Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Neuroscience

The unfairness of being prosocial

Nature Human Behaviour volume 1, pages 711–712 (2017)Cite this article

Subjects

A new study shows that brain responses to unfairness during economic decision-making can predict current and future depression indices. Neural response patterns in the amygdala related to inequity tracked indices of depression, particularly for prosocial individuals who tend to be most self-sacrificing.

Tanaka et al.1 tackle this question in an exciting study now published in Nature Human Behaviour, providing new insight into the neural mechanisms underlying economic inequity and its relation to the symptomology of depression. In healthy non-clinical individuals, they measured: (a) depression indices at the time of the experiment and again one year later; (b) sensitivity to unfairness while playing an ultimatum game during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI); and (c) an individual’s social value orientation via a separate behavioural task. In the fMRI experiment (the ultimatum game), one player (a proposer) offers a way to split a pool of money (for example, 500 yen). The other player (a responder) can accept the offer, allowing both players to receive their share, or reject it, whereby neither player receives anything. Participants were always in the role of responder, making economic decisions to accept or reject when given fair offers (50/50 split), disadvantageous unfair offers (other > self) and advantageous unfair offers (self > other).

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Get just this article for as long as you need it

$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Tanaka, T., Yamamoto, T. & Haruno, M. Nat. Hum. Behav. 1, 0207 (2017).

  2. Drevets, W. C., Price, J. L. & Furey, M. L. Brain Struct. Funct. 213, 93–118 (2008).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  3. Gospic, K. et al. PLOS Biol. 9, e1001054 (2011).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  4. Haruno, M. & Frith, C. D. Nat. Neurosci. 13, 160–161 (2009).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  5. Kendler, K. S., Karkowski, L. M. & Prescott, C. A. Am. J. Psychiatry 156, 837–841 (1999).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Moretti, L. & di Pellegrino, G. Emotion 10, 169–180 (2010).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Hewig, J. et al. Psychophysiology 48, 507–514 (2011).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Sanfey, A. G., Rilling, J. K., Aronson, J. A., Nystrom, L. E. & Cohen, J. D. Science 300, 1755–1758 (2003).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Knoch, D., Pascual-Leone, A., Meyer, K., Treyer, V. & Fehr, E. Science 314, 829–832 (2006).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Speer, M. E. & Delgado, M. R. Nat. Hum. Behav. 1, 0093 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Rutgers University, 101 Warren Street, Smith Hall–Room 301, Newark, NJ, 07102, USA

    Megan E. Speer & Mauricio R. Delgado

Authors
  1. Megan E. Speer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Mauricio R. Delgado
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mauricio R. Delgado.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Speer, M.E., Delgado, M.R. The unfairness of being prosocial. Nat Hum Behav 1, 711–712 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-017-0222-2

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-017-0222-2

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing