Figure 1
From: Neural mechanisms underlying interindividual differences in intergenerational sustainable behavior
Histogram of the extraction score and categorization of distinct behavioral types. The histogram in panel (A) shows considerable interindividual variability in the extraction score, which we used to index interindividual differences in sustainable behavior based on participants’ behavior in the intergenerational sustainability dilemma game (see Methods section). Higher positive values on this score indicated that a participant on average extracted more points in Gennext compared to Genpres trials, whereas lower values around zero indexed that a participant extracted an equal number of points in both conditions. To better understand the difference values in the extraction score, we identified two behavioral types by categorizing participants as sustainable if their median extraction in Gennext trials was ≤ 10 points and as unsustainable otherwise (see Methods section). The bar graph in panel (B) illustrates that unsustainable (vs. sustainable) participants extracted considerably more points in Gennext trials, whereas the two types did not differ in Genpres trials. Thus, unsustainable participant’s higher extraction scores reflect more unsustainable behavior toward the next generation, whereas sustainable participants lower extraction scores around zero index more sustainable behavior. The dotted line represents the 10 points that each participant of the present generation could extract on average without reducing payoffs for the present (in Genpres trials) or next (in Gennext trials) generation. Error bars depict standard errors of the means and asterisks denote significant differences (**** p < 0.001) based on dependent and independent t-tests. For completeness, we also report the result of the significant two-way mixed ANOVA interaction effect.
