Reward sensitivity differs depending on global self-esteem in value-based decision-making

Global self-esteem is a component of individual personality that impacts decision-making. Many studies have discussed the different preferences for decision-making in response to threats to a person’s self-confidence, depending on global self-esteem. However, studies about global self-esteem and non-social decision-making have indicated that decisions differ due to reward sensitivity. Here, reward sensitivity refers to the extent to which rewards change decisions. We hypothesized that individuals with lower global self-esteem have lower reward sensitivity and investigated the relationship between self-esteem and reward sensitivity using a computational model. We first examined the effect of expected value and maximum value in learning under uncertainties because some studies have shown the possibility of saliency (e.g. maximum value) and relative value (e.g. expected value) affecting decisions, respectively. In our learning task, expected value affected decisions, but there was no significant effect of maximum value. Therefore, we modelled participants’ choices under the condition of different expected value without considering maximum value. We used the Q-learning model, which is one of the traditional computational models in explaining experiential learning decisions. Global self-esteem correlated positively with reward sensitivity. Our results suggest that individual reward sensitivity affects decision-making depending on one’s global self-esteem.