An fMRI study on how decisions are influenced by affective evaluations from different social hierarchical positions

Expectation States Theory suggests that social status carries emotions, with higher statuses producing positive emotions and lower statuses leading to negative emotions. However, the theory is broad and lacks empirical evidence. This study investigated whether positive and negative evaluations from positions of higher and lower social hierarchies affect decisions. We examined whether decision making is influenced when evaluations were given in a first (L1) versus second language (L2). Bilinguals read scenarios in which they imagined themselves in the middle of the hierarchy. They then made a series of decisions, each of which was preceded with an evaluative word from other individuals whose hierarchical positions were higher or lower. The behavioral results showed that negative evaluations from higher positions exerted greater impact on decisions than when negative evaluations came from a lower position. At the neural level, after receiving negative evaluations, a higher hierarchy elicited greater activation in the right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), left supplementary motor area (SMA), right precentral gyrus, left fusiform gyrus, bilateral inferior occipital gyrus (IOG), and right AI compared to a lower hierarchy, which may be caused by the view that a negative evaluation from a higher hierarchy is criticism. Conversely, after receiving positive evaluations, the lower hierarchy elicited greater activation in the right IFG, left SMA, right precentral gyrus, bilateral IOG, right AI and right IPS compared to the higher hierarchy, which may be due to the fact that positive evaluations from positions of lower hierarchies are perceived as encouraging. Together, these findings support Expectation States Theory in that regardless of whether evaluative advice is given in an L1 or L2, there is an internal association between social status and social-emotional neural responses that are localized in the frontal–parietal and visual cortices.