Social Comparison without Explicit Inference of Others' Reward Values: A Constructive Approach Using a Probabilistic Generative Model

ArXi:2512.18687v4 Announce Type: replace Social comparison$\unicode{x2014}$the process of evaluating one's rewards relative to others$\unicode{x2014}$is an essential feature of social emotions such as envy and plays a fundamental role in primate social cognition. However, it remains unknown how information about others' rewards affects one's own reward valuation. This study examines whether monkeys merely recognize objective differences in reward or instead infer others' subjective reward valuations.