TY  - CHAP
AB  - Purpose – This chapter addresses the nature, formalization, and neural bases of (affective) social ties and discusses the relevance of ties for health economics. A social tie is defined as an affective weight attached by an individual to the well-being of another individual (‘utility interdependence’). Ties can be positive or negative, and symmetric or asymmetric between individuals. Characteristic of a social tie, as conceived of here, is that it develops over time under the influence of interaction, in contrast with a trait like altruism. Moreover, a tie is not related to strategic behavior such as reputation formation but seen as generated by affective responses.Methodology/approach – A formalization is presented together with some supportive evidence from behavioral experiments. This is followed by a discussion of related psychological constructs and the presentation of suggestive existing neural findings. To help prepare the grounds for a model-based neural analysis some speculations on the neural networks involved are provided, together with suggestions for future research.Findings – Social ties are not only found to be important from an economic viewpoint, it is also shown that they can be modeled and related to neural substrates.Originality/value of the chapter – By providing an overview of the economic research on social ties and connecting it with the broader behavioral and neuroeconomics literature, the chapter may contribute to the development of a neuroeconomics of social ties.
VL  - 20
SN  - 978-1-84855-304-0, 978-1-84855-305-7/0731-2199
DO  - 10.1016/S0731-2199(08)20006-3
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1016/S0731-2199(08)20006-3
AU  - van Winden Frans
AU  - Stallen Mirre
AU  - Ridderinkhof K. Richard
ED  - Daniel Houser
ED  - Kevin McCabe
PY  - 2008
Y1  - 2008/01/01
TI  - On the nature, modeling, and neural bases of social ties
T2  - Neuroeconomics
T3  - Advances in Health Economics and Health Services Research
PB  - Emerald Group Publishing Limited
SP  - 125
EP  - 159
Y2  - 2024/05/09
ER  -