From whom should I seek help? The temporal competition dynamics of rejection and repayment cost concerns behind help-seeking decisions

When deciding from whom to proactively seek help in adverse situations, one might take into account both the potential cost of being rejected (rejection cost) and the potential cost of being unable to repay other’s favor (repayment cost). Little is known about how these two social costs arise, compete and generate decisions in real-time and how their temporal dynamics is modulated by situational factors (e.g., the extra benefit after securing help and the initial benefit before seeking help). We address this question by developing a mouse-tracking-based interpersonal task and applying computational modeling. In the task, when facing large or small gain/loss of endowment, participants may seek help, by moving a mouse cursor from the bottom-center to the upper left or right box on the screen, from one of the two co-players. The probability of being rejected by each co-player and the probability of being able to repay were parametrically manipulated and presented in each box. The extra benefit of securing help was manipulated and indicated before mouse moving was executed. Results showed that the processing of rejection cost was overall earlier than that of repayment cost. This temporal asynchrony was enlarged as a function of extra benefit when initial endowment was small, and was weakened when initial endowment was large. The extents of temporal asynchrony could predict participants’ final choice preferences. These findings provide mechanistic explanations for the generations and adjustments of help-seeking decisions from a temporal dynamical perspective, and provide avenues to understanding the cooperative behaviors that follow help-seeking.