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Testing the social competition hypothesis of depression using a simple economic game

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Aleksandra Kupferberg ,
Oliver M. Hager ,
Urs Fischbacher ,
Laura S. Brändle ,
Melanie Haynes  and
Gregor Hasler
Aleksandra Kupferberg*
Affiliation:
Psychiatric University Hospital, Division of Molecular Psychiatry, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
Oliver M. Hager
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Psychiatric Hospital; Laboratory for Social and Neural Systems Research, Department of Economics, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
Urs Fischbacher
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, Economics University, Konstanz, Germany; Thurgau Institute of Economics, Kreuzlingen, Switzerland
Laura S. Brändle
Affiliation:
Psychiatric University Hospital, Division of Molecular Psychiatry, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
Melanie Haynes
Affiliation:
Psychiatric University Hospital, Division of Molecular Psychiatry, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
Gregor Hasler
Affiliation:
Psychiatric University Hospital, Division of Molecular Psychiatry, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
*
Gregor Hasler, Psychiatric University Hospital, Division of Molecular Psychiatry, University of Bern, Bolligenstrasse 111, CH-3000 Bern 60, Switzerland. Email: gregor.hasler@puk.unibe.ch
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Abstract

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Background

Price's social competition hypothesis interprets the depressive state as an unconscious, involuntary losing strategy, which enables individuals to yield and accept defeat in competitive situations.

Aims

We investigated whether patients who suffer from major depressive disorder (MDD) would avoid competition more often than either patients suffering from borderline personality disorder (BPD) or healthy controls.

Method

In a simple paper-folding task healthy participants and patiens with MDD and BPD were matched with two opponents, one with an unknown diagnosis and one who shared their clinical diagnosis, and they had to choose either a competitive or cooperative payment scheme for task completion.

Results

When playing against an unknown opponent, but not the opponent with the same diagnosis, the patients with depression chose the competitive payment scheme statistically less often than healthy controls and patients diagnosed with BPD.

Conclusion

The competition avoidance against the unknown opponent is consistent with Price's social competition hypothesis.

Type
Research Article
Information
BJPsych Open , Volume 2 , Issue 2 , March 2016 , pp. 163 - 169
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Non-Commercial, No Derivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 2016

Footnotes

Declaration of interest

G.H. received research support, consulting fees and speaker honoraria from Lundbeck, AstraZeneca, Servier, Eli Lilly, Roche and Novartis.

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