"An eye for an eye"?
- Humans have evolved strong preferences for equity and fairness. Neuroimaging studies suggest that punishing unfairness is associated with the activation of a neural network comprising the anterior cingulate cortex, anterior insula, the ventral striatum, and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). Here, we report the neuronal correlates of retribution and "forgiveness" in a scenario, in which individuals first acted as a recipient in an Ultimatum Game, and subsequently assumed the position of a proposer in a Dictator Game played against the same opponents as in the Ultimatum Game. Most subjects responded in a tit-for-tat fashion, which was accompanied by activation of the ventral striatum, corroborating previous findings that punishing unfair behaviour has a rewarding connotation. Subjects distinguished between the human opponent and computer condition by activation of the ventromedial PFC in the human condition, indicative of mentalising. A substantial number of subjects did not retaliate. Neurally, this "forgiveness" behaviour was associated with the activation of the right (and to a lesser degree left) DLPFC, a region that serves as a cognitive control region and thus may be involved in inhibiting emotional responses against unfairness.
Author: | Martin BrüneORCiDGND, Georg JuckelORCiDGND, Björn EnziGND |
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URN: | urn:nbn:de:hbz:294-72465 |
DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0073519 |
Parent Title (English): | PLoS ONE |
Subtitle (English): | Neural correlates of retribution and forgiveness |
Publisher: | Public Library of Science |
Place of publication: | San Francisco |
Document Type: | Article |
Language: | English |
Date of Publication (online): | 2020/06/19 |
Date of first Publication: | 2013/08/29 |
Publishing Institution: | Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universitätsbibliothek |
Tag: | Behavior; Decision making; Dictator game; Emotions; Neostriatum; Neuroimaging; Prefrontal cortex; Ultimatum game |
Volume: | 8 |
Issue: | 8, Artikel e73519 |
First Page: | e73519-1 |
Last Page: | e73519-11 |
Institutes/Facilities: | LWL-Universitätsklinikum Bochum, Klinik für Psychiatrie, Psychotherapie und Präventivmedizin |
Research Department of Neuroscience | |
open_access (DINI-Set): | open_access |
Licence (English): | Creative Commons - CC BY 4.0 - Attribution 4.0 International |