CORTEX conference by Arno Riedl

Humans are exceptionally good in adapting their behavior to environmental factors. Specifically, in social interactions norms are often enforced and social behavior is adapted to such enforceable norms. In one study (in progress), we investigate norm enforcement and provide behavioral and neuronal evidence on altruistic punishment and reward within one symmetric framework. We find that both punishment and reward depend on beliefs and that rewarding behavior appears to be correlated with 'neuronal reward'. In another study we show that humans are very good in strategically adapting their behavior: they are selfish when they can and nice when they have to. Using transcranial magnetic stimulation we show that the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is causally involved not only in acting selfishly in an active manner but also in the observed strategic adoption of social behavior.