Diminishing parochialism in intergroup conflict by disrupting the right temporo-parietal junction.
Options
BORIS DOI
Date of Publication
May 2014
Publication Type
Article
Division/Institute
Author
Subject(s)
Series
Social cognitive and affective neuroscience
ISSN or ISBN (if monograph)
1749-5024
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Language
English
Publisher DOI
PubMed ID
23482623
Description
Individuals react to violation of social norms by outgroup members differently than to transgressions of those same norms by ingroup members: namely outgroup perpetrators are punished much more harshly than ingroup perpetrators. This parochial punishment pattern has been observed and extensively studied in social psychology and behavioral economics. Despite progress in recent years, however, little is known about the neural underpinnings of this intergroup bias. Here, we demonstrate by means of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) that the transient disruption of the right, but not the left temporo-parietal junction (TPJ), reduces parochial punishment in a third-party punishment paradigm with real social groups. Moreover, we show that this observed TMS effect on parochial punishment is mediated by a classical punishment motive, i.e. retaliation. Finally, our data suggests that a change in perspective-taking might be the underlying mechanism that explains the impact of right TPJ disruption on retaliation motivation and parochial punishment. These findings provide the first causal evidence that the right TPJ plays a pivotal role in the implementation of parochial behaviors.
File(s)
File | File Type | Format | Size | License | Publisher/Copright statement | Content | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Baumgartner_SCAN_2014.pdf | text | Adobe PDF | 251.12 KB | publisher | published |