title: When "Your" reward is the same as "My" reward: self-construal priming shifts neural responses to own vs. friends' rewards.
abstract: Is it possible for neural responses to others' rewards to be as strong as those for the self? Although prior fMRI studies have demonstrated that watching others get rewards can activate one's own reward centers, such vicarious reward activation has always been less strong than responses to rewards for oneself. In the present study we manipulated participants' self-construal (independent vs. interdependent) and found that, when an independent self-construal was primed, subjects showed greater activation in the bilateral ventral striatum in response to winning money for the self (vs. for a friend) during a gambling game. However, priming an interdependent self-construal resulted in comparable activation in these regions in response to winning money for the self and for a friend. Our findings suggest that interdependence may cause people to experience rewards for a close other as strongly as they experience rewards for the self.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA. Electronic address: mvarnum@asu.edu.
authors.forename: Michael E W
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Varnum
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Peking University, Beijing, China; PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Peking University, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Zhenhao
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Beibei, Chongqing, China.
authors.forename: Antao
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Beibei, Chongqing, China.
authors.forename: Jiang
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Qiu
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Peking University, Beijing, China; PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Peking University, Beijing, China. Electronic address: shan@pku.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Shihui
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Han
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001479:Basal Ganglia / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D005260:Female; D033062:Friends / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D012201:Reward; D012649:Self Concept; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Insula; Self-construal priming; Ventral striatum; Vicarious reward; fMRI