Medial prefrontal cortex and striatum mediate the influence of social comparison on the decision process
Open accessAbstract
We compared private and social decision making to investigate the neural underpinnings of the effect of social comparison on risky choices. We measured brain activity using functional MRI while participants chose between two lotteries: in the private condition, they observed the outcome of the unchosen lottery, and in the social condition, the outcome of the lottery chosen by another person. The striatum, a reward-related brain structure, showed higher activity when participants won more than their counterpart (social gains) compared with winning in isolation and lower activity when they won less than their counterpart (social loss) compared with private loss. The medial prefrontal cortex, implicated in social reasoning, was more activated by social gains than all other events. Sensitivity to social gains influenced both brain activity and behavior during subsequent choices. Specifically, striatal activity associated with social gains predicted medial prefrontal cortex activity during social choices, and experienced social gains induced more risky and competitive behavior in later trials. These results show that interplay between reward and social reasoning networks mediates the influence of social comparison on the decision process.
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Ventral striatum activity is greater when we gain a larger reward than someone else or even lose less than someone else.
“Ventral striatum activity is greater when we gain a larger reward than someone else or even lose less than someone else 82–84.”
From The social brain and reward: Social information processing in the human striatum (2014) · cites this paper as [83]
People who show a larger ventral striatal increase for outperforming another person will take more risks to outperform someone else.
“For example, people who show a larger ventral striatal increase for outperforming another person will take more risks to outperform someone else 83.”
From The social brain and reward: Social information processing in the human striatum (2014) · cites this paper as [83]
Even when our own outcomes do not depend on other people, we prefer when our own outcomes are better than someone else's.
“Even when our own outcomes do not depend on other people, we prefer when our own outcomes are better than someone else's and we make decisions to try to gain better outcomes than someone else 82, 83.”
From The social brain and reward: Social information processing in the human striatum (2014) · cites this paper as [83]
Reward signals in the striatum are sensitive to comparisons of our own reward outcomes and status with those of other people.
“Research has suggested that reward signals in the striatum are sensitive to comparisons of our own reward outcomes and status with those of other people.”
From The social brain and reward: Social information processing in the human striatum (2014) · cites this paper as [83]
We make decisions to try to gain better outcomes than someone else.
“Even when our own outcomes do not depend on other people, we prefer when our own outcomes are better than someone else's and we make decisions to try to gain better outcomes than someone else 82, 83.”
From The social brain and reward: Social information processing in the human striatum (2014) · cites this paper as [83]
These patterns of size-independently co-evolving brain structures correspond to brain systems that have been described in electrophysiological and anatomical tract-tracing studies in non-human primates and MRI studies in humans.
“These patterns of size-independently co-evolving brain structures correspond to brain systems that have been described in electrophysiological and anatomical tract-tracing studies in non-human primates [27–31] and MRI studies in humans [32–35]”
From Brain reorganization, not relative brain size, primarily characterizes anthropoid brain evolution (2013) · cites this paper as [35]
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- Authors
- Bault, N., Joffily, M., Rustichini, A., & Coricelli, G.
- Affiliations
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- University of Minnesota (US)
- University of Southern California (US)
- Venue
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Publisher
- National Academy of Sciences
- Published
- 2011-09-06
- Volume
- 108
- Issue
- 38
- Pages
- 16044-16049
- ISSN
- 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
- 1091-6490
- PMC
- PMC3179055
- OpenAlex
- W2164444114
- Cited by
- 162
- References
- 44
- Citations by year
- 2026: 8 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 13 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 14 · 2019: 13 · 2018: 9 · 2017: 10 · 2016: 9 · 2015: 7 · 2014: 21 · 2013: 19 · 2012: 5
- FWCI
- 7.80
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- UvA-DARE (University of Amsterdam) (publishedVersion)
- UvA-DARE (University of Amsterdam) (submittedVersion)
- Iris (University of Trento) (submittedVersion)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Economic and Social Research Council (ES/G005230/1)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › General Decision Sciences › Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics
- Social Sciences › Safety Research › Experimental Behavioral Economics Studies
- Keywords
- social comparison, decision making under risk, decision-making, medial prefrontal cortex, striatum, social benefits, social loss, competitive behavior, reward processing, social reasoning
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Algorithms, Brain Mapping, Choice Behavior, Corpus Striatum, Decision Making, Female, Galvanic Skin Response, Gambling, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Models, Neurological, Psychomotor Performance, Surveys and Questionnaires, Reward, Task Performance and Analysis, Visual Perception, Prefrontal Cortex, Young Adult
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