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Taking the Reward Positivity (Rewp) to Dissonance Theory

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Taking the Reward Positivity (Rewp) to Dissonance Theory BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT published: 14 May 2020 doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2020.00157 The Effect of Perceived Effort on Reward Valuation: Taking the Reward Positivity (RewP) to Dissonance Theory Eddie Harmon-Jones 1*, Daniel Clarke 1, Katharina Paul 2 and Cindy Harmon-Jones 1 1School of Psychology, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia, 2Department of Experimental, Clinical, and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium The present research was designed to test whether the subjective experience of more effort related to more reward valuation as measured by a neural response. This prediction was derived from the theory of cognitive dissonance and its effort justification paradigm. Young adult participants (n = 82) engaged in multiple trails of a low or high effort Edited by: task that resulted in a loss or reward on each trial. Neural responses to the reward Xing Tian, (loss) cue were measured using EEG so that the event-related potential known as the New York University Shanghai, China Reward Positivity (RewP) could be assessed. Results revealed no significant differences Reviewed by: Anna N. Shestakova, between low and high effort conditions on the RewP. However, within the high effort National Research University Higher condition, a more subjective experience of effort was associated with a larger RewP. School of Economics, Russia This research extends past research on the effort justification paradigm of cognitive Frédéric Vanderhaegen, University of Valenciennes and dissonance theory by suggesting that effort justification is associated with an implicit Hainaut-Cambresis, France measure of reward valuation. It, therefore, challenges recent perspectives on dissonance *Correspondence: processes that posit that these evaluative changes should only occur on explicit but not Eddie Harmon-Jones [email protected] implicit measures. Specialty section: Keywords: effort, reward, cognitive dissonance, reward positivity, event-related potentials This article was submitted to Cognitive Neuroscience, a section of the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience INTRODUCTION Received: 18 December 2019 According to cognitive dissonance theory and its research (Festinger, 1957; Levy et al., 2018), the Accepted: 09 April 2020 more effort one exerts, the more valuable one perceives the reward associated with that effort. Published: 14 May 2020 This effect has been referred to as effort justification. Cognitive dissonance theory proposes that Citation: elevating the attractiveness of a reward following the exertion of unpleasant effort is a motivated Harmon-Jones E, Clarke D, Paul K process that serves to reduce psychological inconsistency regarding having engaged in the effort and Harmon-Jones C (2020) The (Festinger, 1957; Harmon-Jones and Mills, 1999, 2019). Effect of Perceived Effort on Reward In one classic experiment, Aronson and Mills(1959) had female participants undergo an Valuation: Taking the Reward initiation to gain access to a group discussion. The initiation was designed to be of low or high effort Positivity (RewP) to Dissonance (and another condition simply listened to and rated the group discussion). The low effort initiation Theory. Front. Hum. Neurosci. 14:157. involved reading sexually-oriented material that was not very embarrassing, whereas the high effort doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2020.00157 initiation involved reading sexually-oriented material that was very embarrassing. After undergoing Frontiers in Human Neuroscience| www.frontiersin.org 1 May 2020 | Volume 14 | Article 157 Harmon-Jones et al. Perceived Effort and Reward Valuation the initiation, participants listened to a group discussion about The present study was designed to test whether increased sexual behavior in animals. Results revealed that participants who effort would be associated with increased reward valuation as underwent the more embarrassing (effortful) initiation evaluated predicted by dissonance theory. We wanted to assess whether the group more positively than participants who underwent the we could observe this predicted effect using the RewP as a mildly embarrassing initiation. This classic experiment used the dependent variable, as most past dissonance/effort justification amount of embarrassment as the manipulation of effort. Other studies used self-reported attitudes toward the reward as the dissonance experiments have manipulated effort in a variety of dependent variable. We predicted that individuals who exert ways, including the difficulty of cognitive tasks (Axsom and high effort to obtain a reward should have a larger RewP than Cooper, 1985; Harmon-Jones et al., 2015b). individuals who exert low effort to obtain the same reward. According to cognitive dissonance theory, individuals value Also, because dissonance theory’s predictions are based on that for which they have suffered to reduce the dissonance the subjective variable of perceived effort, we tested whether from engaging in the effort. The cognition, ‘‘I underwent individuals who perceive themselves to have engaged in more embarrassment to gain admission to this group,’’ is in effort have a larger RewP. contradiction with the cognition, ‘‘I would prefer not to undergo The present research was designed to test the prediction embarrassment.’’ The dissonance from this discrepancy can be derived from cognitive dissonance theory that effort should reduced by justifying the effort by adding a cognition that is increase reward valuation. However, other perspectives have consonant with the former cognition, ‘‘The group is interesting suggested that effort should decrease reward valuation (e.g., and desirable.’’ The variables of critical importance in dissonance Inzlicht et al., 2018). To date, no clear resolution of these theory are psychological or subjective (e.g., the perception competing predictions has been proposed, but dissonance theory of effort). and its research have suggested that effort should increase Past dissonance theory research on effort’s influence on reward valuation primarily when individuals believe the reward reward valuation has measured subjective evaluations of rewards. is contingent on the effort (i.e., when they perceive control over Indeed, some perspectives posit that dissonance reduction the outcome; Gerard and Mathewson, 1966). Based on this past should not influence implicit measures such as neural responses research, the present research gave participants perceived control (Gawronski and Brannon, 2019). The present research sought over the outcome. to extend past research by testing whether the effort would increase reward valuation when it was measured using a neural MATERIALS AND METHODS response. One such response that has been studied extensively is an event-related potential referred to as the Reward Positivity Participants (RewP). This response has also been referred to as the feedback Participants were 90 right-handed individuals who participated negativity (Yeung and Sanfey, 2004) and feedback-related in exchange for course credit in their first-year psychology negativity (Gehring and Willoughby, 2002). This response is class or monetary compensation ($40 in Australian dollars; often examined by computing the difference between the event- AUD). Of these, eight participants were excluded: one for poor related potentials (ERP) to gains and losses approximately 300 ms performance on the number judgment task, three because they following performance-related feedback. Much research has now stated they did not believe that receiving a reward was dependent suggested that this ERP difference wave is primarily driven by on their performance, and four because they had fewer than responses to receipt of gain and not loss cues (for reviews see 20 artifact-free trials for either reward or loss feedback, leaving Proudfit, 2015; Krigolson, 2018). However, this position is not 82 (46 male, M = 20.74, SD = 3.64) for the analyses. Reported completely accepted (Yaple et al., 2018). The RewP is associated ethnicities were White (31.7%), Northeast Asian (34.1%), with the likelihood and magnitude of reward (Sambrook and Southeast Asian (28.0%), Southcentral Asian (9.8%), Middle Goslin, 2015). The RewP is associated with activity in a Eastern (4.9%), and other (3.7%). The UNSW Human Research ‘‘reward’’ neural circuit involving the ventral striatum, medial Ethics Advisory Panel for Psychology HREAP-C approved the prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, orbital frontal study, protocol #2948. cortex, amygdala, and caudate (Carlson et al., 2011, 2015; Becker et al., 2014). Design Larger RewPs are associated with greater extraversion The experiment was a two condition (low effort, high effort) (Cooper et al., 2014), trait approach motivation (Lange et al., between-subjects design. Effort was manipulated by assigning 2012), trait reward responsiveness (Bress and Hajcak, 2013), and participants to an easy (low effort) or difficult (high effort) greater state and trait anger (Angus et al., 2015; Tsypes et al., version of a number judgment task. 2019). In contrast, smaller RewPs are associated with greater state-induced sadness (Foti and Hajcak, 2010) and depressive Procedure symptoms (Foti and Hajcak, 2009). Moreover, a manipulated Participants were seated at a computer in an individual testing increase in perceived control over obtaining rewards causes room where they provided informed consent. A jar containing an increase in the RewP (Mühlberger et al., 2017). These money was visible on the table to ensure that participants results suggest that the RewP
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