Betrayal is worse than loss during cooperation

Betrayal aversion more strongly reduces cooperation than loss aversion in two human risk-and-cooperation tasks, with ERP signatures showing betrayal encoded early and loss later.

• Why it matters: The relative influence of betrayal aversion versus loss aversion on cooperative decisions is unclear, limiting understanding of what people prioritize when cooperation may be exploited.
• What they did: Participants completed two tasks involving risk and cooperation under possible betrayal while computational modeling quantified behavioral effects and ERP measured P3 and LPP timing patterns.
• The result: Cooperation is more sensitive to betrayal than loss, and ERP results link early P3 changes to weaker betrayal aversion and later LPP changes to loss aversion, clarifying cognitive and neural mechanisms.

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