When Collaboration Falters, Insensitivity to How Our Actions Affect Others Drives Inflated Self-evaluations.

Area of Science:

• Behavioral Economics
• Social Psychology
• Computational Neuroscience

Background:

• Interactions involve evaluating self, others, and outcomes, impacting long-term well-being.
• Self-evaluations during interactions can influence relationships and mental health.
• Understanding these evaluations is key to social decision-making.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how individuals evaluate themselves and partners in a high-stakes decision-making game.
• To identify computational models explaining person-evaluations based on observed outcomes.
• To analyze the role of self-positivity bias in dyadic interactions.

Main Methods:

• An interactive decision-making game simulating an iterated prisoner's dilemma.
• Participants evaluated themselves and partners via computer avatars to separate ability from preference.
• Testing and comparing various computational models of person-evaluation.

Main Results:

• Winning models showed self-evaluation correlated with partner's observed gains/losses.
• A significant self-positivity bias was observed, especially in dyads with frequent defection.
• This bias was linked to reduced weighting of partner's benefits in self-evaluation.

Conclusions:

• Person-evaluations in risky interactions are directly influenced by observed gains and losses.
• Self-positivity bias stems from devaluing a partner's positive outcomes.
• Reduced sensitivity to others' outcomes may impair individual earnings, suggesting a functional role for these evaluations.