Figure 1
From: Developmental asymmetries in learning to adjust to cooperative and uncooperative environments
Task assessing learning to adjust to cooperative and uncooperative social environments. (a) Example trial. The participant (purple stick figure on the left) can choose between the top and bottom row of boxes (A or B). After choice selection, the participant is shown the pre-recorded choice (X or Y) of the other player (grey stick figure on the top). The background colour of the other player indicates to which of the two environments they belong. The combined choices of the participant and the other player determine the monetary outcome for both players (number of dots in their corresponding colour). (b) In the Trust Game, participants interact with players from a ‘Trustworthy’ environment (who tend to choose X) or an ‘Untrustworthy’ environment (who tend to choose Y). Participants’ own monetary payoffs are maximized by choosing to trust (choose A) a player from a Trustworthy environment, and to withhold trust (choose B) from a player from the Untrustworthy environment. In this Trust Game setup only disadvantageous inequality aversion may play a role in decision making (c) Participant choices over trials per social environment, pooled across all participants. Over the course of the game, participants adjusted their choices by directing their trust towards players from the Trustworthy environment, and away from players from the Untrustworthy environment (N = 244). (d) In the Coordination Game, participants’ monetary payoffs are also maximised by matching the choices of their co-players. Again, social environments differ in their prevalence of (non)cooperation, reflected by players’ tendencies to choose either X or Y. Coordinating on either of the outcomes (A,X) or (B,Y) will lead to positive outcomes. Respectively, participants’ own monetary payoffs are maximized by choosing to accept a disadvantage (choose A) when confronted with a player from the Unfriendly environment, and to accept an advantage (choose B) when confronted with a player from the Friendly environment. In this game both advantageous and disadvantageous inequality aversion may play a role in social decision making. e, Participant choices over trials per social environment, pooled across all participants. Overall, participants learned to coordinate with players from both environments. (N = 202). Shaded areas in panels c and e represent standard errors of the mean (s.e.m.).
