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. 2022 May 20:13:899233.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.899233. eCollection 2022.

The Neural and Psychological Processes of Peer-Influenced Online Donation Decision: An Event-Related Potential Study

Yuchen Ye  1 , Pengtao Jiang  2   3 , Wuke Zhang  1
Affiliations

The Neural and Psychological Processes of Peer-Influenced Online Donation Decision: An Event-Related Potential Study

Yuchen Ye et al. Front Psychol. .

Abstract

With the rapid development of information and communication technology (ICT), social media-based donation platforms emerged. These platforms innovatively demonstrate peer information (e.g., number of donated peers) on the donation page, which inevitably brings the peer influence into donors' donation decision process. However, how the peer influence will affect the psychological process of donation decisions are remained unknown. This study used the number of donated peers to examine the effects of peer influence on donors' donation decisions and extracted event-related potential (ERP) from electroencephalographic data to explore the underlying psychological process. The behavioral results indicated that the number of donated peers positively influenced donors' willingness to donate. The ERP results suggested that a larger number of donated peers might indicate a higher level of conformity and greater perceived emotional rewards, as a larger P2 amplitude was observed. Following the early processing of emotional stimuli, cognitive detection of decisional risk took place, and the donors reckoned a smaller number of donated peers as a high potential risk, which was reflected by a larger N2 amplitude. In the later stage, the larger number of donated peers, which represented a higher magnitude of prospective emotional rewards, led to a higher incentive to donate, and reflected in a larger amplitude of P3. Additionally, implications and future directions were discussed.

Keywords: N2; P2; P3; event-related potential; number of donated peers; online donation; peer influence.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Demonstration of stimulus photos in the two conditions (the large vs. small number of donated peers). Four schematic diagrams were showed, with two of them corresponding to the condition of large number of donated peers (left two photos) and two of them corresponding to the condition of small number of donated peers (right two photos).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Single trial of the experimental procedure. Participants are instructed to report their donation intention under the condition that the number of donated peers was large or small. EEGs and behavioral data were recorded throughout the experiment.
Figure 3
Figure 3
The behavioral results of donation intention. The black bar represents the average donation intention in the large number of donated peers, whereas the grey bar represents the average donation intention in the small number of donated peers. ***p < 0.001.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Grand-averaged event-related potential (ERP) waveforms of P2 and N2 in the three electrodes of frontal-to-central brain region, and related brain topographies. (A) The demonstration of P2 and N2 amplitudes in the two conditions (large vs. small number of donated peers) in representative electrodes (Fz, FCz, and Cz); (B) The P2 brain topographies of the two conditions in the time window of 230–280 ms; (C) The N2 brain topographies of the two conditions in the time window of 280–330 ms.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Grand-averaged event-related potential (ERP) waveforms of P3 in three electrodes of central-to-parietal brain region, and related brain topographies. (A) Demonstration of P3 amplitudes in the two conditions (large vs. small number of donated peers) in representative electrodes (Cz, CPz, and Pz); (B) The P3 brain topographies of the two conditions at the time window of 330–380 ms.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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