Dictator's Game and Prisoner's Dilemma in an EEG study on money donation

ABSTRACT

Knowledge is currently scarce about what happens in the brain when a decision is made to make a donation. This intriguing donation behavior is often assumed to relate to social relationships. The present study used simulated situations in which participants had to decide how to manage money when possibilities for donation were available. Electroencephalographic signals were recorded while participants were exposed to two cognitive situations, the Dictator's Game and the Prisoner's Dilemma, to simulate money exchange between people. Brain activity was measured to determine whether correlations could be made with decisions to donate. Sixty volunteers were assessed, and stimuli were presented randomly. After the presentation of the cognitive tests, the participants were allocated to two groups for the respective cognitive situations. The data showed significant differences in the left prefrontal cortex between questions with a donation context and questions not related to donations. Participants who heard a question related to donation had higher activation in the left prefrontal cortex. These results are consistent with recent functional magnetic resonance imaging studies, suggesting that greater activation in the prefrontal cortex could be produced by the logical evaluation of dilemmas. These results suggest that logical evaluation occurs when faced with a reasonable donation situation.(AU)