2023-04-18 ニューサウスウェールズ大学(UNSW)
この研究では、罰の不足が問題の一部である可能性があることを発見しました。なぜなら、罰が頻繁に与えられないと、人は危険な行動を取り続ける傾向があるからです。この研究結果は、依存症やその他の有害な結果につながる自己破壊的な行動をとる人に対する治療法の開発に役立つと思われます。
<関連情報>
- https://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/social-affairs/research-sheds-new-light-self-destructive-behaviour
- https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2221634120
罰に鈍感になる認知経路 A cognitive pathway to punishment insensitivity
Philip Jean-Richard-dit-Bressel,Jessica C. Lee,Shi Xian Liew,Gabrielle Weidemann,Peter F. Lovibond and Gavan P. McNally
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Published:April 3, 2023
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2221634120
Significance
Insensitivity to the adverse consequences of our actions drives problematic behaviors such as those observed in substance use disorders, conduct disorder, and antisocial personality disorder. Two pathways have been proposed for this insensitivity: a motivational pathway based on differences in reward valuation and a behavioral pathway based on autonomous stimulus–response mechanisms. Here, we identify a third, cognitive pathway based on differences in awareness of the adverse consequences of one’s actions. We show that when the costs of actions are rare, learning via experience and information does not always yield veridical causal knowledge or optimum decision-making, causing some individuals to continually incur punishments that they neither like nor want.
Abstract
Individuals differ in their sensitivity to the adverse consequences of their actions, leading some to persist in maladaptive behaviors. Two pathways have been identified for this insensitivity: a motivational pathway based on excessive reward valuation and a behavioral pathway based on autonomous stimulus–response mechanisms. Here, we identify a third, cognitive pathway based on differences in punishment knowledge and use of that knowledge to suppress behavior. We show that distinct phenotypes of punishment sensitivity emerge from differences in what people learn about their actions. Exposed to identical punishment contingencies, some people (sensitive phenotype) form correct causal beliefs that they use to guide their behavior, successfully obtaining rewards and avoiding punishment, whereas others form incorrect but internally coherent causal beliefs that lead them to earn punishment they do not like. Incorrect causal beliefs were not inherently problematic because we show that many individuals benefit from information about why they are being punished, revaluing their actions and changing their behavior to avoid further punishment (unaware phenotype). However, one condition where incorrect causal beliefs were problematic was when punishment is infrequent. Under this condition, more individuals show punishment insensitivity and detrimental patterns of behavior that resist experience and information-driven updating, even when punishment is severe (compulsive phenotype). For these individuals, rare punishment acted as a “trap,” inoculating maladaptive behavioral preferences against cognitive and behavioral updating.
