The Effect of SVO Category on Theta/Alpha Ratio Distribution in Resource Allocation Tasks

Abstract

Social Value Orientation (SVO) measures and quantifies the effect of players’ social attitude regarding the divisions of resources and showed to be valuable in predicting the degree of cooperation across a wide variety of social dilemmas and resource allocation tasks (Prisoner’s dilemma, Chicken game, Stag-hunt, Battle of the sexes). In this study, we would like to test whether people with different SVO values (specifically prosocial and individualistic) do not only exhibit different social preferences in these games, but whether they produce a different electrophysiological pattern. To this aim, we have utilized a specific electrophysiological index, the Theta/Alpha ratio, which is known to be correlated with the cognitive load. Our result demonstrates that there are indeed differences in the Theta/Alpha ratio of players with different SVO values.