Emotion regulation comprises all extrinsic and intrinsic control processes whereby people monitor... more Emotion regulation comprises all extrinsic and intrinsic control processes whereby people monitor, evaluate and modify the occurrence, intensity and duration of emotional reactions. Here we sought to quantitatively summarize the existing neuroimaging literature to investigate a) whether different emotion regulation strategies are based on different or the same neural networks; b) which brain regions in particular support the up-and down-regulation of emotions, respectively; and c) to which degree the neural networks realising emotion regulation depend on the stimulus material used to elicit emotions. The left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC), the anterior insula and the supplementary motor area were consistently activated independent of the regulation strategy. VLPFC and posterior cingulate cortex were the main regions consistently found to be recruited during the up-regulation as well as the down-regulation of emotion. The down-regulation compared to the up-regulation of emotions was associated with more right-lateralized activity while up-regulating emotions more strongly modulated activity in the ventral striatum. Finally, the process of emotion regulation appeared to be unaffected by stimulus material.
Human beings are social animals and they vary in the degree to which they share information about... more Human beings are social animals and they vary in the degree to which they share information about themselves with others. Although brain networks involved in self-related cognition have been identified, especially via the use of resting-state experiments, the neural circuitry underlying individual differences in the sharing of self-related information is currently unknown. Therefore, we investigated the intrinsic functional organization of the brain with respect to participants' degree of self-related information sharing using resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging and self-reported social media use. We conducted seed-based correlation analyses in cortical midline regions previously shown in meta-analyses to be involved in self-referential cognition: the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC), central precuneus (CP), and caudal anterior cingulate cortex (CACC). We examined whether and how functional connectivity between these regions and the rest of the brain was associated with participants' degree of self-related information sharing. Analyses revealed associations between the MPFC and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), as well as the CP with the right DLPFC, the left lateral orbitofrontal cortex and left anterior temporal pole. These findings extend our present knowledge of functional brain connectivity, specifically demonstrating how the brain's intrinsic functional organization relates to individual differences in the sharing of self-related information. Human beings like to share information about themselves. Around 30–40% of everyday speech contains personal information about the speaker 1,2 , and people will forgo money for the opportunity to disclose information about themselves 3. Importantly, humans display differences in the degree to which they share self-relevant information 4. These differences are crucial considering that the ability to present oneself effectively to others, which includes the sharing of self-related information, is one of the most vital skills in human social life 5. In support of this, self-presentation plays an important role in occupational success, romantic attraction, making friends, and other desirable aspects of life 6–10. Social psychologists have proposed cognitive process models for the decision to disclose self-related information 11–14. In general, these models require the self-disclosing person to keep self-related information in mind as they decide whether to share it. The person also considers the availability of a disclosure target. If a target is available, the self-disclosing person enters into a process where various positive and negative aspects of sharing the information with the target are weighed. To explain, a person may consider how sharing information about themselves will make them feel and what there is to gain or lose from sharing. They may also consider how their disclosure target may react to hearing this information. The person finally decides whether or not to share the self-relevant information. Therefore, this entire decision process concerning the sharing of self-related information involves various types of cognition, such as self-referential thought, social cognition (e.g., mentalizing), reward-related processing, and executive functioning (e.g., working memory).
A crucial aspect of bilingual communication is the ability to identify the language of an input. ... more A crucial aspect of bilingual communication is the ability to identify the language of an input. 2 Yet, the neural and cognitive basis of this ability is largely unknown. Moreover, it cannot be easily 3 incorporated into neuronal models of bilingualism, which posit that bilinguals rely on the same neural 4 substrates for both languages and concurrently activate them even in monolingual settings. Here we 5 hypothesized that bilinguals can employ language-specific sublexical (bigram frequency) and lexical 6 (orthographic neighborhood size) statistics for language recognition. Moreover, we investigated the 7 neural networks representing language-specific statistics and hypothesized that language identity is 8 encoded in distributed activation patterns within these networks. To this end, German-English 9 bilinguals made speeded language decisions on visually presented pseudo-words during fMRI. 10
ABSTRACT Language-specific orthography (i.e., letters or bigrams that exist in only one language)... more ABSTRACT Language-specific orthography (i.e., letters or bigrams that exist in only one language) is known to facilitate language membership recognition. Yet the contribution of continuous sublexical and lexical statistics to language membership decisions during visual word processing is unknown. Here, we used pseudo-words to investigate whether continuous sublexical and lexical statistics bias explicit language decisions (Experiment 1) and language attribution during naming (Experiment 2). We also asked whether continuous statistics would have an effect in the presence of orthographic markers. Language attribution in both experiments was influenced by lexical neighborhood size differences between languages, even in presence of orthographic markers. Sublexical frequencies of occurrence affected reaction times only for unmarked pseudo-words in both experiments, with greater effects in naming. Our results indicate that bilinguals rely on continuous language-specific statistics at sublexical and lexical levels to infer language membership. Implications are discussed with respect to models of bilingual visual word recognition.
