Computational and Motivational Mechanisms of Human Social Decision Making Involving Close Others

Every day, human beings make decisions with social consequences. These social consequences matter most when they impact those closest to us. Recent research has shown that humans exhibit reliable preferences when deciding between conflicting outcomes involving close others – for example, prioritizing the interests of one’s family member over one’s friend. However, virtually nothing is known about the mechanisms that drive these preferences. We conducted a pre-registered study in a large (N = 375) sample to quantify the computational and motivational mechanisms of human social decision making preferences involving close others. By pairing assessment techniques from behavioral economics and psychological science with computational modeling and random coefficient regression, we show that value-based cognitive computations (e.g., risk and loss aversion) drive social decision making preferences involving financial outcomes, whereas socioemotional motivations (e.g., relationship quality) underlie preferences involving social outcomes. These results imply mechanistic heterogeneity, underscoring a need for greater attention to contextual specificity in social decision making.