title: You have my word: reciprocity expectation modulates feedback-related negativity in the trust game.
abstract: Promise is one of the most powerful tools producing trust and facilitating cooperation, and sticking to the promise is deemed as a key social norm in social interactions. The present study explored the extent to which promise would influence investors' decision-making in the trust game where promise had no predictive value regarding trustees' reciprocation. In addition, we examined the neural underpinnings of the investors' outcome processing related to the trustees' promise keeping and promise breaking. Consistent with our hypothesis, behavioral results indicated that promise could effectively increase the investment frequency of investors. Electrophysiological results showed that, promise induced larger differentiated-FRN responses to the reward and non-reward discrepancy. Taken together, these results suggested that promise would promote cooperative behavior, while breach of promise would be regarded as a violation of the social norm, corroborating the vital role of non-enforceable commitment in social decision making.
authors.affiliation: School of Management, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China; Neuromanagement Lab, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Qingguo
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: School of Management, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China; Neuromanagement Lab, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Liang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Meng
authors.affiliation: School of Management, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China; Neuromanagement Lab, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China; National Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Qiang
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Shen
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D059031:Anticipation, Psychological; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D003657:Decision Making; D030141:Feedback, Psychological; D005717:Games, Experimental; D006801:Humans; D009341:Negativism; D012201:Reward; D035502:Trust / Q000523:psychology*