Social media use is a global phenomenon, with almost two billion people worldwide regularly using... more Social media use is a global phenomenon, with almost two billion people worldwide regularly using these websites. As Internet access around the world increases, so will the number of social media users. Neuroscientists can capitalize on the ubiquity of social media use to gain novel insights about social cognitive processes and the neural systems that support them. This review outlines social motives that drive people to use social media, proposes neural systems supporting social media use, and describes approaches neuroscientists can use to conduct research with social media. We close by noting important directions and ethical considerations of future research with social media.
The existence of a "critical period" for language acquisition is controversial. Bilingual subject... more The existence of a "critical period" for language acquisition is controversial. Bilingual subjects with variable age of acquisition (AOA) and proficiency level (PL) constitute a suitable model to study this issue. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate the effects of AOA and PL on neural correlates of grammatical and semantic judgments in Italian-German bilinguals who learned the second language at different ages and had different proficiency levels. While the pattern of brain activity for semantic judgment was largely dependent on PL, AOA mainly affected the cortical representation of grammatical processes. These findings support the view that both AOA and PL affect the neural substrates of second language processing, with a differential effect on grammar and semantics.
Social distance (i.e., the degree of closeness to another person) affects the way humans perceive... more Social distance (i.e., the degree of closeness to another person) affects the way humans perceive and respond to fairness during financial negotiations. Feeling close to someone enhances the acceptance of monetary offers. Here, we explored whether this effect also extends to the spatial domain. Specifically, using an iterated version of the Ultimatum Game in a within-subject design, we investigated whether different visual spatial distance-cues result in different rates of acceptance of otherwise identical monetary offers. Study 1 found that participants accepted significantly more offers when they were cued with spatial close-ness than when they were cued with spatial distance. Study 2 replicated this effect using identical procedures but different spatial-distance cues in an independent sample. Importantly , our results could not be explained by feelings of social closeness. Our results demonstrate that mere perceptions of spatial closeness produce analogous–but independent– effects to those of social closeness.
In many everyday decisions, people exhibit loss aversion-a greater sensitivity to losses relative... more In many everyday decisions, people exhibit loss aversion-a greater sensitivity to losses relative to gains of equal size. Loss aversion is thought to be (at least partly) mediated by emotional-in particular, fear-related-processes. Decision research has shown that even incidental emotions, which are unrelated to the decision at hand, can influence decision making. The effect of incidental fear on loss aversion, however, is thus far unclear. In two studies, we experimentally investigated how incidental fear cues, presented during (Study 1) or before (Study 2) choices to accept or reject mixed gambles over real monetary stakes, influence monetary loss aversion. We find that the presentation of fearful faces, relative to the presentation of neutral faces, increased risk aversion-an effect that could be attributed to increased loss aversion. The size of this effect was moderated by psychopathic personality: Fearless dominance, in particular its interpersonal facet, but not self-centered impulsivity, attenuated the effect of incidental fear cues on loss aversion, consistent with reduced fear reactivity. Together, these results highlight the sensitivity of loss aversion to the affective context.
