The Social Brain Ben Seymour Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging ESRC Centre for Economic Learning and Social Evolution
Beauty contest game You can select any number between 0 and 100. Whoever selects the number closest to 2/3 of the average of all the players’ numbers is the winner. Winner gets a prize!
Cooperative signals: many eyes are better than two.. Many eyes are better than two
The benefits of teamwork:
To share or not to share?
There’s a snake, honest!
Someone terrible lives here
Do we really need to fight?
Retributivism Consequentialism
empathy
Schadenfreude
Cooperation game with actors Watch each other get electric shocks Record brain activity player 1 player 2 cooperatedefect cooperate10/100/15 defect15/01/1 Empathy for the nice person Schadenfreude for the nasty person
Hunting stags and rabbits
Theory of Mind
Theory of mind Hierarchical value-functions –The brain codes parameters for working out how sophisticated others are first ordersecond orderthird order
Human pro-sociality: Trust and reciprocity. Reputation formation. –is it enough?
The importance of culture
Culture seeds altruism Human culture: learning how to make good decisions from others: Observation Apprenticeship Teaching
Culture seeds altruism Human culture: learning how to make good decisions from others: Observation Apprenticeship Teaching C
Now for the results: Acknowledgements: –Wako Yoshida –Tania Singer –Ray Dolan –Karl Friston –Chris Frith