The mentalizing network orchestrates the impact of parochial altruism on social norm enforcement.

Baumgartner, Thomas; Götte, Lorenz; Gügler, Rahel; Fehr, Ernst (2012). The mentalizing network orchestrates the impact of parochial altruism on social norm enforcement. Human brain mapping, 33(6), pp. 1452-1469. Wiley-Blackwell 10.1002/hbm.21298

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Parochial altruism - a preference for altruistic behavior towards ingroup members and mistrust or hostility towards outgroup members--is a pervasive feature in human society and strongly shapes the enforcement of social norms. Since the uniqueness of human society critically depends on the enforcement of norms, the understanding of the neural circuitry of the impact of parochial altruism on social norm enforcement is key, but unexplored. To fill this gap, we measured brain activity with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while subjects had the opportunity to punish ingroup members and outgroup members for violating social norms. Findings revealed that subjects' strong punishment of defecting outgroup members is associated with increased activity in a functionally connected network involved in sanction-related decisions (right orbitofrontal gyrus, right lateral prefrontal cortex, right dorsal caudatus). Moreover, the stronger the connectivity in this network, the more outgroup members are punished. In contrast, the much weaker punishment of ingroup members who committed the very same norm violation is associated with increased activity and connectivity in the mentalizing-network (dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, bilateral temporo-parietal junction), as if subjects tried to understand or justify ingroup members' behavior. Finally, connectivity analyses between the two networks suggest that the mentalizing-network modulates punishment by affecting the activity in the right orbitofrontal gyrus and right lateral prefrontal cortex, notably in the same areas showing enhanced activity and connectivity whenever third-parties strongly punished defecting outgroup members.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

07 Faculty of Human Sciences > Institute of Psychology > Social Neuroscience and Social Psychology

UniBE Contributor:

Baumgartner, Thomas

Subjects:

100 Philosophy > 150 Psychology

ISSN:

1065-9471

Publisher:

Wiley-Blackwell

Language:

English

Submitter:

Thomas Baumgartner

Date Deposited:

17 Oct 2014 10:55

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 14:36

Publisher DOI:

10.1002/hbm.21298

PubMed ID:

21574212

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.58301

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/58301

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