This study investigated the emotional effects and neural correlates of being empathized with whil... more This study investigated the emotional effects and neural correlates of being empathized with while speaking about a currently experienced real-life social conflict during fMRI. Specifically, we focused on the effects of cognitive empathy in the form of paraphrasing, a technique regularly used in conflict resolution. 22 participants underwent fMRI while being interviewed on their social conflict and receiving empathic or unempathic responses from the interviewer. Skin conductance response (SCR) and self-report ratings of feeling understood and emotional valence were used to assess emotional responses. Results confirm previous findings indicating that cognitive empathy exerts a positive short-term effect on emotions in social conflict, while at the same time increasing autonomic arousal reflected by SCR. Effects of paraphrasing and unempathic interventions as indicated by self-report ratings varied depending on self-esteem, pre-interview negative affect, and participants' empathy quotient. Empathic responses engaged a fronto-parietal network with activity in the right precentral gyrus (PrG), left middle frontal gyrus (MFG), left inferior parietal gyrus (IPG), and right postcentral gyrus (PoG). Processing unempathic responses involved a fronto-temporal network with clusters peaking in the left inferior frontal gyrus, pars triangularis (IFGTr), and right temporal pole (TP). A specific modeling of feeling misunderstood activated a network consisting of the IFG, left TP, left Heschl gyrus, IFGTr, and right precuneus, extending to several limbic regions, such as the insula, amygdala, putamen, and anterior cingulate cortex/right middle cingulum (ACC/MCC). The results support the effectiveness of a widely used conflict resolution technique, which may also be useful for professionals who regularly deal with and have to de-escalate situations highly charged with negative emotion, e.g. physicians or judges.
One of the leading neurolinguistic theories of syntactic comprehension disorders in agrammatic ap... more One of the leading neurolinguistic theories of syntactic comprehension disorders in agrammatic aphasic subjects-the Trace Deletion Hypothesis-postulates a specific impairment in processing syntactic chains, and that this function is mediated by Broca's area. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the specific involvement of Broca's area in processing syntactic traces can be verified using functional brain imaging. We used event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while healthy subjects were asked to judge the grammaticality of visually presented sentences with and without movement of phrasal constituents. During both kinds of sentences, fMRI showed activation in language-related brain regions. Comparing both kinds of sentences did not result in differential brain activation of left frontal or temporal regions. In particular, Broca's area was similarly activated in processing both moved and nonmoved sentences. Thus, Broca's area seems to be involved in general syntactic processing as required by grammaticality judgments rather than having a specific function in transmitting syntactic relations. q
Many agrammatic aphasics have a specific syntactic comprehension deficit involving processing syn... more Many agrammatic aphasics have a specific syntactic comprehension deficit involving processing syntactic transformations. It has been proposed that this deficit is due to a dysfunction of Broca's area, an area that is thought to be critical for comprehension of complex transformed sentences. The goal of this study was to investigate the role of Broca's area in processing canonical and non-canonical sentences in healthy subjects. The sentences were presented auditorily and were controlled for task difficulty. Subjects were asked to judge the grammaticality of the sentences while their brain activity was monitored using event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging. Processing both kinds of sentences resulted in activation of language-related brain regions. Comparison of non-canonical and canonical sentences showed greater activation in bilateral temporal regions; a greater activation of Broca's area in processing antecedent-gap relations was not found. Moreover, the posterior part of Broca's area was conjointly activated by both sentence conditions. Broca's area is thus involved in general syntactic processing as required by grammaticality judgments and does not seem to have a specific role in processing syntactic transformations. Hum. Brain Mapp. 22:72 -81, 2004.
In this study we assess changes in the hemoglobin oxygenation (oxy-Hb, deoxy-Hb) and the Cytochro... more In this study we assess changes in the hemoglobin oxygenation (oxy-Hb, deoxy-Hb) and the Cytochrome-C-Oxidase redox state (Cyt-ox) in the occipital cortex during visual stimulation by near infrared spectroscopy. For the calculation of changes in oxy-Hb, deoxy-Hb and Cyt-ox from attenuation data via a modified Beer-Lambert equation, the wavelength dependence of the differential pathlength factor (DPF), i.e. the ratio of
Social distance (i.e., the degree of closeness to another person) affects the way humans perceive... more Social distance (i.e., the degree of closeness to another person) affects the way humans perceive and respond to fairness during financial negotiations. Feeling close to someone enhances the acceptance of monetary offers. Here, we explored whether this effect also extends to the spatial domain. Specifically, using an iterated version of the Ultimatum Game in a within-subject design, we investigated whether different visual spatial distance-cues result in different rates of acceptance of otherwise identical monetary offers. Study 1 found that participants accepted significantly more offers when they were cued with spatial close- ness than when they were cued with spatial distance. Study 2 replicated this effect using identical procedures but different spatial-distance cues in an independent sample. Impor- tantly, our results could not be explained by feelings of social closeness. Our results demon- strate that mere perceptions of spatial closeness produce analogous–but independent– effects to those of social closeness.
