The decision-making and outcome evaluation processes in the Stag Hunt Game: Evidence from neural electrophysiology

Cooperative behavior is widespread in human social interactions and helps to address social dilemma issues. The Stag Hunt Game is a classic model of social dilemmas, with no studies so far exploring the neural mechanisms behind individual cooperation in this context. To investigate the temporal dynamics of brain processing underlying individual decision-making behavior in social dilemmas, we recorded EEG data from 35 participants during a one-time, two-player Stag Hunt Game and analyzed the data using event-related potential (ERP) and event-related oscillation (ERO) techniques. The results showed that, in the decision-making phase of the game, choosing cooperation induced a smaller P2 amplitude, a larger P3 amplitude, and reduced theta band oscillations compared to choosing defection. In the outcome evaluation phase, loss feedback generated a more negative FRN amplitude, a smaller P300 amplitude, and reduced delta oscillations compared to gain feedback. This study provides preliminary electrophysiological evidence for understanding the dynamic brain processing and neural oscillatory characteristics of human cooperative behavior in the Stag Hunt Game.