Keeping up with the Joneses: Interpersonal Prediction Errors and the Correlation of Behavior in a Tandem Sequential Choice Task
| dc.contributor.author | Lohrenz, Terry | en |
| dc.contributor.author | Bhatt, Meghana A. | en |
| dc.contributor.author | Apple, Nathan | en |
| dc.contributor.author | Montague, P. Read | en |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2014-07-28T20:20:45Z | en |
| dc.date.available | 2014-07-28T20:20:45Z | en |
| dc.date.issued | 2013-10-24 | en |
| dc.description.abstract | In many settings, copying, learning from or assigning value to group behavior is rational because such behavior can often act as a proxy for valuable returns. However, such herd behavior can also be pathologically misleading by coaxing individuals into behaviors that are otherwise irrational and it may be one source of the irrational behaviors underlying market bubbles and crashes. Using a two-person tandem investment game, we sought to examine the neural and behavioral responses of herd instincts in situations stripped of the incentive to be influenced by the choices of one's partner. We show that the investments of the two subjects correlate over time if they are made aware of their partner's choices even though these choices have no impact on either player's earnings. We computed an "interpersonal prediction error", the difference between the investment decisions of the two subjects after each choice. BOLD responses in the striatum, implicated in valuation and action selection, were highly correlated with this interpersonal prediction error. The revelation of the partner's investment occurred after all useful information about the market had already been revealed. This effect was confirmed in two separate experiments where the impact of the time of revelation of the partner's choice was tested at 2 seconds and 6 seconds after a subject's choice; however, the effect was absent in a control condition with a computer partner. These findings strongly support the existence of mechanisms that drive correlated behavior even in contexts where there is no explicit advantage to do so. | en |
| dc.description.sponsorship | This research was funded by the following grants: National Institutes of Health grant # 1 RC4 AG039067, National Institutes of Health grant # R01 DA11723, National Institutes of Health grant # R01 MH085496, National Institutes of Health grant # R01 DA030241, The Kane Foundation Fellowship, and the Wellcome Trust. The funders had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript. | en |
| dc.identifier.citation | Lohrenz T, Bhatt M, Apple N, Montague PR (2013) Keeping up with the Joneses: Interpersonal Prediction Errors and the Correlation of Behavior in a Tandem Sequential Choice Task. PLoS Comput Biol 9(10): e1003275. doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1003275 | en |
| dc.identifier.issn | 1553-7358 | en |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10919/49688 | en |
| dc.language.iso | en_US | en |
| dc.publisher | Public Library of Science | en |
| dc.rights | Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication | en |
| dc.rights.uri | http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ | en |
| dc.subject | Behavior | en |
| dc.subject | Computer imaging | en |
| dc.subject | Computers | en |
| dc.subject | Decision making | en |
| dc.subject | Demography | en |
| dc.subject | Human learning | en |
| dc.subject | Learning | en |
| dc.subject | Neostriatum | en |
| dc.title | Keeping up with the Joneses: Interpersonal Prediction Errors and the Correlation of Behavior in a Tandem Sequential Choice Task | en |
| dc.type | Article - Refereed | en |