Emotion regulation comprises all extrinsic and intrinsic control processes whereby people monitor... more Emotion regulation comprises all extrinsic and intrinsic control processes whereby people monitor, evaluate and modify the occurrence, intensity and duration of emotional reactions. Here we sought to quantitatively summarize the existing neuroimaging literature to investigate a) whether different emotion regulation strategies are based on different or the same neural networks; b) which brain regions in particular support the up-and down-regulation of emotions, respectively; and c) to which degree the neural networks realising emotion regulation depend on the stimulus material used to elicit emotions. The left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC), the anterior insula and the supplementary motor area were consistently activated independent of the regulation strategy. VLPFC and posterior cingulate cortex were the main regions consistently found to be recruited during the up-regulation as well as the down-regulation of emotion. The down-regulation compared to the up-regulation of emotions was associated with more right-lateralized activity while up-regulating emotions more strongly modulated activity in the ventral striatum. Finally, the process of emotion regulation appeared to be unaffected by stimulus material.
Human beings are social animals and they vary in the degree to which they share information about... more Human beings are social animals and they vary in the degree to which they share information about themselves with others. Although brain networks involved in self-related cognition have been identified, especially via the use of resting-state experiments, the neural circuitry underlying individual differences in the sharing of self-related information is currently unknown. Therefore, we investigated the intrinsic functional organization of the brain with respect to participants' degree of self-related information sharing using resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging and self-reported social media use. We conducted seed-based correlation analyses in cortical midline regions previously shown in meta-analyses to be involved in self-referential cognition: the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC), central precuneus (CP), and caudal anterior cingulate cortex (CACC). We examined whether and how functional connectivity between these regions and the rest of the brain was associated with participants' degree of self-related information sharing. Analyses revealed associations between the MPFC and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), as well as the CP with the right DLPFC, the left lateral orbitofrontal cortex and left anterior temporal pole. These findings extend our present knowledge of functional brain connectivity, specifically demonstrating how the brain's intrinsic functional organization relates to individual differences in the sharing of self-related information. Human beings like to share information about themselves. Around 30–40% of everyday speech contains personal information about the speaker 1,2 , and people will forgo money for the opportunity to disclose information about themselves 3. Importantly, humans display differences in the degree to which they share self-relevant information 4. These differences are crucial considering that the ability to present oneself effectively to others, which includes the sharing of self-related information, is one of the most vital skills in human social life 5. In support of this, self-presentation plays an important role in occupational success, romantic attraction, making friends, and other desirable aspects of life 6–10. Social psychologists have proposed cognitive process models for the decision to disclose self-related information 11–14. In general, these models require the self-disclosing person to keep self-related information in mind as they decide whether to share it. The person also considers the availability of a disclosure target. If a target is available, the self-disclosing person enters into a process where various positive and negative aspects of sharing the information with the target are weighed. To explain, a person may consider how sharing information about themselves will make them feel and what there is to gain or lose from sharing. They may also consider how their disclosure target may react to hearing this information. The person finally decides whether or not to share the self-relevant information. Therefore, this entire decision process concerning the sharing of self-related information involves various types of cognition, such as self-referential thought, social cognition (e.g., mentalizing), reward-related processing, and executive functioning (e.g., working memory).
A crucial aspect of bilingual communication is the ability to identify the language of an input. ... more A crucial aspect of bilingual communication is the ability to identify the language of an input. 2 Yet, the neural and cognitive basis of this ability is largely unknown. Moreover, it cannot be easily 3 incorporated into neuronal models of bilingualism, which posit that bilinguals rely on the same neural 4 substrates for both languages and concurrently activate them even in monolingual settings. Here we 5 hypothesized that bilinguals can employ language-specific sublexical (bigram frequency) and lexical 6 (orthographic neighborhood size) statistics for language recognition. Moreover, we investigated the 7 neural networks representing language-specific statistics and hypothesized that language identity is 8 encoded in distributed activation patterns within these networks. To this end, German-English 9 bilinguals made speeded language decisions on visually presented pseudo-words during fMRI. 10
ABSTRACT Language-specific orthography (i.e., letters or bigrams that exist in only one language)... more ABSTRACT Language-specific orthography (i.e., letters or bigrams that exist in only one language) is known to facilitate language membership recognition. Yet the contribution of continuous sublexical and lexical statistics to language membership decisions during visual word processing is unknown. Here, we used pseudo-words to investigate whether continuous sublexical and lexical statistics bias explicit language decisions (Experiment 1) and language attribution during naming (Experiment 2). We also asked whether continuous statistics would have an effect in the presence of orthographic markers. Language attribution in both experiments was influenced by lexical neighborhood size differences between languages, even in presence of orthographic markers. Sublexical frequencies of occurrence affected reaction times only for unmarked pseudo-words in both experiments, with greater effects in naming. Our results indicate that bilinguals rely on continuous language-specific statistics at sublexical and lexical levels to infer language membership. Implications are discussed with respect to models of bilingual visual word recognition.
