Chuangbing Huang1,2,3,4,5 · Xingmei Zhou6  · Feilong Liu1,2,3,4,5 · Binjie Yang1,2,3,4,5 · Zixin Zheng1,2,3,4,5 · Xiaoqing Li1,2,3,4,5 · Yijie Yin1,2,3,4,5 · Yue‑Jia Luo2,6,7,8 · Chunliang Feng1,2,3,4,5

1 Key Laboratory of Brain, Cognition, and Education Sciences (South China Normal University), Ministry of Education, Guangzhou 510631, China 

2 School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, China 

3 Center for Studies of Psychological Application, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, China 

4 Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, China 

5 Philosophy and Social Science Laboratory of Reading and Development in Children and Adolescents (South China Normal University), Ministry of Education, Guangzhou 510631, China 

6 The State Key Lab of Cognitive and Learning, Faculty of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China 

7 Institute for Neuropsychological Rehabilitation, University of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, Qingdao 266113, China 

8 Faculty of Health and Wellness, City University of Macau, Macau 999078, China

Abstract

Costly punishment in social bonds includes reactive penalties for transgressions and proactive sanctions against fair behaviors; however, a unified neurocomputational framework is lacking. Using neuroimaging and computational modeling, we tested how future interaction prospects modulate both forms of punishment. Participants, acting as second- or third-party punishers, responded to offers from partners with or without future interactions, imposing harsher punishment on both fair and unfair offers from non-future-interacting individuals, consistent with lower self-reported closeness. Heightened aversion to disadvantageous inequity, indexed by dorsal anterior cingulate activity, mediated increased reactive punishment toward non-future-interacting wrongdoers, whereas punishment of future-interacting transgressors engaged the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC). A stronger preference for relative advantage and reduced harm sensitivity, linked to the dlPFC and temporoparietal junction, mediated greater proactive punishment toward non-future-interacting individuals. Proactive punishment also exhibits collective retaliation against others’ unfairness. These findings establish a unified neurocomputational framework that integrates the mechanisms by which future interaction prospects regulate costly punishment within social bonds.

Keywords

Costly punishment; Inequity aversion; Relative advantage; Harm sensitivity; fMRI; Computational modeling

[SpringerLink]