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Serotonin and social norms : tryptophan depletion impairs social comparison and leads to resource depletion in a multiplayer harvesting game
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Bilderbeck, Amy C., Brown, G. D. A. (Gordon D. A.), Read, Judi, Woolrich, Mark W., Cowen, P. J., Behrens, Timothy E. J. and Rogers, Robert D. (2014) Serotonin and social norms : tryptophan depletion impairs social comparison and leads to resource depletion in a multiplayer harvesting game. Psychological Science, Volume 25 (Number 7). pp. 1303-1313. doi:10.1177/0956797614527830 ISSN 0956-7976.
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0956797614527830
Abstract
How do people sustain resources for the benefit of individuals and communities and avoid the tragedy of the commons, in which shared resources become exhausted? In the present study, we examined the role of serotonin activity and social norms in the management of depletable resources. Healthy adults, alongside social partners, completed a multiplayer resource-dilemma game in which they repeatedly harvested from a partially replenishable monetary resource. Dietary tryptophan depletion, leading to reduced serotonin activity, was associated with aggressive harvesting strategies and disrupted use of the social norms given by distributions of other players’ harvests. Tryptophan-depleted participants more frequently exhausted the resource completely and also accumulated fewer rewards than participants who were not tryptophan depleted. Our findings show that rank-based social comparisons are crucial to the management of depletable resources, and that serotonin mediates responses to social norms.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||||||
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Subjects: | B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology | ||||||||||
Divisions: | Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine > Science > Psychology | ||||||||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Resource allocation -- Physiological aspects, Serotonin, Social norms | ||||||||||
Journal or Publication Title: | Psychological Science | ||||||||||
Publisher: | Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd. | ||||||||||
ISSN: | 0956-7976 | ||||||||||
Official Date: | July 2014 | ||||||||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | Volume 25 | ||||||||||
Number: | Number 7 | ||||||||||
Page Range: | pp. 1303-1313 | ||||||||||
DOI: | 10.1177/0956797614527830 | ||||||||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||||||||
Access rights to Published version: | Open Access (Creative Commons) | ||||||||||
Date of first compliant deposit: | 28 December 2015 | ||||||||||
Date of first compliant Open Access: | 28 December 2015 | ||||||||||
Funder: | Medical Research Council (Great Britain) (MRC), Economic and Social Research Council (Great Britain) (ESRC) | ||||||||||
Grant number: | G0700410 (MRC), ES/K002201/1 (ESRC) |
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