Social media use is a global phenomenon, with almost two billion people worldwide regularly using... more Social media use is a global phenomenon, with almost two billion people worldwide regularly using these websites. As Internet access around the world increases, so will the number of social media users. Neuroscientists can capitalize on the ubiquity of social media use to gain novel insights about social cognitive processes and the neural systems that support them. This review outlines social motives that drive people to use social media, proposes neural systems supporting social media use, and describes approaches neuroscientists can use to conduct research with social media. We close by noting important directions and ethical considerations of future research with social media.
The existence of a "critical period" for language acquisition is controversial. Bilingual subject... more The existence of a "critical period" for language acquisition is controversial. Bilingual subjects with variable age of acquisition (AOA) and proficiency level (PL) constitute a suitable model to study this issue. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate the effects of AOA and PL on neural correlates of grammatical and semantic judgments in Italian-German bilinguals who learned the second language at different ages and had different proficiency levels. While the pattern of brain activity for semantic judgment was largely dependent on PL, AOA mainly affected the cortical representation of grammatical processes. These findings support the view that both AOA and PL affect the neural substrates of second language processing, with a differential effect on grammar and semantics.
Social distance (i.e., the degree of closeness to another person) affects the way humans perceive... more Social distance (i.e., the degree of closeness to another person) affects the way humans perceive and respond to fairness during financial negotiations. Feeling close to someone enhances the acceptance of monetary offers. Here, we explored whether this effect also extends to the spatial domain. Specifically, using an iterated version of the Ultimatum Game in a within-subject design, we investigated whether different visual spatial distance-cues result in different rates of acceptance of otherwise identical monetary offers. Study 1 found that participants accepted significantly more offers when they were cued with spatial close-ness than when they were cued with spatial distance. Study 2 replicated this effect using identical procedures but different spatial-distance cues in an independent sample. Importantly , our results could not be explained by feelings of social closeness. Our results demonstrate that mere perceptions of spatial closeness produce analogous–but independent– effects to those of social closeness.
In many everyday decisions, people exhibit loss aversion-a greater sensitivity to losses relative... more In many everyday decisions, people exhibit loss aversion-a greater sensitivity to losses relative to gains of equal size. Loss aversion is thought to be (at least partly) mediated by emotional-in particular, fear-related-processes. Decision research has shown that even incidental emotions, which are unrelated to the decision at hand, can influence decision making. The effect of incidental fear on loss aversion, however, is thus far unclear. In two studies, we experimentally investigated how incidental fear cues, presented during (Study 1) or before (Study 2) choices to accept or reject mixed gambles over real monetary stakes, influence monetary loss aversion. We find that the presentation of fearful faces, relative to the presentation of neutral faces, increased risk aversion-an effect that could be attributed to increased loss aversion. The size of this effect was moderated by psychopathic personality: Fearless dominance, in particular its interpersonal facet, but not self-centered impulsivity, attenuated the effect of incidental fear cues on loss aversion, consistent with reduced fear reactivity. Together, these results highlight the sensitivity of loss aversion to the affective context.
