Abstract
Socially appropriate behavior involves learning actions valued by others and those that have a social cost. Facial expressions are one way to signal value. Rewarding or aversive properties of social signals such as smiles or frowns also evoke automatic approach or avoidance behaviors in receivers. We found that Pavlovian biases to approach cues predicting social reward and avoid cues predicting social punishment interfered with Instrumental learning from social feedback. While the computations underlying Pavlovian and Instrumental interactions remained the same as when learning from monetary feedback, Pavlovian biases from social outcomes was unrelated to bias from money. Trial-by-trial alpha EEG power was associated with suppression of Pavlovian bias to social outcomes while suppression of bias from money was associated with theta EEG power. Our results demonstrate how emotional reactions to feedback from others are balanced with the instrumental value of that feedback to guide social behavior.
