Neuroeconomics: Chapter 11. Social Preferences and the Brain, Edition 2

Ernst Fehr · Ian Krajbich

Aug. 2013 · Elsevier Inc. Chapters

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What motivates people to care about others is a fundamental question in the social and cognitive sciences. Here we discuss economic models of social preferences and how they help us to understand the psychological costs and benefits in social decisions. We then analyze recent neuroeconomic findings on social preferences with the goal of creating a coherent picture of the neural circuitry involved in social decisions. We argue that the insula and anterior cingulate cortex first determine what is socially appropriate and whether any norms have or will be violated, the amygdala generates emotional responses to these outcomes, the temporoparietal junction promotes perspective-taking, and finally the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex incorporates this information to modulate the overall utilities, and thus decisions, in the striatum and ventromedial prefrontal cortex. We conclude by discussing the implications of this research for understanding deficits in social behavior and how to potentially improve our own social behavior.