Dissociable Effects of Pro-Self and Prosocial Effort on Reward Dynamics: A Habituation Perspective

Shi Hongqiao, Zhang Xi, You Yuxuan, Chen Xuhai, Luo Yangmei

Journal of Psychological Science ›› 2026, Vol. 49 ›› Issue (4) : 809-821.

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Journal of Psychological Science ›› 2026, Vol. 49 ›› Issue (4) : 809-821. DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20260404
General Psychology,Experimental Psychology & Ergonomics

Dissociable Effects of Pro-Self and Prosocial Effort on Reward Dynamics: A Habituation Perspective

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Abstract

In daily life, individuals exert efforts in pursuit of diverse rewarding objectives. Such efforts can be categorized as either self-directed (pro-self efforts) or others/society-directed (prosocial efforts). Prosocial behaviors, which entail expending efforts for the welfare of others, hold a significant position within the realm of human moral conduct and are of crucial importance for human well-being and the sound progress of society. However, the majority of prior research has primarily focused on the impact of pro-self efforts on reward processing, with less attention given to how prosocial efforts influence this process. Furthermore, the manner in which the reward value associated with prosocial efforts dynamically evolves over time remains unclear. The present study employed the effort-door task, integrated with event-related potential (ERP) technology, to examine the impact of pro-self and prosocial effort on the habituation of reward processing at different stages (i.e., “anticipation” and “consumption”).

The study included 42 participants and adopted a 2 (effort type: pro-self vs. prosocial) × 2 (effort level: high vs. low) within-subjects design. Pro-self effort was defined as the effort exerted to win money for oneself, whereas prosocial effort referred to the effort exerted to win money for a charity. Effort level was manipulated via the required number of key presses. To examine the neural dynamics of reward processing, we employed Cue-P3 and reward positivity (RewP) as neural correlates of reward anticipation and consumption, respectively. Each trial began with a 1000 ms fixation cross, followed by a lock icon and the required number of key presses. Participants used the pinky finger of their non-dominant hand to press the "H" key until the required effort was completed, at which point the lock icon turned into an unlocked symbol. Then, two identical doors appeared on the screen, from which participants selected one to receive feedback. Feedback was presented as either a green upward arrow (indicating a gain of 1 yuan) or a red downward arrow (indicating a loss of.5 yuan), each with a 50% probability.

Considering the nested nature of the data, we used 4 multilevel linear models (MLM) to examine the effects of effort type and effort level on reward anticipation and consumption habituation. A multilevel linear model for Cue-P3 revealed a significant main effect of effort level (B = -.66, SE=.32, t(574) = -2.06, p <.05), with higher amplitudes under high effort. No other main effects or interactions were significant. For RewP, a significant three-way interaction emerged (B = -.18, SE =.09, t(2613) = -2.05, p <.05). Specifically, for pro-self effort, the main effect of effort level (B = 1.67, SE =.70, t(301) = 2.39, p <.05) and its interaction with trial number (B = -.20, SE=.06, t(1262) = -3.25, p <.01) were significant. Simple slope analysis showed no trial effect under high pro-self effort(B=.06, SE =.05, t(103) = 1.15, p >.05), but a significant decrease under low pro-self effort(B= -.14, SE =.05, t(95.3) = -2.90, p <.01). For prosocial effort, only a significant main effect of trial number was found (B= -.11, SE =.04, t(980) = -2.65, p <.01), with no other significant effects (the main effect of effort level: B=.52, SE =.68, t(1277) =.77, p >.05; the interaction between effort level and trial: B = -.02, SE =.06, t(1304)= -.33, p >.05).

These findings demonstrate that both pro-self and prosocial efforts enhance reward anticipation, but do not influence its habituation process. Moreover, pro-self effort slows down the habituation of pleasure derived from rewards in the reward consumption phase, whereas prosocial effort does not affect this process. This indicates a dissociation between the aftereffects of pro-self and prosocial efforts on reward consumption habituation but not on reward anticipation habituation. The research expands our understanding of the temporal dynamics of reward value driven by different motivations. It also holds significant implications for understanding how humans perceive and adapt to rewards under various motivational drives..

