The current research examined cultural similarities and differences in punishment beliefs and decisions. Participants were European Americans ( N = 50), Chinese Americans ( N = 57), and Chinese in Mainland China ( N = 50). The Functions of Punishment Questionnaire was used to measure participants' beliefs about the retributive or deterrent functions of punishment and a scenario method was used to measure the extent to which punishment decisions were driven by individuals' concerns for retribution or deterrence. The results indicated that, contrary to the hypothesis that the retributive function would be emphasized by individualistic groups and the deterrent function by collectivistic groups, Mainland Chinese participants had a stronger belief in retribution and a weaker belief in deterrence than did European and Chinese Americans. The results also indicated that retribution played a bigger role in punishment decisions for Chinese than for the other two groups, but the importance of the deterrence function in punishment decisions did not differ across the three groups. Finally, the correlation between interdependence orientation and the belief in retribution was positive for Chinese but negative for European Americans. Taken together, the findings provided little evidence that collectivists are more deterrence-oriented and individualists more retribution-oriented.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0033294116679654 | DOI Listing |
Commun Biol
January 2025
Department of Psychology, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
Traditional decision-making models conceptualize humans as adaptive learners utilizing the differences between expected and actual rewards (prediction errors, PEs) to maximize outcomes, but rarely consider the influence of violations of emotional expectations (emotional PEs) and how it differs from reward PEs. Here, we conducted a fMRI experiment (n = 43) using a modified Ultimatum Game to examine how reward and emotional PEs affect punishment decisions in terms of rejecting unfair offers. Our results revealed that reward relative to emotional PEs exerted a stronger prediction to punishment decisions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPublic health emergencies are critical to people's lives and health, economic development and social stability. Understanding how to respond correctly to public health emergencies is the focus of societal attention. This paper focuses on the tripartite entities of public health emergencies: local governments, pharmaceutical enterprises and the public.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAnn N Y Acad Sci
January 2025
School of Psychology, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China.
Individuals with high math anxiety (HMA) demonstrate a tendency to avoid math-related tasks, a behavior that perpetuates a detrimental cycle of limited practice, poor performance, increased anxiety, and further avoidance. This study delves into the cognitive and neural bases of math avoidance behavior in HMA through the lens of reward processing. In Experiment 1, participants reported their satisfaction level in response to the reward provided after solving an arithmetic problem.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBiol Psychiatry Cogn Neurosci Neuroimaging
January 2025
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, TUD Dresden University of Technology, German Center for Child and Adolescent Health (DZKJ), partner site Leipzig/Dresden, Dresden, Germany.
Objective: Conduct disorder (CD) is associated with deficits in the use of punishment for reinforcement learning (RL) and subsequent decision-making, contributing to reckless, antisocial, and aggressive behaviors. Here, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine whether differences in behavioral learning rates derived from computational modeling, particularly for punishment, are reflected in aberrant neural responses in youths with CD compared to typically-developing controls (TDCs).
Methods: 75 youths with CD and 99 TDCs (9-18 years, 47% girls) performed a probabilistic RL task with punishment, reward, and neutral contingencies.
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