title: Deliberate or unintended: Intentions modulate empathic responses to others' economic payoffs in social interactions.
abstract: Previous studies examining empathy have revealed the neural substrates of how the physical pain of others is represented in the human brain. However, little is known about the empathic modulation of behavioral and neural responses to others' economic payoffs, especially in the social context. In the present study, we engaged participants in a revised Dictator Game as observers who observe the powerless players receiving varied offers proposed by the dominant players, establishing the link between empathy and fairness perception. Results showed that unfair division schemes elicited a more pronounced FRN than fair ones only if a human agent proposed the initial offer. In addition, observers sacrificed their own payments to adjust unfair proposals, especially when a human agent proposed the offer. Thus, results of the current study demonstrated that perceived intention modulates behavioral and neural responses to others' economic payoffs in social interactions.
authors.affiliation: a College of Economics and Management , Zhejiang University of Technology , Hangzhou , China.|d Neuromanagement Lab , Zhejiang University , Hangzhou , China.
authors.forename: Qingguo
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: b School of Business and Management , Shanghai International Studies University , Shanghai , China.|c School of Management , Zhejiang University , Hangzhou , China.
authors.forename: Liang
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-0470-7818
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Meng
authors.affiliation: a College of Economics and Management , Zhejiang University of Technology , Hangzhou , China.|c School of Management , Zhejiang University , Hangzhou , China.
authors.forename: Qiang
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Shen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D004569:Electroencephalography; D004645:Empathy; D005071:Evoked Potentials; D005260:Female; D005717:Games, Experimental; D006801:Humans; D033182:Intention; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D012938:Social Perception; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Empathy; Event-related potentials; Fairness; Feedback-related negativity; Intention; Social norms