Is social decision making for close others consistent across domains and within individuals?

Humans make decisions across a variety of social contexts. Though social decision-making research has blossomed in recent decades, surprisingly little is known about whether social decision-making preferences are consistent across different domains. We conducted an exploratory study in which participants made choices about 2 types of close others: parents and friends. To elicit decision making preferences, we pit the interests in parents and friends against one another. To assess the consistency of preferences for close others, decision making was assessed in three domains-risk taking, probabilistic learning, and self-other similarity judgments. We reasoned that if social decision-making preferences are consistent across domains, participants ought to exhibit the same preference in all three domains (i.e., a parent preference, based on prior work), and individual differences in preference magnitude ought to be conserved across domains within individuals. A combination of computational modeling, random coefficient regression, and traditional statistical tests revealed a robust parent-over-friend preference in the risk taking and probabilistic learning domains but not the self-other similarity domain. Preferences for parent-over-friend in the risk-taking domain were strongly associated with similar preferences in the probabilistic learning domain but not the self-other similarity domain. These results suggest that distinct and dissociable value-based and social-cognitive computations underlie social decision making. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)

Computational and motivational mechanisms of human social decision making involving close others

Every day, human beings make decisions with social consequences. These social consequences matter most when they impact those closest to us. Recent research has shown that humans exhibit reliable preferences when deciding between conflicting outcomes involving close others – for example, prioritizing the interests of one's family member over one's friend. However, virtually nothing is known about the mechanisms that drive these preferences. We conducted a pre-registered study in a large (maximum N = 375) sample to quantify the computational and motivational mechanisms of human social decision-making preferences involving close others. By pairing assessment techniques from behavioral economics and psychological science with computational modeling and random coefficient regression, we show that value-based cognitive computations (e.g., risk and loss aversion) drive social decision-making preferences involving financial outcomes, whereas socioemotional motivations (e.g., relationship quality) underlie preferences involving social outcomes. These results imply mechanistic heterogeneity, underscoring a need for greater attention to contextual specificity in social decision-making

Contextual and endogenous effects on physiology during a haunted house fear induction

Threat exposure elicits physiological and psychological responses, the frequency and intensity of which, and concordance between, has implications for survival. Ethical and practical limitations on human laboratory fear inductions make it essentially impossible to measure response to extreme threat. Furthermore, ecologically valid investigations of group effects on fear are lacking in humans. The current preregistered study measured tonic and phasic electrodermal activity in 156 human participants while they participated in small groups in a 30 minute sequence of threats of varying intensity (a haunted house). Results revealed that (i) friends increased overall arousal, (ii) unexpected attacks elicited greater phasic responses than expected attacks, (iii) subjective fear increased frequency of phasic spikes, and (iv) startle had dissociable effects on frequency and amplitude of phasic reactivity. Findings show that etiology of emotional contagion varies depending on relationship type (increased among friends) and subjective fear is associated with temporal aspects of physiological arousal

Physiological responses to a haunted house threat experience: Distinct tonic and phasic effects

Threats elicit physiological responses, the frequency and intensity of which have implications for survival. Ethical and practical limitations on human laboratory manipulations present barriers to studying immersive threat. Furthermore, few investigations examine group effects and concordance with subjective emotional experiences to threat. The current preregistered study measured electrodermal activity in 156 humans while they participated in small groups in a 30 minute haunted house experience involving various threats. Results revealed positive associations between (i) friends and tonic arousal, (ii) unexpected attacks and phasic activity (frequency and amplitude), (iii) subjective fear and phasic frequency, and (iv) dissociable sensitization effects linked to orienting response. Findings demonstrate relevance of social dynamics (friends versus strangers) for tonic arousal, and subjective fear and threat predictability for phasic arousal

The Role of Mesolimbic Circuitry in Buffering Election-Related Distress.

The 2016 U.S. presidential election yielded distress among many individuals who identify with historically marginalized groups. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging and psychological measures to test the hypotheses that neural response to reward, probing the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), and social support would ameliorate the effects of election distress among those who felt negatively affected by the result. Within 4 months of the 2016 U.S. presidential election, we tested human participants who felt affected by the election result (n = 40, Mage = 21.9 years, 28 female) and control participants (n = 20, Mage = 20.25 years, 12 female) who did not feel affected by the election result. Election-related distress significantly differed between the groups, and distress accounted for over half of the relationship between discrimination experiences and depression symptoms among affected individuals. NAcc activation, connectivity between the NAcc and mPFC, and family support moderated the associations between election distress and depression symptoms. Prior work has primarily investigated mesolimbic circuitry in reward and motivation contexts, but our findings extend the relevance of functioning in this circuitry to ameliorating psychological manifestations of acute distress after shifts in political climate. These findings highlight the psychological effects of this important historic event and identify neurobiological and social mechanisms associated with individual differences in response to election distress.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The 2016 U.S. presidential election was psychologically distressing for many individuals. In this study, election-related distress was linked to depression symptomology for affected individuals but not control individuals. However, among individuals distressed by the election, those with greater neural response to reward and higher family support were protected against these depressive symptoms. Previous research has examined how neural response to reward after a discrete event ameliorates clinical symptoms. The current study extends this knowledge by demonstrating that both the brain and social support may play influential roles in dampening affective responses to ongoing and anticipated distress related to political climate. Leveraging this finding to enact interventions that dampen continuous distress, political or otherwise, is a promising endeavor for future research

Neural connectivity moderates the association between sleep and impulsivity in adolescents.

Adolescence is characterized by chronic insufficient sleep and extensive brain development, but the relation between adolescent sleep and brain function remains unclear. We report the first functional magnetic resonance imaging study to investigate functional connectivity as a moderator between sleep and impulsivity, a problematic behavior during this developmental period. Naturalistic differences in sleep have not yet been explored as treatable contributors to adolescent impulsivity. Although public and scientific attention focuses on sleep duration, we report individual differences in sleep quality, not duration, in fifty-five adolescents (ages 14-18) yielded significant differences in functional connectivity between the prefrontal cortex and default mode network. Poor sleep quality was related to greater affect-related impulsivity among adolescents with low, but not high, connectivity, suggesting neural functioning relates to individual differences linking sleep quality and impulsivity. Response inhibition and cognitive impulsivity were not related to sleep quality, suggesting that sleep has a greater impact on affect-related impulsivity. Exploring environmental contributors of poor sleep quality, we demonstrated pillow comfort was uniquely related to sleep quality over age, sex, and income, a promising advance ripe for intervention