Cited by 180Experimental Behavioral Economics StudiesNeural and Behavioral Psychology StudiesNeuroendocrine regulation and behavior

Activity in the amygdala elicited by unfair divisions predicts social value orientation

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Haruno, Masahiko, Frith, Christopher D·2010·Nature Neuroscience

Abstract

Personality differences related to how equally people prefer to share rewards modulate amygdala activity, reports this fMRI study. This suggests that these personality differences are more likely to be due to automatic emotional processing. 'Social value orientation' characterizes individual differences in anchoring attitudes toward the division of resources. Here, by contrasting people with prosocial and individualistic orientations using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we demonstrate that degree of inequity aversion in prosocials is predictable from amygdala activity and unaffected by cognitive load. This result suggests that automatic emotional processing in the amygdala lies at the core of prosocial value orientation.

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  • People care about both themselves and others' interests, but with considerable individual variation in how they weigh equity of self-other gain and cooperation with others.

    “Recent studies of social decision-making find that people are rarely purely self-centered or altruistic: they care about both themselves and others' interests, but with considerable individual variation in how they weigh equity of self-other gain 3 and cooperation with others 3,4 during their decision-making.”
  • The amygdala has a large number of oxytocin and dopamine receptors and is strongly implicated in social cognition and social decision-making.

    “The amygdala, with a large number of oxytocin and dopamine receptors 11,12 and strongly implicated in social cognition and social decision-making 3,13 , is a prominent candidate to encode deviations from a social reference-point.”
  • The measurement of social value distance allowed quantification of the difference between the second (self-loss/other-gain) and fourth (self-gain/other-loss) quadrants, which is not feasible when only including gains or using absolute value differences.

    “This measurement allowed us to quantify the difference between the second (self-loss/other-gain pairs) and fourth (self-gain/other-loss pairs) quadrants (Fig. 1c), which is not feasible when only including gains or using absolute value differences 3,28 .”
  • Individualists focus on self-interest and personal goals when making decisions.

    “While individualists focus on self-interest and personal goals when making decisions 3,4 , oxytocin may increase prosociality by shifting reference-points to more prosocial allocations and increasing the weights of outcomes for others, possibly through amplifying the amygdala representation of social value distance.”

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Research works printed but not linked: 1

  1. [7]Tabbnia G Satpute AB Lieberman MD Pshychol Sci 2008 19 339 347 18399886

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Authors
Haruno, M., & Frith, C. D.
Affiliations
Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International (JP)
Corresponding author
Haruno, Masahiko
Venue
Nature Neuroscience
Published
2009-12-20
Volume
13
Issue
2
Pages
160-161
ISSN
  • 1097-6256 (ISSN-L)
  • 1546-1726
OpenAlex
W2039204056
Cited by
180
References
16
Citations by year
2026: 5 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 12 · 2019: 16 · 2018: 12 · 2017: 17 · 2016: 9 · 2015: 7 · 2014: 9 · 2013: 18 · 2012: 14
FWCI
24.49
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Nature Neuroscience (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
  • UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • Wellcome Trust (047963)
  • Royal Society
  • National Research Foundation
  • Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
  • Danmarks Grundforskningsfond
  • Arts and Humanities Research Council (AH/E511112/1)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Safety Research › Experimental Behavioral Economics Studies
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Neuroendocrine regulation and behavior
Keywords
amygdala, social value orientation, inequity aversion, prosocial behavior, individualism, personality differences, cognitive load, emotional reactivity
MeSH terms
Amygdala, Brain, Brain Mapping, Cognition, Emotions, Female, Humans, Interpersonal Relations, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Neuropsychological Tests, Personality, Reward, Social Behavior, Time Factors, Linear Models, Young Adult

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