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Kubota JT, Venezia SA, Gautam R, Wilhelm AL, Mattan BD, Cloutier J. Distrust as a form of inequality. Sci Rep 2023; 13:9901. [PMID: 37337115 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-36948-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/09/2023] [Accepted: 06/13/2023] [Indexed: 06/21/2023] Open
Abstract
Navigating social hierarchies is a ubiquitous aspect of human life. Social status shapes our thoughts, feelings, and actions toward others in various ways. However, it remains unclear how trust is conferred within hierarchies and how status-related cues are used when resources are on the line. This research fills this knowledge gap by examining how ascribed, consensus-based status appearance, and perceived status appearance impact investment decisions for high- and low-status partners during a Trust Game. In a series of pre-registered experiments, we examined the degree to which participants trusted unfamiliar others with financial investments when the only available information about that person was their socioeconomic status (SES). In Study 1, SES was ascribed. Studies 2 and 3 conveyed SES with visual antecedents (clothing). Across all three experiments, participants trusted high SES partners more than low SES partners. In addition, subjective perceptions of status based on visual cues were a stronger predictor of trust than consensus-based status judgments. This work highlights a high status-trust bias for decisions where an individual's money is on the line. In addition, high-status trust bias may occur simply because of an individual's subjective assumptions about another's rank.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jennifer T Kubota
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Delaware, 105 The Green, Newark, DE, 19716, USA.
- Department of Political Science and International Relations, University of Delaware, 18 Amstel Ave., Newark, DE, 19716, USA.
| | - Samuel A Venezia
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Delaware, 105 The Green, Newark, DE, 19716, USA
| | - Richa Gautam
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Delaware, 105 The Green, Newark, DE, 19716, USA
| | - Andrea L Wilhelm
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Delaware, 105 The Green, Newark, DE, 19716, USA
| | - Bradley D Mattan
- Vivid Seats, 24 E Washington St, Suite 900, Chicago, IL, 60602, USA
| | - Jasmin Cloutier
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Delaware, 105 The Green, Newark, DE, 19716, USA
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Barth DM, Mattan BD, Dang TP, Cloutier J. Regional and network neural activity reflect men's preference for greater socioeconomic status during impression formation. Sci Rep 2020; 10:20302. [PMID: 33219303 PMCID: PMC7679381 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-76847-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/26/2020] [Accepted: 10/15/2020] [Indexed: 12/04/2022] Open
Abstract
Evidence from social psychology suggests that men compared to women more readily display and pursue control over human resources or capital. However, studying how status and gender shape deliberate impression formation is difficult due to social desirability concerns. Using univariate and multivariate fMRI analyses (n = 65), we examined how gender and socioeconomic status (SES) may influence brain responses during deliberate but private impression formation. Men more than women showed greater activity in the VMPFC and NAcc when forming impressions of high-SES (vs. low-SES) targets. Seed partial least squares (PLS) analysis showed that this SES-based increase in VMPFC activity was associated with greater co-activation across an evaluative network for the high-SES versus low-SES univariate comparison. A data-driven task PLS analysis also showed greater co-activation in an extended network consisting of regions involved in salience detection, attention, and task engagement as a function of increasing target SES. This co-activating network was most pronounced for men. These findings provide evidence that high-SES targets elicit neural responses indicative of positivity, reward, and salience during impression formation among men. Contributions to a network neuroscience understanding of status perception and implications for gender- and status-based impression formation are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Denise M Barth
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Delaware, 105 The Green, Newark, DE, 19716, USA
| | - Bradley D Mattan
- Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania, 3620 Walnut St., Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA
| | - Tzipporah P Dang
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Delaware, 105 The Green, Newark, DE, 19716, USA
| | - Jasmin Cloutier
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Delaware, 105 The Green, Newark, DE, 19716, USA.
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