Adult-like neuroelectrical response to inequity in children: Evidence from the ultimatum game

Abstract

People react aversely when faced with unfair situations, a phenomenon that has been related to an electroencephalographic (EEG) potential known as medial frontal negativity (MFN). To our knowledge, the existence of the MFN in children has not yet been demonstrated. Here, we recorded EEG activity from 15 children playing the ultimatum game (UG) and who afterward performed a recognition task, in order to assess whether they could recognize the unfair and fair (familiar) proposers among unfamiliar faces. During the recognition task, we also acquired pupil dilation data to investigate subconscious recognition processes. A typical (adult-like) MFN component was detected in reaction to unfair proposals. We found a positive correlation between reaction time and empathy, as well as a negative correlation between reaction time and systematic reasoning scores. Finally, we detected a significant difference in pupil dilation in response to unfamiliar faces versus UG proposers. Our data provide the first evidence of MFN in children, which appears to index similar neurophysiological phenomena as in adults. Also, reaction time to fair proposals seems to be related to individual traits, as represented by empathy and systematizing. Our pupil dilation data provide evidence that automatic responses to faces did not index fairness, but familiarity. These findings have implications for our understanding of social development in typically developing children.

Decisions and mechanisms of intergroup bias in children's third‐party punishment

“…To our knowledge, this is the first study that explored the mechanisms of children's intergroup bias in TPP using RT. Following previous studies in adults (Kahneman, 2011;Lotito et al, 2013;Rand et al, 2012;Rubinstein, 2007), and children (Blake & McAuliffe, 2011;Chajes et al, 2022;Plötner et al, 2021;Rêgo et al, 2016), longer RT are used as a proxy of a more deliberative or controlled process, while rapid RT are indicative of a more automatic or reflexive process. Studies in adults (De Dreu et al, 2015; showed that individuals exhibit faster RT to punish outgroup members than ingroup members, and also that such ingroup favoritism is enhanced during conditions that included a high cognitive load.…”

Dynamic modulation of inequality aversion in human interpersonal negotiations

“…Furthermore, previous work focusing on repeated one-shot games, suggested that unfairness arising from the discrepancy between self–other reward amounts in the UG engages autonomic arousal systems in humans (for example, cardiac response or skin conductance), also predicting participants’ accept versus reject decisions 33 , 34 . Nevertheless, the role of pupil-linked central arousal systems during social interactive decision-making remains mostly unknown apart from one study conducted in a limited number of children ( N = 15) which suggested that pupil dilation in response to viewing faces indexes familiarity with the face 35 . Considering that our UG task was specifically tailored to allow participants to experience an evolving interpersonal negotiation environment, we asked healthy volunteers ( N = 44) to perform the novel experimental task while undergoing pupillometry and explored the role of pupil-linked central arousal systems in social interactive decision-making.…”