The Neurobiology of social interaction in the age of Digitalization (NerDI)

• Applicant: Dr. Nina Marsh
• Subject Area: Social Psychology, Industrial and Organisational Psychology ; Biological Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience
• Term: since 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 452931498

In modern societies, the use of digital technologies becomes increasingly relevant for humans to socialize and interact with others in their professional and private environment. The relevance of human-technology interaction became even more apparent in the context of the global COVID-19 pandemic. From a social neuroscience perspective, this raises the question, whether the modalities of social interaction, i.e. physical vs. digital, haven an influence on prosocial behaviors which rely on social interaction, such as human altruism. More than any other species, humans incur personal costs to increase the welfare of other individuals. The evolutionarily conserved peptide hormone oxytocin has a well-established role in modulating social behaviors, including human altruism. As of yet, the the behavioral and neural correlates of social interaction in the context of human altruism have been neither precisely understood nor systematically researched. The proposed DFG-project uses a discovery-replication design to addresses this gap on the basis of two experimental studies involving a total of 360 participants. The NerDI-project is composed of two studies: a behavioral study (Study 1) and a neuroimaging study (Study 2). In both studies a total of 180 participants will self-administer 24-IU of oxytocin or placebo nasal spray and will be randomly assigned to one of three social interaction conditions (human-human interaction (HHI); human-technology interaction (HTI); no interaction (control condition)) before being exposed to an altruistic donation task. The aim is to investigate whether HHI and HTI are distinct in the brain mechanisms that support them. Specifically, the project will a) provide new insights to the neurobiology of social interaction-specific effects on altruistic behavior, b) explore oxytocin’s neural effects and specify the neurobiological mechanisms underlying human altruism, and c) encourage a broader understanding of the interaction between humans and digital technology, which is crucial as human-technology interactions become more ubiquitous in our daily lives.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants