Figure 1.

Trial illustration and behavioral results. A, Trial illustration. On each trial, the subject passively observed a confederate choosing between two options based on a small monetary incentive, with the confederate's face and the choice screen viewed by that confederate displayed to the subject. Each choice by a confederate resulted in the delivery of either aversive salty tea or water to the subject in the scanner. In the intentional conditions, the two options on the confederates choice screen were labeled with the liquids as in the figure, whereas in the nonintentional conditions the confederate's options were simply labeled “Option A” and “Option B.” Trials were separated by a jittered ITI (average 8000 ms). In the computer condition of Experiment 2, trials were identical to those with confederates, except for the replacement of a confederate's face with a fractal image and the probabilistic (i.e., 0.5) delivery of salty tea versus water. B, Mean ratings of confederate traits (y-axis), from Experiment 1 (top) and Experiment 2 (bottom). Error bars indicate SEM. C, Mean ratings (y-axis) of the pleasantness of salty tea and water outcomes, from Experiment 1 (top) and Experiment 2 (bottom). Error bars indicate SEM.