Work

Confirmation of interpersonal expectations is intrinsically rewarding

Year: 2021

Type: article

Abstract: People want to interact successfully with other individuals, and they invest significant efforts in attempting to do so. Decades of research have demonstrated that to simplify the dauntingly complex task of interpersonal communication, perceivers predict the responses of individuals in their environment using stereotypes and other sources of prior knowledge. Here, we show that these top-down expectations can also shape the subjective value of expectation-consistent and expectation-violating targets. Specifically, in two neuroimaging experiments (n = 58), we observed increased activation in brain regions associated with reward processing-including the nucleus accumbens-when perceivers observed information consistent with their social expectations. In two additional behavioral experiments (n = 704), we observed that perceivers were willing to forgo money to encounter an expectation-consistent target and avoid an expectation-violating target. Together, these findings suggest that perceivers value having their social expectations confirmed, much like food or monetary rewards.

Source: Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience

DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsab081

Authors: Niv Reggev, Anoushka Chowdhary, Jason P Mitchell

Institutions: Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Harvard University

Language: English

Topic: Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies

Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience

Field: Neuroscience

Domain: Life Sciences

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $1,995

Funders: Israel Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health