Gain-loss framing effects in dilemmas of trust and reciprocity

Charting the neuroscience of interpersonal trust: A bibliographic literature review

Interpersonal trust is essential for societal well-being, underpinning relationships from individuals to institutions. Neuroscience research on trust has advanced swiftly since 2001. While quantitative reviews, meta-analyses, and theoretical frameworks have effectively synthesized trust neuroscience research, bibliometric analysis remains underutilized. Our bibliometric analysis aimed to provide a comprehensive overview of trust neuroscience's current state and future directions by examining its historical development, key contributors, geographic distribution, methodological paradigms, influential works, thematic trends, and overall impact. This field has been characterized by the input of a few key contributors through international collaboration, with significant contributions from the U.S., China, the Netherlands, and Germany. Research predominantly utilizes the trust game and fMRI, with a rising focus on neural networks, general trust, and differentiating behavioral from attitudinal trust. Integrating insights from psychology, economics, and sociology, this interdisciplinary field holds promise for advancing our understanding of trust through a neurobiological lens. In conclusion, our bibliographic literature review provides valuable insights and guidance for scholars, spotlighting potential avenues for further investigation in this fast-growing field.

Ethnic discrimination unlearned: experience in the repeated Trust Game reduces trust bias

Introduction

Discrimination toward ethnic minorities is a persistent societal problem. One reason behind this is a bias in trust: people tend to trust their ingroup and comparatively distrust outgroups.

Methods

In this study, we investigated whether and how people change their explicit trust bias with respect to ethnicity based on behavioral interactions with in- and outgroup members in a modified Trust Game.

Results

Subjects' initial explicit trust bias disappeared after the game. The change was largest for ingroup members who behaved unfairly, and the reduction of trust bias generalized to a small sample of new in- and outgroup members. Reinforcement learning models showed subjects' learning was best explained by a model with only one learning rate, indicating that subjects learned from trial outcomes and partner types equally during investment.

Discussion

We conclude that subjects can reduce bias through simple learning, in particular by learning that ingroup members can behave unfairly.

Does Fear of the New Coronavirus Lead to Low-Carbon Behaviors: The Moderating Effect of Outcome Framing

PURPOSE

Air pollution has been found to aggravate the infection and mortality of COVID-19, leading to increasing attention on pro-environmental behaviors. Considering individuals' psychological distance from COVID-19, this research aims to examine the relationship between fear of COVID-19, air pollution concern, and low-carbon behaviors.

METHODS

Two survey-based studies were conducted in this research. Study 1 consisted of 323 participants and examined the relationships between psychological distance (PD) from COVID-19, fear of COVID-19, air pollution concern, and low-carbon behaviors. Study 2 identified the moderating effect of outcome framing using an intergroup experiment in which 304 participants were randomly assigned to two groups (gain framing vs loss framing).

RESULTS

The results of Study 1 showed that the closer the PD was, the higher the fear was. Fear of COVID-19 and low-carbon behaviors were positively associated. Additionally, air pollution concern acted as a mediator in their relationship. The results of the moderating effect test in Study 2 showed that fear and air pollution concern led to higher low-carbon behavioral intention within gain framing than within loss framing.

CONCLUSION

This research revealed that personal fear of public health emergencies will lead to environmental pollution concern and pro-environmental behaviors, and information from the outside plays a moderating role. The results provide implications for policy advocacy of the health and environmental sectors and for guiding people's low-carbon behaviors.

Arbitration between insula and temporoparietal junction subserves framing-induced boosts in generosity during social discounting

Generosity toward others declines across the perceived social distance to them. Here, participants chose between selfish and costly generous options in two conditions: in the gain frame, a generous choice yielded a gain to the other; in the loss frame, it entailed preventing the loss of a previous endowment to the other. Social discounting was reduced in the loss compared to the gain frame, implying increased generosity toward strangers. Using neuroimaging tools, we found that while activity in the temporoparietal junction (TPJ) and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) was associated with generosity in the gain frame, the insular cortex was selectively recruited during generous choices in the loss frame. We provide support for a network-model according to which TPJ and insula differentially subserve generosity by modulating value signals in the VMPFC in a frame-dependent fashion. These results extend our understanding of the insula role in nudging prosocial behavior in humans.

Acute stress counteracts framing-induced generosity boosts in social discounting in young healthy men

Most individuals are willing to forego resources for the benefit of others, but their willingness to do so typically declines as a function of social distance between the donor and recipient, a phenomenon termed social discounting. We recently showed that participants were more altruistic towards strangers when a costly generous choice was framed as preventing a monetary loss to the other rather than granting them a gain. Here, we asked if acute stress would diminish this frame effect on social discounting. To test this hypothesis, 102 male participants engaged in either the Maastricht Acute Stress Task, or a matched, non-stressful control procedure. They subsequently played a two-frame dictator game version of the social discounting paradigm. Whereas both frame conditions were economically equivalent, in the give frame, participants were asked how much money they would share with other persons on variable social distance levels, and in the take frame, they decided on how much money to take away from the others. While non-stressed control participants showed increased generosity toward strangers in the take compared to the give frame, similar to previous findings of our group, stress attenuated this frame effect on social discounting by reducing generosity toward strangers in the take frame. These findings confirm that stress can corrupt prosocial motives and social norm compliance, diminishing prosocial tendencies toward unfamiliar others.

The Reputational Consequences of Generalized Trust

The present research examines the reputational consequences of generalized trust. High-trust individuals are seen as moral and sociable, but not necessarily competent. When controlling for other traits, there is a negative relationship between trust and perceived competence (Studies 1 and 2). Compared with optimism, generalized trust has stronger effects on morality and sociability (Study 2). Furthermore, people judge those who do not discriminate between trustworthy and untrustworthy groups (unconditional trustors) more negatively than those who only trust groups that are, in fact, trustworthy (conditional trustors). Unconditional trust and unconditional distrust are both viewed negatively (Study 3), even after controlling for attitudinal similarity (Study 4). Critically, both generalized trust and discriminant ability (i.e., conditional trust) have independent reputational benefits (Study 5). These studies suggest that generalized trust plays an important role in how we perceive and judge others.

Ambiguity and expectation-neglect in dilemmas of interpersonal trust

Recent research suggests that people discount or neglect expectations of reciprocity in trust dilemmas. We examine the underlying processes and boundary conditions of this effect, finding that expectations have stronger effects on trust when they are made accessible and when they are provided as objective probabilities (Study 1). Objective expectations have stronger effects when they are based on precise, rather than ambiguous, probabilities (Study 2). We also find that trust decisions differ from individual risk-taking decisions: people are more willing to trust, and expectations have stronger effects on trusting behavior (Study 2). These results show that the availability and ambiguity of expectations shape trust decisions, and that people differentially weight expectations in dilemmas of trust and individual risk-taking.