Key words

pro-self effort / prosocial effort / reward anticipation / reward consumption / habituation

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Shi Hongqiao , Zhang Xi , You Yuxuan , et al . Dissociable Effects of Pro-Self and Prosocial Effort on Reward Dynamics: A Habituation Perspective[J]. Journal of Psychological Science. 2026, 49(4): 809-821 https://doi.org/10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20260404

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Current research on prosocial behavior covers a broad and diverse range of phenomena. We argue that this large research literature can be best organized and understood from a multilevel perspective. We identify three levels of analysis of prosocial behavior: (a) the "meso" level--the study of helper-recipient dyads in the context of a specific situation; (b) the micro level--the study of the origins of prosocial tendencies and the sources of variation in these tendencies; and (c) the macro level--the study of prosocial actions that occur within the context of groups and large organizations. We present research at each level and discuss similarities and differences across levels. Finally, we consider ways in which theory and research at these three levels of analysis might be combined in future intra- and interdisciplinary research on prosocial behavior.
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The anticipation of favourable or unfavourable events is a key component in our daily life. However, the temporal dynamics of anticipation processes in relation to brain activation are still not fully understood. A modified version of the monetary incentive delay task was administered during separate functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and electroencephalogram (EEG) sessions in the same 25 participants to assess anticipatory processes with a multi-modal neuroimaging set-up. During fMRI, gain and loss anticipation were both associated with heightened activation in ventral striatum and reward-related areas. EEG revealed most pronounced P300 amplitudes for gain anticipation, whereas CNV amplitudes distinguished neutral from gain and loss anticipation. Importantly, P300, but not CNV amplitudes, were correlated to neural activation in the ventral striatum for both gain and loss anticipation. Larger P300 amplitudes indicated higher ventral striatum blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) response. Early stimulus evaluation processes indexed by EEG seem to be positively related to higher activation levels in the ventral striatum, indexed by fMRI, which are usually associated with reward processing. The current results, however, point towards a more general motivational mechanism processing salient stimuli during anticipation. Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier Inc.
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Task motivation depends on what we did before. A recent theory differentiates between tasks that we want to do and tasks that we have to do. After a have-to task, motivation shifts towards a want-to task. We measured this shift of motivation via brain responses to monetary feedback in a risk game that was used as want-to task in our study. We tested 20 healthy participants that were about 28 years old in a within-subjects design. Participants worked on a Stroop task (have-to task) or an easier version of the Stroop task as a control condition and played a risk game afterwards (want-to task). After the Stroop task, brain responses to monetary feedback in the risk game were larger compared to the easier control task, especially for feedback indicating higher monetary rewards. We conclude that higher amplitudes of feedback-related brain responses in the risk game reflect the shift of motivation after a have-to task towards a want-to task.Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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Although many studies have investigated the relationship between the amount of effort invested in a certain task and one's attitude towards the subsequent reward, whether exerted effort would impact one's expectation and evaluation of performance feedback itself still remains to be examined. In the present study, two types of calculation tasks that varied in the required effort were adopted, and we resorted to electroencephalography to probe the temporal dynamics of how exerted effort would affect one's anticipation and evaluation of performance feedback. In the high-effort condition, a more salient stimulus-preceding negativity was detected during the anticipation stage, which was accompanied with a more salient FRN/P300 complex (a more positive P300 and a less negative feedback-related negativity) in response to positive outcomes in the evaluation stage. These results suggested that when more effort was invested, an enhanced anticipatory attention would be paid toward one's task performance feedback and that positive outcomes would be subjectively valued to a greater extent.
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Being characterized by reduced pleasure from social interaction, social anhedonia constitutes a transdiagnostic marker for various psychiatric disorders. However, the neural portrait of social anhedonia remains elusive because of heterogeneities of reward type and reward dynamics in previous studies. The present event-related potential study investigated neural dynamics in response to monetary and social rewards in social anhedonia. Event-related potential responses were examined when a high social anhedonia (HSA, N = 23) group and a low social anhedonia (LSA, N = 26) group were anticipating and consuming social and monetary rewards. LSA but not HSA participants showed an increased stimulus-preceding negativity (anticipatory phase) and and increased reward positivity (consummatory phase) for monetary as compared with social rewards. This group difference could spring from an increased relevance of social rewards or a general decline in affective responding due to a potential association between social anhedonia and depression. Our findings provide preliminary evidence for neural aberrations of the reward system in social anhedonia, which is contingent upon reward type and reward dynamics.© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press.
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