title: Social neuroeconomics: the neural circuitry of social preferences.
abstract: Combining the methods of neuroscience and economics generates powerful tools for studying the brain processes behind human social interaction. We argue that hedonic interpretations of theories of social preferences provide a useful framework that generates interesting predictions and helps interpret brain activations involved in altruistic, fair and trusting behaviors. These behaviors are consistently associated with activation in reward-related brain areas, such as the striatum, and with prefrontal activity implicated in cognitive control, the processing of emotions, and integration of benefits and costs, consistent with resolution of a conflict between self-interest and other-regarding motives.
authors.affiliation: University of Zurich, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics, Zurich, CH-8006, Switzerland. efehr@iew.uzh.ch
authors.forename: Ernst
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Fehr
authors.forename: Colin F
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Camerer
mesh_terms: D001921:Brain / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D004467:Economics; D004644:Emotions; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D009042:Motivation; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000502:physiology*; D009488:Neurosciences; D012201:Reward