Voluntary or reluctant? Social influence in charitable giving: an ERP study

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Social Psychology
• Behavioral Economics

Background:

• Prosocial behavior is heavily influenced by social information.
• Understanding the neural mechanisms behind social influence on altruistic decisions is crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the neural underpinnings of social influence on charitable giving using event-related potentials (ERPs).
• To examine how different directions of social information (upward, downward, equal) affect donation behavior and associated brain activity.

Main Methods:

• An event-related potential (ERP) experiment was conducted with participants making donation decisions.
• Social influence was manipulated by varying the average donation amount relative to participants' initial decisions.
• Behavioral data (donation amounts) and electrophysiological data (ERPs, specifically FRN and P3 amplitudes) were recorded.

Main Results:

• Participants increased donations in the upward social influence condition and decreased them in the downward condition.
• Upward social information elicited larger feedback-related negativity (FRN) and smaller P3 amplitudes compared to downward and equal conditions.
• Donation changes correlated with pressure ratings, not happiness ratings, suggesting pressure as a key driver.

Conclusions:

• Different directions of social information elicit distinct neural responses during decision-making.
• Social influence on giving may be driven more by perceived social pressure than voluntary altruism.
• This study provides novel ERP evidence for the neural processing of social influence in prosocial behavior.