Deciding for others as a neutral party recruits risk-neutral perspective-taking: Model-based behavioral and fMRI experiments

Abstract

Risky decision making for others is ubiquitous in our societies. Whereas financial decision making for oneself induces strong concern about the worst outcome (maximin concern) as well as the expected value, behavioral and neural characteristics of decision making for others are less well understood. We conducted behavioral and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiments to examine the neurocognitive underpinnings of risky decisions for an anonymous other, using decisions for self as a benchmark. We show that, although the maximin concern affected both types of decisions equally strongly, decision making for others recruited a more risk-neutral computational mechanism than decision making for self. Specifically, participants exhibited more balanced information search when choosing a risky option for others. Activity of right temporoparietal junction (rTPJ, associated with cognitive perspective taking) was parametrically modulated by options’ expected values in decisions for others, and by the minimum amounts in decisions for self. Furthermore, individual differences in self-reported empathic concern modified these attentional and neural processes. Overall, these results indicate that the typical maximin concern is attenuated in a risk-neutral direction in decisions for others as compared to self. We conjecture that, given others’ diverse preferences, deciding as a neutral party may cognitively recruit such risk-neutrality.

Choosing for others changes dissociable computations underlying risky decision-making

“…We found that the more likely one endorses such behaviors for oneself, the more conservative they are when choices affect others. Trending correlations suggest this pattern may be related to individual differences in empathic abilities, consistent with previous work (Ogawa et al, 2018). We interpret these findings to indicate that the likelihood of taking a risk when others are affected may depend upon recognizing differences between our and others' perspectives.…”

“…Previous work examining risky monetary decision-making in social contexts has provided mixed results. Some evidence suggests that people tend to be similarly risk averse when making choices for the self and for others (Ogawa et al, 2018), though this may depend upon whether choices involve gains or losses (Zhang et al, 2019) (see also Hsee & Weber, 2006). However, these investigations did not dissociate underlying computations supporting risky decision-making.…”

“…However, risky decision-making is shaped by multiple processes, much like other cognitive functions (e.g., memory, attention). While the above studies clearly demonstrate that social factors influence risk-taking, they do not dissociate or quantify how and which specific computational mechanisms supporting risky decisionmaking are altered when our choices affect another person, and this matters: depending on the mechanism(s) affected, we might expect to subsequently find differences in risktaking in some social settings but not in others, thus reconciling seemingly contradictory findings (Ogawa et al, 2018;Zhang et al, 2019). Furthermore, identifying socially dependent changes in dissociable psychological mechanisms underlying risk-taking can indicate targets for cognitive or pharmacological intervention when such choices are maladaptive (Sokol-Hessner & Rutledge, 2019).…”

Breaking human social decision making into multiple components and then putting them together again

“…Moreover, we sometimes make decisions on behalf of others (e.g., leadership decisions) (Edelson et al, 2018;Jung et al, 2013;Nicolle et al, 2012;Ogawa et al, 2018). One study (Edelson et al, 2018) examined decision-making to take the lead (i.e., make a choice on behalf of the group) or not (i.e., follow the majority's choice).…”

Neural Processing of Narratives: From Individual Processing to Viral Propagation

“…Some studies in the healthcare domain showed the opposite pattern: physicians prefer treatments with higher mortality rates when deciding for themselves, but fewer of them choose to recommend these options to their patients (Ubel et al, 2011 ; Garcia-Retamero and Galesic, 2012 ). Neuroimaging findings in turn suggest that subjects are less effectively engaged when deciding on behalf of others, and are thus less affected by psychological biases (Albrecht et al, 2011 ; Ogawa et al, 2018 ). Taken together, these findings suggest that during perspective taking the brain flexibly recruits regions and functions based on the cognitive, perceptual, and emotional requirements of the perspective.…”