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Randomized Controlled Trial
. 2017 Mar 9:7:44062.
doi: 10.1038/srep44062.

Processing of fair and unfair offers in the ultimatum game under social observation

Jutta Peterburs  1 , Rolf Voegler  1 , Roman Liepelt  2   3 , Anna Schulze  1 , Saskia Wilhelm  1 , Sebastian Ocklenburg  4 , Thomas Straube  1
Affiliations
Randomized Controlled Trial

Processing of fair and unfair offers in the ultimatum game under social observation

Jutta Peterburs et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

Social context influences social decisions and outcome processing, partially depending on inter-individual differences. The present study investigated social context-dependent modulation of behavior and feedback processing in the ultimatum game (UG) in relation to inter-individual differences in social anxiety. Thirty-two healthy adults completed the UG both under social observation and without observation. Offers were allegedly either randomly generated by the computer or drawn from a pool of offers from previous human players. Overall, fewer unfair than fair offers were accepted. Observation decreased acceptance rates for unfair offers. The feedback-locked feedback-related negativity (FRN) but not the P3 was modulated by observation and fairness, with stronger differential coding of unfair/fair under observation. This effect was strongly correlated with individual levels of social anxiety, with higher levels associated with stronger differential fairness coding in the FRN under observation. Behavioral findings support negative reciprocity in the UG, suggesting that (implicit) social norms overwrite explicit task instructions even in the absence of (alleged) social interaction. Observation enhances this effect. Fairness coding in the FRN was modulated by observation as a function of social anxiety, supporting the notion that altered sensitivity to equality in a social context may contribute to social avoidance in socially anxious individuals.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Schematic illustration of the time course of stimulus presentation in the present ultimatum game task.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Mean acceptance rates according to fairness, source and condition.
Figure 3
Figure 3. Offer-locked grand-average ERPs at electrodes FCz and Pz according to source, fairness, and observation condition, and scalp topographies of the unfair-fair difference signal in the FRN time window and the fair-unfair difference signal in the P3 time windows according to source and observation condition.
Figure 4
Figure 4. Feedback-locked grand-average ERPs at electrodes FCz and Pz according to source, fairness, and observation condition, and scalp topographies of the unfair-fair difference signal in the FRN time window and the fair-unfair difference signal in the and P3 time windows according to source and observation condition.
Figure 5
Figure 5. Scatter plots with regression lines illustrating the relationship between LSAS scores and FRN magnitude differences [(unfairobservation − fairobservation) − (unfaircontrol − faircontrol)].
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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