancing group identity.
一场竞赛通常涉及支出，即“过度出价”，超过理论上的纳什均衡。大量研究表明，群体认同感会影响决策和竞争行为，从而为缓解过度出价问题提供了一个新视角。然而，当竞争对手在不同群体中出价时，群体认同感如何影响大脑活动尚不清楚。在本研究中，我们将群体认同感操纵引入抽奖竞赛游戏，并同时记录行为和脑电图（EEG）数据。进行了两种实验处理，以研究群体认同感对出价行为的影响。利用事件相关电位（ERP）和事件相关振荡（ERO）技术，探讨在组内和组间条件下，参与者不同出价行为所引起的大脑活动差异。行为结果表明，与组外对手竞争时，与组内对手竞争时的个人支出显著更低。脑电图结果分析显示，与组内条件相比，组间条件下的N2波幅和θ波功率更大。为了扩展先前的研究，我们进行了补充分析，以探讨增强群体认同感是否对缓解冲突有影响。行为结果表明，增强群体认同感后，与组内对手竞争时的个人支出显著更低，脑电图结果显示，增强群体认同感后，N2波幅更负、P3波幅更小、θ波功率更大。总体而言，这些发现表明群体认同感调节了出价行为，并为通过增强群体认同感来缓和群体冲突的机制提供了见解。
