The interplay between social dominance and decision-making under expected and unexpected uncertainty: Evidence from event-related potentials

Decision-making is a fundamental aspect of human behavior, especially in uncertain situations where social interactions play a significant role. Social dominance, which involves power dynamics within groups, holds the potential to shape decision-making. Individuals' expectations and certainty about outcomes are crucial for monitoring their performance in social dominance situations. However, the impact of expected and unexpected uncertainty on decision-making in social dominance contexts remains unclear. This study aimed to unravel the neural and behavioral patterns associated with decision-making across varying social dominance levels under conditions of uncertainty. Researchers investigated this by analyzing brain activity in 51 students. Participants were presented with both positive and negative feedback under conditions of both expectation and uncertainty, while their brain activity was recorded using electroencephalography (EEG). Specifically, we investigated the properties of key neural correlates of feedback processing, including feedback-related negativity (FRN), and P3 components of event-related potential (ERP), and reward prediction error (RPE) signals. The results revealed that the low-dominance group exhibited a larger FRN amplitude than the high-dominance group. Also, unexpected-uncertain negative feedback elicits a stronger FRN amplitude than other conditions. P3 amplitude was larger for high-dominance compared to low-dominance individuals. Additionally, P3 amplitude varied by feedback valence and condition, with larger amplitudes for positive feedback and unexpected-uncertain conditions. In FRN wave difference, the high-dominance individuals exhibited more negative amplitude in unexpected-uncertain conditions. This reveals distinct neural responses to uncertainty and feedback between individuals with high and low dominance, suggesting that social hierarchy modulates brain mechanisms underlying decision-making and reward processing.