The Social Learning-Generosity (SL-Gen) Task: Redesigning the multi-round trust game paradigm to examine social learning and generosity sensitivity in young people

Social learning is important for societal functioning, and adolescence is a critical period for the development and maintenance of social behaviors. Specifically, the ability to establish and maintain beneficial social interactions while avoiding or withdrawing from detrimental or harmful ones is crucial for healthy interpersonal functioning. Beyond self-report measures, the multi-round trust game, a commonly used behavioral economics paradigm, can help elucidate differences in social decision-making between healthy and clinical populations. To more specifically probe the role of social learning and generosity sensitivity during social exchange in young people, we have designed a new task: the Social Learning-Generosity (SL-Gen) Task. Using versions of the multi-round trust game as a basis for the design, we have incorporated more environmentally realistic task components, including controlled gain, loss, and variable gain-loss generosity conditions. In a single-session online study, the present research investigated task behavior and task acceptability in individuals aged 18-24 from a United Kingdom census-based sample, as well as exploring task differences by self-reported trust and gender. While this task is sensitive to differences in self-reported trust and gender and behaves similarly to existing versions of the trust game with respect to these effects, it has added utility within mental health research and treatment contexts for characterizing social decision-making behavior in more detail using set generosity conditions.