A Collaborator's Reputation Can Bias Decisions and Anxiety under Uncertainty

Abstract

Informational social influence theory posits that under conditions of uncertainty, we are inclined to look to others for advice. This leaves us remarkably vulnerable to being influenced by others' opinions or advice. Rational agents, however, do not blindly seek and act on arbitrary information, but often consider the quality of its source before committing to a course of action. Here, we ask the question of whether a collaborator's reputation can increase their social influence and, in turn, bias perception and anxiety under changing levels of uncertainty. Human male and female participants were asked to provide estimations of dot direction using the random dot motion (RDM) perceptual discrimination task and were paired with transient collaborators of high or low reputation whom provided their own estimations. The RDM varied in degrees of uncertainty and joint performance accuracy was linked to risk of an electric shock. Despite providing identical information, we show that collaborating with a high reputation compared with a low reputation partner, led to significantly more conformity during the RDM task for uncertain perceptual decisions. Consequently, high reputation partners decreased the subjects' anxiety during the anticipatory shock periods. fMRI data showed that parametric changes in conformity resulted in increased activity in the ventromedial PFC, whereas dissent was associated with increased in activity in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC). Furthermore, the dACC and insula, regions involved in anticipatory pain, were significantly more active when collaborating with a low reputation partner. These results suggest that information about reputation can influence both cognitive and affective processes and in turn alter the neural circuits that underlie decision-making and emotion.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Humans look to others for advice when making decisions under uncertainty. Rational agents, however, do not blindly seek information, but often consider the quality of its source before committing to a course of action. Here, we ask the question of whether a collaborators' reputation can increase social influence and in turn bias perception and anxiety in the context of perceptual uncertainty. We show that when subjects are partnered with collaborators with a high reputation, this leads to increased conformity during uncertain perceptual decision-making and reduces anxiety when joint performance accuracy leads to an electric shock. Furthermore, our results show that information about reputation alters the neural circuits that underlie decision-making and emotion.

Keywords: anxiety; conformity; decision; fMRI; pain; reputation.

Figure 1.

Task paradigm and behavioral results. A, Experimental steps: the subject was first shown a picture of the partner's face and reputation (1 star = Rep_Low or 5 stars = Rep_High). Next, the subject was shown two screens: (1) an arrow indicating the partner's guess about the direction of the dots (arrow screen) and (2) their guess about the coherence percentage (30% in the example). The subject then saw a screen showing the dot movement and was asked to guess the coherence percentage (using a slider scale). The RDM discrimination estimation was repeated three times. Next, subjects reported how anxious they feel at the prospect of receive a shock during the 4–6 s anticipation screen. The likelihood of receiving a shock was based on the joint performance accuracy between the subject and the partner. After the shock anticipation screen, they either received a shock or not. Then they saw a screen displaying information about the joint performance of themselves and the partner. The red-bordered boxes are the analyzed events. B, Left, Conformity was higher for high-reputation partners. Right, Mean conformity differed across hard and ambiguous (uncertain), but not easy conditions. *p < .001.

Figure 2.

A, Neural activity associated with the presentation of the Rep_Low compared with Rep_High transient collaborators. B, Parametric analysis showing brain regions associated with increased dissent and conformity during the RDM task. C, dACC activity associated with increased conformity with the Rep_Low compared with Rep_High and inset showing overlap between regions associated with dissent and Rep_Low conformity. D, Neurosynth meta-analysis of 357 studies using the search term “Error” (cluster represent a forward inference); (E) medial PFC activity for the 2 × 2 interaction between Rep_High/Rep_Low × Easy/Uncertain RDM conditions.

Figure 3.

A, Effect of partner reputation on self-report anxiety. B, Regression coefficients comparing partner reputation to other variables that potentially affect anxiety ratings. C, fMRI activity during anxious anticipation of potential shock for Rep_Low compared with Rep_High. Signal change reflects activity in the (C) dACC and (D) pINS. Betas show the differences in activity for Rep_Low and Rep_High for both the ambiguous (uncertain) and easy RDM conditions, using an independent ROI taken from Tedeschi et al. (2015). E, connectivity between the pINS (seed) and dACC.