02: The biological foundations of trust and social decision-making

This seminar reviews the contributions of the biological, neural and behavioural sciences to understanding social decision-making in general and trust in particular. The following topics will be covered: the neural and biological bases of trust: how we understand the emotions and intentions of others; biological and psychological factors affecting decisions made under risk and uncertainty; egoism vs. altruism – self-control and how decisions are driven by self-interest vs. prosocial motivations; implicit vs. explicit information processing, “rational” vs. “emotional” decisions – the role of conscious and unconscious processes in interpersonal trust and social evaluations. In discussing these topics, we use an inherently multi-disciplinary and multi-method approach which integrates evidence from fields such as social and decision neuroscience, psychoneuroendocrinology, behavioural economics and (experimental) social psychology. The research we present aims to improve our understanding of the principles and mechanisms driving human decisions – an endeavour which will result in a better understanding of social interactions and ultimately aims to inform public policy making.