IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/journl/hal-04325737.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Strengths of social ties modulate brain computations for third-party punishment

Author

Listed:
  • Zixuan Tang
  • Chen Qu
  • Yang Hu
  • Julien Benistant
  • Frederic Moisan

    (EM - EMLyon Business School)

  • Edmund Derrington
  • Jean-Claude Dreher

Abstract

"Costly punishment of social norm transgressors by third-parties has been considered as a decisive stage in the evolution of human cooperation. An important facet of social relationship knowledge concerns the strength of the social ties between individuals, as measured by social distance. Yet, it is unclear how the enforcement of social norms is influenced by the social distance between a third-party and a norm violator at the behavioral and the brain system levels. Here, we investigated how social distance between punishers and norm-violators influences third-party punishment. Participants as third-party punished norm violators more severely as social distance between them increased. Using model-based fMRI, we disentangled key computations contributing to third-party punishment: inequity aversion, social distance between participant and norm violator and integration of the cost to punish with these signals. Inequity aversion increased activity in the anterior cingulate cortex and bilateral insula, and processing social distance engaged a bilateral fronto-parietal cortex brain network. These two brain signals and the cost to punish were integrated in a subjective value signal of sanctions that modulated activity in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. Together, our results reveal the neurocomputational underpinnings of third-party punishment and how social distance modulates enforcement of social norms in humans."

