Brain imaging finds why people overbid at auctions

January 1, 2009 Diagnostic Imaging. Vol. 31 No. 1 Brain imaging finds why people overbid at auctions -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- New York University neuroscientists and economists have combined functional MRI with behavioral economic research to discover why people tend to overbid for products sold at auction: fear of losing a social competition. Investigators examined brain activation patterns while volunteers played either an auction game with a partner or a lottery game.Winning the auction game depended on outbidding a partner, a key social difference that could be seen in variations of activation in the striatum. Past fMRI studies have linked the striatum with reward-related brain activity.

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