The Sunny Side of Fairness: Preference for Fairness Activates Reward Circuitry (and Disregarding Unfairness Activates Self-Control Circuitry)
Abstract
Little is known about the positive emotional impact of fairness or the process of resolving conflict between fairness and financial interests. In past research, fairness has covaried with monetary payoff, such that the mental processes underlying preference for fairness and those underlying preference for greater monetary outcome could not be distinguished. We examined self-reported happiness and neural responses to fair and unfair offers while controlling for monetary payoff. Compared with unfair offers of equal monetary value, fair offers led to higher happiness ratings and activation in several reward regions of the brain. Furthermore, the tendency to accept unfair proposals was associated with increased activity in right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, a region involved in emotion regulation, and with decreased activity in the anterior insula, which has been implicated in negative affect. This work provides evidence that fairness is hedonically valued and that tolerating unfair treatment for material gain involves a pattern of activation resembling suppression of negative affect.
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The first player experiences increased positive emotion and ventral striatum and medial prefrontal cortex activity when receiving fair offers from the second player, independently of the material outcome.
“Research shows that the first player experiences increased positive emotion and ventral striatum and medial prefrontal cortex activity when receiving fair offers from the second player, independently of the material outcome 93.”
From The social brain and reward: Social information processing in the human striatum (2014) · cites this paper as [93]
Striatum responses reflect the positive value of fair outcomes.
“Whereas increased responses in insular cortex have been associated with perceived unfairness of monetary outcomes 91, a growing literature suggests that striatum responses reflect the positive value of fair outcomes 73, 92, 93.”
From The social brain and reward: Social information processing in the human striatum (2014) · cites this paper as [93]
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- Authors
- Tabibnia, G., Satpute, A. B., & Lieberman, M. D.
- Affiliations
- University of California, Los Angeles (US)
- Venue
- Psychological Science
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2008-04
- Volume
- 19
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 339-347
- ISSN
- 0956-7976 (ISSN-L)
- 1467-9280
- OpenAlex
- W2110617775
- Cited by
- 552
- References
- 37
- Citations by year
- 2026: 11 · 2025: 15 · 2024: 12 · 2023: 22 · 2022: 24 · 2021: 32 · 2020: 31 · 2019: 19 · 2018: 38 · 2017: 30 · 2016: 37 · 2015: 49 · 2014: 52 · 2013: 44 · 2012: 32
- FWCI
- 94.65
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Psychological Science (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Safety Research › Experimental Behavioral Economics Studies
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social Power and Status Dynamics
- Keywords
- fairness, happiness, monetary rewards, reward processing, ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, anterior insula, emotion regulation, negative affect, social decision-making
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Affect, Cerebral Cortex, Conflict, Psychological, Female, Happiness, Humans, Male, Reward, Social Control, Informal, Social Justice, Prefrontal Cortex
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