Suggested Citation

  • Zixuan Tang & Chen Qu & Yang Hu & Julien Benistant & Frederic Moisan & Edmund Derrington & Jean-Claude Dreher, 2023. "Strengths of social ties modulate brain computations for third-party punishment," Post-Print hal-04325737, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04325737
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-04325737
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://hal.science/hal-04325737/document
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ernst Fehr & Klaus M. Schmidt, 1999. "A Theory of Fairness, Competition, and Cooperation," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 114(3), pages 817-868.
    2. Ben Seymour & John P. O'Doherty & Peter Dayan & Martin Koltzenburg & Anthony K. Jones & Raymond J. Dolan & Karl J. Friston & Richard S. Frackowiak, 2004. "Temporal difference models describe higher-order learning in humans," Nature, Nature, vol. 429(6992), pages 664-667, June.
    3. Jean Daunizeau & Vincent Adam & Lionel Rigoux, 2014. "VBA: A Probabilistic Treatment of Nonlinear Models for Neurobiological and Behavioural Data," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(1), pages 1-16, January.
    4. Ernst Fehr & Urs Fischbacher, "undated". "Third Party Punishment and Social Norms," IEW - Working Papers 106, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - University of Zurich.
    5. Catherine Molho & Joshua M. Tybur & Paul A. M. Van Lange & Daniel Balliet, 2020. "Direct and indirect punishment of norm violations in daily life," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 11(1), pages 1-9, December.
    6. Hisashi Ohtsuki & Yoh Iwasa & Martin A. Nowak, 2009. "Indirect reciprocity provides only a narrow margin of efficiency for costly punishment," Nature, Nature, vol. 457(7225), pages 79-82, January.
    7. Elizabeth Tricomi & Antonio Rangel & Colin F. Camerer & John P. O’Doherty, 2010. "Neural evidence for inequality-averse social preferences," Nature, Nature, vol. 463(7284), pages 1089-1091, February.
    8. Ernst Fehr & Urs Fischbacher, 2004. "Social norms and human cooperation," Macroeconomics 0409026, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Carolyn Parkinson & Adam M. Kleinbaum & Thalia Wheatley, 2017. "Spontaneous neural encoding of social network position," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 1(5), pages 1-7, May.
    10. P. R. Blake & K. McAuliffe & J. Corbit & T. C. Callaghan & O. Barry & A. Bowie & L. Kleutsch & K. L. Kramer & E. Ross & H. Vongsachang & R. Wrangham & F. Warneken, 2015. "The ontogeny of fairness in seven societies," Nature, Nature, vol. 528(7581), pages 258-261, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Funk, Matt, 2008. "On the Problem of Sustainable Economic Development: A Theoretical Solution to this Prisoner's Dilemma," MPRA Paper 19025, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 08 Jun 2008.
    2. Bartoš, Vojtěch, 2021. "Seasonal scarcity and sharing norms," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 185(C), pages 303-316.
    3. repec:cup:judgdm:v:16:y:2021:i:5:p:1267-1289 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Fiedler, Marina & Haruvy, Ernan, 2017. "The effect of third party intervention in the trust game," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 65-74.
    5. Bogliacino, Francesco & Codagnone, Cristiano, 2021. "Microfoundations, behaviour, and evolution: Evidence from experiments," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 372-385.
    6. Urs Steiner Brandt, 2008. "What can facilitate cooperation: Fairness, ineaulity aversion, punishment, norms or trust?," Working Papers 80/08, University of Southern Denmark, Department of Sociology, Environmental and Business Economics.
    7. Xu Gong & Alan G Sanfey, 2017. "Social rank and social cooperation: Impact of social comparison processes on cooperative decision-making," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(4), pages 1-14, April.
    8. Donna Harris & Benedikt Herrmann & Andreas Kontoleon & Jonathan Newton, 2015. "Is it a norm to favour your own group?," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 18(3), pages 491-521, September.
    9. Jain, Prachi & Lay, Margaret J., 2021. "Are informal transfers driven by strategic risk-sharing or fairness? Evidence from an experiment in Kenya," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 191(C), pages 186-196.
    10. Tomomi Tanaka & Colin F. Camerer, 2016. "Trait perceptions influence economic out-group bias: lab and field evidence from Vietnam," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 19(3), pages 513-534, September.
    11. Justin W Martin & Fiery Cushman, 2015. "To Punish or to Leave: Distinct Cognitive Processes Underlie Partner Control and Partner Choice Behaviors," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(4), pages 1-14, April.
    12. Funk, Matt, 2008. "On the Problem of Vague Terms: A Glossary of Clearly Stated Assumptions & Careful, Patient, Descriptions," MPRA Paper 14505, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Molenmaker, Welmer E. & de Kwaadsteniet, Erik W. & van Dijk, Eric, 2014. "On the willingness to costly reward cooperation and punish non-cooperation: The moderating role of type of social dilemma," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 125(2), pages 175-183.
    14. Yuzhen Li & Jun Luo & He Niu & Hang Ye, 2023. "When punishers might be loved: fourth-party choices and third-party punishment in a delegation game," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 94(3), pages 423-465, April.
    15. Kenju Kamei, 2021. "Teams Do Inflict Costly Third-Party Punishment as Individuals Do: Experimental Evidence," Games, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-11, March.
    16. Berna Güroğlu & Geert-Jan Will & Eveline A Crone, 2014. "Neural Correlates of Advantageous and Disadvantageous Inequity in Sharing Decisions," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(9), pages 1-9, September.
    17. Columbus, Simon & Böhm, Robert, 2021. "Norm shifts under the strategy method," Judgment and Decision Making, Cambridge University Press, vol. 16(5), pages 1267-1289, September.
    18. Goeschl, Timo & Jarke, Johannes, 2013. "Second vs. Third Party Punishment under Costly Monitoringː A New Experimental Method and Evidence," WiSo-HH Working Paper Series 6, University of Hamburg, Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences, WISO Research Laboratory.
    19. Funk, Matt, 2008. "On the Problem of the Island of Earth: Introducing a Universal Theory of Value in an Open Letter to The President of the United States," MPRA Paper 14489, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. H Peyton Young, 2014. "The Evolution of Social Norms," Economics Series Working Papers 726, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    21. Yamada, Katsunori & Sato, Masayuki, 2013. "Another avenue for anatomy of income comparisons: Evidence from hypothetical choice experiments," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 35-57.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    social ties; social norms; neurocomputation;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04325737. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: CCSD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.