• Changing your mind based on information,

    From ScienceDaily@1:317/3 to All on Thu Mar 3 21:30:44 2022
    Changing your mind based on information, or simply to conform? Brain
    activity differentiates between types of social influence

    Date:
    March 3, 2022
    Source:
    PLOS
    Summary:
    Researchers have characterized brain activity that occurs when
    we are socially influenced to change our minds. The study shows
    how the brain distinguishes between different types of social
    conformity when revising one's opinions.



    FULL STORY ========================================================================== Researchers led by Ali Mahmoodi at the University of Freiburg in Germany
    have characterized brain activity that occurs when we are socially
    influenced to change our minds. Publishing in PLOS Biology on March 3,
    the study shows how the brain distinguishes between different types of
    social conformity when revising one's opinions.


    ========================================================================== Changing one's mind after learning additional information from another
    person is an example of informational social influence. On the other hand,
    if it's because of the desire to be socially accepted, it's an example
    of normative social influence. Until now, no study of the underlying
    brain mechanisms has differentiated between these two situations.

    The current study used a computer-based game in which people tried to
    remember the location of a dot presented on the screen. The participants provided confidence ratings for their responses and were then allowed
    to revise their estimations after seeing a computer's response or the
    response of a "partner" whom they had met before the experiment. In
    reality, all the responses were made by computers. Brain activity was
    measured using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while people
    played the game.

    People conformed more when their confidence was low, regardless of whether
    they thought their partner was human or not. This informational influence
    was tracked by activity in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC)
    of the brain. The participants also conformed more when conformity was reciprocated by their partner. This normative influence only occurred
    when participants thought that their partners were human, as did the correlation with dACC activity.

    Additionally, normative influence, but not informational influence,
    was associated with stronger functional connections to the dACC from
    other social processing regions of the brain.

    Reciprocal conformity is a behavior indicative of the desire for social acceptance, and understanding its neural basis is crucial when confronting instances of excessive conformity. Future studies should explore the
    limits of normative conformity with respect to non-human machines.

    Mahmoodi adds, "Human dorsal anterior cingulate cortex tracks the weight
    of others' opinion in social interaction. This brain signal treats advice
    from humans and from artificial intelligence similarly in matters of information. In matters of social norms such as reciprocity, however,
    this brain area gives no weight to AI."

    ========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by PLOS. Note: Content may be edited
    for style and length.


    ========================================================================== Journal Reference:
    1. Ali Mahmoodi, Hamed Nili, Dan Bang, Carsten Mehring, Bahador
    Bahrami.

    Distinct neurocomputational mechanisms support informational
    and socially normative conformity. PLOS Biology, 2022; 20 (3):
    e3001565 DOI: 10.1371/ journal.pbio.3001565 ==========================================================================

    Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/03/220303141143.htm

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