We measured brain activity while participants played an interactive game designed to model social trust. We found that people form expectations about what they believe their partner expects them to do and minimize experiencing future guilt by avoiding letting their partner down. This feeling was associated with increased activity in regions of the brain involved in negative affect.
Authors
Luke J. Chang, Alec Smith, Martin Dufwenberg, Alan G. Sanfey
Publication
Neuron
May 12, 2011
May 12, 2011
Funding for this research was generously provided by: