title: Social signals of safety and risk confer utility and have asymmetric effects on observers' choices.
abstract: Individuals' risk attitudes are known to guide choices about uncertain options. However, in the presence of others' decisions, these choices can be swayed and manifest as riskier or safer behavior than one would express alone. To test the mechanisms underlying effective social 'nudges' in human decision-making, we used functional neuroimaging and a task in which participants made choices about gambles alone and after observing others' selections. Against three alternative explanations, we found that observing others' choices of gambles increased the subjective value (utility) of those gambles for the observer. This 'other-conferred utility' was encoded in ventromedial prefrontal cortex, and these neural signals predicted conformity. We further identified a parametric interaction with individual risk preferences in anterior cingulate cortex and insula. These data provide a neuromechanistic account of how information from others is integrated with individual preferences that may explain preference-congruent susceptibility to social signals of safety and risk.
authors.affiliation: Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute, Roanoke, Virginia, USA.
authors.forename: Dongil
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Chung
authors.affiliation: Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute, Roanoke, Virginia, USA.|Culture Science Institute, Nanyang Business School, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
authors.forename: George I
authors.initials: GI
authors.lastname: Christopoulos
authors.affiliation: Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute, Roanoke, Virginia, USA.|Department of Psychology, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia, USA.|Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine, Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine, Roanoke, Virginia, USA.|Salem Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Salem, Virginia, USA.|Virginia Tech Wake Forest University School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences, Blackburg, Virginia, USA.
authors.forename: Brooks
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: King-Casas
authors.affiliation: Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute, Roanoke, Virginia, USA.|Department of Economics, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia, USA.
authors.forename: Sheryl B
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Ball
authors.affiliation: Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute, Roanoke, Virginia, USA.|Department of Psychology, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia, USA.|Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine, Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine, Roanoke, Virginia, USA.|Salem Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Salem, Virginia, USA.
authors.forename: Pearl H
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Chiu
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000465:Algorithms; D001290:Attitude; D003657:Decision Making; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016014:Linear Models; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D012309:Risk-Taking; D012449:Safety; D012931:Social Environment; D012938:Social Perception