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Coenjaerts M, Pape F, Santoso V, Grau F, Stoffel-Wagner B, Philipsen A, Schultz J, Hurlemann R, Scheele D. Sex differences in economic decision-making: Exogenous estradiol has opposing effects on fairness framing in women and men. Eur Neuropsychopharmacol 2021; 50:46-54. [PMID: 33957337 DOI: 10.1016/j.euroneuro.2021.04.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/10/2020] [Revised: 03/23/2021] [Accepted: 04/11/2021] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
Abstract
Burgeoning evidence indicates that women are more sensitive to the context of an offer and show a stronger propensity to adjust their behavior with changing fairness frames. We evaluated whether the sex hormone estradiol and associated stereotypical beliefs contribute to fairness framings by administering topical estradiol (2 mg) to 108 healthy women and 104 heathy men in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled between-subject study design. Participants played the role of the responder in a modified version of the Ultimatum Game (UG), in which identical offers for the division of a given amount of money were framed as either fair or unfair. Furthermore, participants completed an unframed UG and a delayed discounting task to probe possible effects of estradiol on altruistic preferences and delay gratification. Our results show that women were more sensitive to fairness frames than men. Intriguingly, however, estradiol had sex-specific effects on fairness sensitivity by increasing the acceptance rate of proposals with a fair frame in men and reducing it in women. Furthermore, the mere belief of receiving estradiol treatment significantly increased the acceptance of unfair-framed offers in both sexes, but estradiol did not significantly alter the response to unframed offers and impulsive decision-making. Collectively, our findings indicate that estradiol has opposing effects on the sensitivity to the perceived fairness of economic offers in women and men. The profound effects of estradiol treatment and stereotypical beliefs provide support for the notion that sex differences in fairness framing are rooted in both biological and environmental factors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marie Coenjaerts
- Division of Medical Psychology, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Bonn, Venusberg-Campus 1, 53127 Bonn, Germany.
| | - Frederike Pape
- Division of Medical Psychology, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Bonn, Venusberg-Campus 1, 53127 Bonn, Germany
| | - Virginia Santoso
- Division of Medical Psychology, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Bonn, Venusberg-Campus 1, 53127 Bonn, Germany
| | - Franziska Grau
- Division of Medical Psychology, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Bonn, Venusberg-Campus 1, 53127 Bonn, Germany
| | - Birgit Stoffel-Wagner
- Institute for Clinical Chemistry and Clinical Pharmacology, University Hospital Bonn, 53127 Bonn, Germany
| | - Alexandra Philipsen
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Bonn, 53127 Bonn, Germany
| | - Johannes Schultz
- Center for Economics and Neuroscience, University of Bonn, 53127 Bonn, Germany; Institute of Experimental Epileptology and Cognition Research, University of Bonn, 53127 Bonn, Germany
| | - René Hurlemann
- Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine & Health Sciences, University of Oldenburg, Hermann-Ehlers-Str. 7, 26129 Oldenburg, Germany; Research Center Neurosensory Science, University of Oldenburg, 26129 Oldenburg, Germany
| | - Dirk Scheele
- Division of Medical Psychology, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Bonn, Venusberg-Campus 1, 53127 Bonn, Germany; Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine & Health Sciences, University of Oldenburg, Hermann-Ehlers-Str. 7, 26129 Oldenburg, Germany.
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Gosling CJ, Caparos S, Moutier S. The interplay between the importance of a decision and emotion in decision-making. Cogn Emot 2020; 34:1260-1270. [PMID: 32193991 DOI: 10.1080/02699931.2020.1741340] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/09/2023]
Abstract
Decision-making literature has demonstrated that individuals' preferences are strongly affected by the way in which choices are presented. This cognitive bias, termed the framing effect, is influenced by the importance of the possible outcomes that a decision can have. However, the direction of this influence remains poorly understood. The aim of this paper was to examine the role of the importance of a decision in framing susceptibility and to explore a potential mechanism underlying this influence. Our first study revealed that participants display a framing effect when their decision implies a high importance outcome, but resist framing manipulation when their decision implies a low importance outcome. Our second study confirmed that an increase in the importance of a decision is associated with increasing framing susceptibility. Moreover, a moderated mediation analysis revealed that the more a decision was important, the more the gain and loss frames aroused opposite emotions, and this accounted for the increase in framing susceptibility. The results of these two studies confirmed that an increase in the importance of a decision is associated with increasing framing susceptibility and suggest that this influence on framing susceptibility is underpinned by emotion. Implications and direction for future studies are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Corentin J Gosling
- Department of Psychology, DysCo Lab, Paris Nanterre University, Nanterre, France
| | - Serge Caparos
- Department of Psychology, DysCo Lab, Paris 8 University, Saint-Denis, France.,Institut Universitaire de France, Paris, France
| | - Sylvain Moutier
- Department of Psychology, Laboratory of Psychopathology and Health Process, University of Paris, Paris, France
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Cherng CG, Yu L. Sex differences and the modulating effects of gonad intactness on behavioral conformity in a mouse model. CHINESE J PHYSIOL 2019; 62:245-255. [PMID: 31793460 DOI: 10.4103/cjp.cjp_42_19] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/04/2022] Open
Abstract
Although gender differences in conformity are noticed in human studies, cultural norms and psychosocial factors inevitably affect such differences. Biological factors, especially the gonadal hormones and the brain regions involved, contributing to the sex differences in behavioral conformity remained scarcely explored. To prevent psychosocial and cultural norm confounds, intact and gonadectomized male and female mice were used to assess the modulating effects of gonadal hormones on behavioral conformity and such conformity-related brain regions using an approach of choice paradigm. Intact and gonadectomized mice' choices for the nonrewarded runway were assessed when these experimental mice were alone versus with a group, consisting of three same-sex noncagemates choosing the respective experimental mice' nonrewarded runway, in a double-J-shaped maze test. Although male and female mice exhibited comparable rewarded runway choices at the conclusion of the operant training procedures and in the test individually, male mice demonstrated greater conformity index as compared to female mice when group tested. Gonadectomy, done at their 4 or 9 weeks of age, decreased males' conformity index but did not affect females' when both sexes were group tested. Such gonadectomy did not affect the conditioning or conformity index when tested individually in either sex. Female mice had higher serum corticosterone (CORT) levels when group tested as compared to the female mice tested individually and male mice. Finally, the number of FOS-staining cells in high conformity-displaying mice was found less than it in the low conformity-performing mice in the nucleus accumbens. Taken together, we conclude that testis-derived hormones, at least, play a role in enhancing behavioral conformity in male mice. CORT and nucleus accumbal neuronal activity deserve further investigation for their involvement in behavioral conformity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chianfang G Cherng
- Education Center of Humanities and Social Sciences, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Lung Yu
- Department of Physiology; Institute of Behavioral Medicine, National Cheng Kung University College of Medicine, Tainan, Taiwan
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