On the Nature, Modeling, and Neural Bases of Social Ties

Frans van Winden (f.a.a.m.vanwinden@uva.nl), Mirre Stallen and K. Richard Ridderinkhof
Additional contact information
Mirre Stallen: Erasmus University Rotterdam
K. Richard Ridderinkhof: University of Amsterdam

No 08-063/1, Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers from Tinbergen Institute

Abstract: Purpose: This paper addresses the nature, formalization, and neural bases of (affective) social ties anddiscusses the relevance of ties for health economics. A social tie is defined as an affectiveweight attached by an individual to the well-being of another individual ('utilityinterdependence'). Ties can be positive or negative, and symmetric or asymmetric betweenindividuals. Characteristic of a social tie, as conceived of here, is that it develops over timeunder the influence of interaction, in contrast with a trait like altruism. Moreover, a tie is notrelated to strategic behavior such as reputation formation but seen as generated by affectiveresponses. Methodology/approach: A formalization is presented together with some supportive evidence from behavioralexperiments. This is followed by a discussion of related psychological constructs and thepresentation of suggestive existing neural findings. To help prepare the grounds for a modelbasedneural analysis some speculations on the neural networks involved are provided, togetherwith suggestions for future research. Findings: Social ties are not only found to be important from an economic viewpoint, it is also shownthat they can be modeled and related to neural substrates. This discussion paper has resulted in a chapter in 'Neuroeconomics - Advances in Health Economics and Health Services Research' , 2008, 20, 125-59.

Keywords: Social Ties; Affect; Modeling; Neuroeconomics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D01 D64 D87 H41 I10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008-06-24
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
https://papers.tinbergen.nl/08063.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: On the Nature, Modeling, and Neural Bases of Social Ties (2008)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:tin:wpaper:20080063

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers from Tinbergen Institute Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Tinbergen Office +31 (0)10-4088900 (discussionpapers@tinbergen.nl).