TY  - JOUR
A1  - Rodrigues, Johannes
A1  - Liesner, Marvin
A1  - Reutter, Mario
A1  - Mussel, Patrick
A1  - Hewig, Johannes
T1  - It's costly punishment, not altruistic: Low midfrontal theta and state anger predict punishment
JF  - Psychophysiology
N2  - Punishment in economic games has been interpreted as “altruistic.” However, it was shown that punishment is related to trait anger instead of trait altruism in a third‐party dictator game if compensation is also available. Here, we investigated the influence of state anger on punishment and compensation in the third‐party dictator game. Therefore, we used movie sequences for emotional priming, including the target states anger, happy, and neutral. We measured the Feedback‐Related Negativity (FRN) and midfrontal theta band activation, to investigate an electro‐cortical correlate of the processing of fair and unfair offers. Also, we assessed single‐trial FRN and midfrontal theta band activation as a predictor for punishment and compensation. We found that punishment was linked to state anger. Midfrontal theta band activation, which has previously been linked to altruistic acts and cognitive control, predicted less punishment. Additionally, trait anger led to enhanced FRN for unfair offers. This led to the interpretation that the FRN depicts the evaluation of fairness, while midfrontal theta band activation captures an aspect of cognitive control and altruistic motivation. We conclude that we need to redefine “altruistic punishment” into “costly punishment,” as no direct link of altruism and punishment is given. Additionally, midfrontal theta band activation complements the FRN and offers additional insights into complex responses and decision processes, especially as a single trial predictor. 
KW  - altruistic compensation
KW  - costly punishment
KW  - FRN
KW  - midfrontal theta activation
KW  - third party dictator game
Y1  - 2020
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-214696
VL  - 57
IS  - 8
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Rodrigues, Johannes
A1  - Nagowski, Natalie
A1  - Mussel, Patrick
A1  - Hewig, Johannes
T1  - Altruistic punishment is connected to trait anger, not trait altruism, if compensation is available
JF  - Heliyon
N2  - Altruistic punishment and altruistic compensation are important concepts that are used to investigate altruism. However, altruistic punishment has been found to be correlated with anger. We were interested whether altruistic punishment and altruistic compensation are both driven by trait altruism and trait anger or whether the influence of those two traits is more specific to one of the behavioral options. We found that if the participants were able to apply altruistic compensation and altruistic punishment together in one paradigm, trait anger only predicts altruistic punishment and trait altruism only predicts altruistic compensation. Interestingly, these relations are disguised in classical altruistic punishment and altruistic compensation paradigms where participants can either only punish or compensate. Hence altruistic punishment and altruistic compensation paradigms should be merged together if one is interested in trait altruism without the confounding influence of trait anger.
KW  - psychology
KW  - altruism
KW  - altruistic punishment
KW  - altruistic compensation
KW  - anger
Y1  - 2018
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-177669
VL  - 4
IS  - 11
ER  -