Browsing by Author "Lavín Tapia, Claudio"

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Neural bases of prosocial decision making
    (2021) Lavín Tapia, Claudio; López Hernández, Vladimir; Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Escuela de Medicina
    In the present document, an empirical approach for the study of human decision making will be presented. Firstly, a theoretical and empirical contextualization of the subject will be provided; secondly, it will be presented a research article approaching a specific research question; and, finally, a broad discussion of the research results and their contribution will be proposed. The empirical work consisted in the use of a slightly modified version of the dictator game for testing the hypothesis that the inclusion of another person into a decision-making setting increases prosocial decisions in young adults, and that this increase is higher when the other person is associated with others in need. At the brain level, the hypothesis tested was that the increase in prosocial decisions correlates with frontal theta activity and that this activity can be taken as a marker of empathy saliency. Results showed that the inclusion of another person into the decision setting increased prosocial behavior only when this presence was associated with someone in need, and that this was associated with an increase in fronto-central theta-oscillatory activity. These results suggest that the presence of someone in need enhances both empathy concern and norm compliance, raising the participant’s prosocial decision making.