Neuropsychology of Human Social Decision-Making: The Role of Emotions

Humans live in highly complex social environments, and most important decisions are made in interactive social contexts. Notably, the past few decades have witnessed a proliferation of research that aims to probe the neurobiological basis of decision-making in the context of human social interactions using a diverse set of methodologies, such as functional neuroimaging, transcranial magnetic stimulation, hormone administration, tests of biological markers, and pharmacological manipulation. However, the role of emotions in social decision-making has not yet been well understood, particularly with empirical investigations. There have been separate lines of neurophysiological studies of social decisions and emotions. As a result, although many brain regions and neurotransmitter and hormone systems have been identified in social decision-making or social-emotional reactions, little is known about the brain mechanisms of emotions in social decision-making.

Against this backdrop, this Research Topic aims to recruit international talent and gather state-of-the-art scholarly work or theory development on neurophysiological studies of emotions in human social decision-making to develop an overarching framework by synthesizing different perspectives and empirical findings. Potential contributions include but are not limited to empirical research, theory, new perspective development, reviews, and meta-analysis evaluating the recent progress in the neuropsychology of emotions in human social decision-making. The topics may involve trust, reciprocity, altruism, fairness, revenge, direct and indirect social punishment, social norm conformity, social learning, cooperation and competition, reward and reinforcement, pain and punishment, self-regulation, investment decisions, and health interventions. We hope that articles on this Research Topic altogether will serve as an impetus for moving this field forward by revealing neural and psychological mechanisms of emotional processing in social decision-making.