The neural correlate of mid-value offers in ultimatum game

PLoS One. 2019 Aug 20;14(8):e0220622. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0220622. eCollection 2019.

Abstract

In the ultimatum game (UG), mid-value offers are unfair but not so unreasonable as to be rejected immediately. As a consequence, they are difficult for responders to evaluate because of the conflict that arises between two key processes, namely inequity aversion and self-interests. Since there is no clear consensus in the literature on event-related potential (ERP) as to how mid-value offers are processed, we designed an experiment to explore how the ability to reject offers influences key ERP signatures. By manipulating the right to reject offers based on game type (ultimatum game, UG or dictator game, DG), our study explored how ERPs were influenced by three types of offers available to participants (fair, unfair and mid-value). We recorded the electroencephalogram results of 28 participants while they responded to the three kinds of offers in the UG and the DG. We observed that mid-value offers in the UG elicited more negative feedback-related negativity and N400 than did the unfair offers. However, these ERP patterns were specific to the UG. Furthermore, we interpreted these results as further electrophysiological evidence of the interaction between the two processing systems during the UG.

Publication types

  • Randomized Controlled Trial
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Brain / physiology*
  • Choice Behavior / physiology
  • Electroencephalography
  • Evoked Potentials / physiology*
  • Female
  • Games, Experimental
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Young Adult

Associated data

  • figshare/10.6084/m9.figshare.9037808

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the program for national Natural Science Foundation of China (31470995), Key Institute of Humanities and Social Science MOE (16JJD880025), and the Project to Research Base of Capital Distribution Industry, ‘Study on the Circulation of Fresh Agricultural Products in Capital’ (No.JD-YB-2019-017).