CHEW SOO HONG, Ph.D
时间： 2015-12-22 13:30 - 15:30
地点： 王克桢楼1113
“How selfish soever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortunes of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing from it, except the pleasure of seeing it.” The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Adam Smith (1790)Neurobiology of the Moral Emotion of Indignation from Unjust Treatment elicited from the Ultimatum Game Norms and traditions play a central role in human societies in regulating social behavior and inducing cooperation. Integral to their development is the recognized human capacity for moral sentiments reflected in much of how we make decisions in social settings. Crucial to the enforcement and sustenance of social norms is the feeling of indignation, arising from the perception of intentionally unfair treatment, which expresses a distaste for norm violation and can trigger sanction towards violators. Applying the methodology of experimental economics, we study the moral emotion of indignation from unjust treatment using two versions of the Ultimatum Game (UG) in which a proposer suggests a division of an amount of money: x percent for the responder and 100 – x percent to self. At the same time, the responder states a percentage y, called the minimum acceptable offer (MAO). Both receive the amounts as proposed if offer x is at least as high as MAO y. Otherwise, both receive zero. Under a No-Intention condition, offer x is determined randomly and the corresponding MAO y reflects the responder’s aversion towards inequity. Under an Intention condition, also the standard version of UG, offer x is made intentionally and the corresponding MAO y reflects an additional sentiment of indignation from an intentionally unfair offer. In an incentivized experiment using both versions of UG, we conduct a genome-wide association (GWA) study of individual differences in response towards fairness intention, particularly the emotion of indignation from unjust treatment. The GWA significant association in the discovery cohort of 2655 (p = 1.21 x 10–8) is replicated in a second cohort of 502 (p = 0.00185) with meta p-value of 8.23 x 10–11 (R2 = 0.0104) for the pooled sample (N = 3157). The identified SNP is in the PEX5L gene which encodes an accessory subunit of brain HCN (hyperpolarization-activated cyclic nucleotide channels) channels. We further offer an account of how the change in a single base pair in the identified SNP in the PEX5L gene which encodes an accessory subunit of brain HCN (hyperpolarization-activated cyclic nucleotide channels) may lead to a sense of indignation through the expression of the identified SNP in TRIP8b in HCN channels to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex through the Dopamine D1 receptor. Our findings contribute to a deeper understanding at the molecular level of a moral emotion at the intersection of moral philosophy, moral psychology, and behavioral economics.
2015-12-22
2015-12-22