Comparing the neural basis of decision making in social dilemmas of people with different social value orientations, a fMRI study.

The topic of chapter 12 was motivation and emotion. The article I found was studying correlates of intrinsic motivation versus extrinsic motivation with cooperation comparing participants that differed in personality traits, which was measured by the Social Value Orientation. The researchers used a total of 28 participants, who they asked to play several prisoners dilemma games that were one shot and weak in cooperative incentives. The participants were also asked to play coordination games with an anonymous partner, which in turn offered stronger incentives for cooperation. The activities were carried out while participants were under the MRI scanner. Results showed that participants adjusted their behavior to be more cooperative when there were extrinsic incentives. Data from the MRI gave truth to the researchers’ developed hypothesis. The study aimed to study which brain areas were active when cooperation was given and when cooperation was opposed. The study used proself to describe individuals that were intrinsic and prosocial to describe individuals that were more extrinsically motivated. Researchers discovered increased activation in the precuneus, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and posterior superior temporal sulcus (STS). Moral judgment, compliance and social awareness were found in intrinsically motivated prosocials' and increased activation was found in the anterior superior temporal sulcus, lateral orbitofrontal cortex, and inferior parietal lobule.

Emonds, G., Declerck, C. H., Boone, C., Vandervliet, E. J. M., & Parizel, P. M. (2011). Comparing the neural basis of decision making in social dilemmas of people with different social value orientations, a fMRI study. Journal of Neuroscience, Psychology, and Economics, 4(1), 11-24. doi:10.1037/a0020151