This study investigated the emotional effects and neural correlates of being empathized with whil... more This study investigated the emotional effects and neural correlates of being empathized with while speaking about a currently experienced real-life social conflict during fMRI. Specifically, we focused on the effects of cognitive empathy in the form of paraphrasing, a technique regularly used in conflict resolution. 22 participants underwent fMRI while being interviewed on their social conflict and receiving empathic or unempathic responses from the interviewer. Skin conductance response (SCR) and self-report ratings of feeling understood and emotional valence were used to assess emotional responses. Results confirm previous findings indicating that cognitive empathy exerts a positive short-term effect on emotions in social conflict, while at the same time increasing autonomic arousal reflected by SCR. Effects of paraphrasing and unempathic interventions as indicated by self-report ratings varied depending on self-esteem, pre-interview negative affect, and participants' empathy quotient. Empathic responses engaged a fronto-parietal network with activity in the right precentral gyrus (PrG), left middle frontal gyrus (MFG), left inferior parietal gyrus (IPG), and right postcentral gyrus (PoG). Processing unempathic responses involved a fronto-temporal network with clusters peaking in the left inferior frontal gyrus, pars triangularis (IFGTr), and right temporal pole (TP). A specific modeling of feeling misunderstood activated a network consisting of the IFG, left TP, left Heschl gyrus, IFGTr, and right precuneus, extending to several limbic regions, such as the insula, amygdala, putamen, and anterior cingulate cortex/right middle cingulum (ACC/MCC). The results support the effectiveness of a widely used conflict resolution technique, which may also be useful for professionals who regularly deal with and have to de-escalate situations highly charged with negative emotion, e.g. physicians or judges.
One of the leading neurolinguistic theories of syntactic comprehension disorders in agrammatic ap... more One of the leading neurolinguistic theories of syntactic comprehension disorders in agrammatic aphasic subjects-the Trace Deletion Hypothesis-postulates a specific impairment in processing syntactic chains, and that this function is mediated by Broca's area. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the specific involvement of Broca's area in processing syntactic traces can be verified using functional brain imaging. We used event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while healthy subjects were asked to judge the grammaticality of visually presented sentences with and without movement of phrasal constituents. During both kinds of sentences, fMRI showed activation in language-related brain regions. Comparing both kinds of sentences did not result in differential brain activation of left frontal or temporal regions. In particular, Broca's area was similarly activated in processing both moved and nonmoved sentences. Thus, Broca's area seems to be involved in general syntactic processing as required by grammaticality judgments rather than having a specific function in transmitting syntactic relations. q
Many agrammatic aphasics have a specific syntactic comprehension deficit involving processing syn... more Many agrammatic aphasics have a specific syntactic comprehension deficit involving processing syntactic transformations. It has been proposed that this deficit is due to a dysfunction of Broca's area, an area that is thought to be critical for comprehension of complex transformed sentences. The goal of this study was to investigate the role of Broca's area in processing canonical and non-canonical sentences in healthy subjects. The sentences were presented auditorily and were controlled for task difficulty. Subjects were asked to judge the grammaticality of the sentences while their brain activity was monitored using event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging. Processing both kinds of sentences resulted in activation of language-related brain regions. Comparison of non-canonical and canonical sentences showed greater activation in bilateral temporal regions; a greater activation of Broca's area in processing antecedent-gap relations was not found. Moreover, the posterior part of Broca's area was conjointly activated by both sentence conditions. Broca's area is thus involved in general syntactic processing as required by grammaticality judgments and does not seem to have a specific role in processing syntactic transformations. Hum. Brain Mapp. 22:72 -81, 2004.
In this study we assess changes in the hemoglobin oxygenation (oxy-Hb, deoxy-Hb) and the Cytochro... more In this study we assess changes in the hemoglobin oxygenation (oxy-Hb, deoxy-Hb) and the Cytochrome-C-Oxidase redox state (Cyt-ox) in the occipital cortex during visual stimulation by near infrared spectroscopy. For the calculation of changes in oxy-Hb, deoxy-Hb and Cyt-ox from attenuation data via a modified Beer-Lambert equation, the wavelength dependence of the differential pathlength factor (DPF), i.e. the ratio of
Social distance (i.e., the degree of closeness to another person) affects the way humans perceive... more Social distance (i.e., the degree of closeness to another person) affects the way humans perceive and respond to fairness during financial negotiations. Feeling close to someone enhances the acceptance of monetary offers. Here, we explored whether this effect also extends to the spatial domain. Specifically, using an iterated version of the Ultimatum Game in a within-subject design, we investigated whether different visual spatial distance-cues result in different rates of acceptance of otherwise identical monetary offers. Study 1 found that participants accepted significantly more offers when they were cued with spatial close- ness than when they were cued with spatial distance. Study 2 replicated this effect using identical procedures but different spatial-distance cues in an independent sample. Impor- tantly, our results could not be explained by feelings of social closeness. Our results demon- strate that mere perceptions of spatial closeness produce analogous–but independent– effects to those of social closeness.
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