The Neural Circuitry of a Broken Promise

Promises are one of the oldest human-specific psychological mechanisms fostering cooperation and trust. Here, we study the neural underpinnings of promise keeping and promise breaking. Subjects first make a promise decision (promise stage), then they anticipate whether the promise affects the intera...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Neuron (Cambridge, Mass.) Mass.), 2009-12, Vol.64 (5), p.756-770
Main Authors: Baumgartner, Thomas, Fischbacher, Urs, Feierabend, Anja, Lutz, Kai, Fehr, Ernst
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Agreements
Attention - physiology
Behavior
Brain - blood supply
Brain - physiology
Brain Mapping
Brain research
Conflict (Psychology)
Deception
Decision Making - physiology
Gambling - psychology
Humans
humdisease
Image Processing, Computer-Assisted - methods
Lie Detection - psychology
Magnetic Resonance Imaging - methods
Male
Nerve Net - blood supply
Nerve Net - physiology
Oxygen - blood
Personality
Psychometrics
Psychophysics
Reaction Time - physiology
Scanners
sysbio
sysneuro
Trust
Trust - psychology
Young Adult
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Summary:Promises are one of the oldest human-specific psychological mechanisms fostering cooperation and trust. Here, we study the neural underpinnings of promise keeping and promise breaking. Subjects first make a promise decision (promise stage), then they anticipate whether the promise affects the interaction partner's decision (anticipation stage) and are subsequently free to keep or break the promise (decision stage). Findings revealed that the breaking of the promise is associated with increased activation in the DLPFC, ACC, and amygdala, suggesting that the dishonest act involves an emotional conflict due to the suppression of the honest response. Moreover, the breach of the promise can be predicted by a perfidious brain activity pattern (anterior insula, ACC, inferior frontal gyrus) during the promise and anticipation stage, indicating that brain measurements may reveal malevolent intentions before dishonest or deceitful acts are actually committed.
ISSN:0896-6273
1097-4199
DOI:10.1016/j.neuron.2009.11.017