Human decision making is not guided by rational imperatives alone but is strongly
susceptible to and framed by the influence of irrational factors (
1
). An exquisite example is altruistic punishment, which means the human propensity
to punish unfairness, even at a personal cost (
2
), and helps to sustain cooperation in human societies (
3
). Experimentally, altruistic punishment has often been operationalized using the
socioeconomic ultimatum game (UG). In this task, the responder's rejections of unfair
offers are thought to reflect altruistic punishment because by punishing the proposer
for unfair offers, the responder also forfeits earnings (
4
). Rejection rates to unfair offers vary as a function of central serotonergic activity
(
5
,
6
) and are biased in individuals with depressed mood ([
7
], but see [
8
]), schizophrenia ([
- Destoop M.
- Schrijvers D.
- De Grave C.
- Sabbe B.
- De Bruijn E.R.A.
Better to give than to take? Interactive social decision-making in severe major depressive disorder [published
online ahead of print January 10].
J Affect Disorders. 2012; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2011.12.010
9
,
10
], but see [
11
]), and psychopathy (
12
). The evidence suggests that altruistic punishment is driven by negative emotions
toward noncooperators (
2
). Consistent with this notion, single-dose administration of a benzodiazepine has
been shown to decrease altruistic punishment as well as associated amygdala responses
(
13
). Although lesion studies have often implicated the amygdala as a core generator
of negative emotional arousal and emphasized its crucial role in mediating loss aversion
during monetary gambles (
14
,
15
,
16
), a direct demonstration of a causal role of the amygdala in modulating altruistic
punishment is still missing.To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: February 27, 2012
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© 2012 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
