Abstract
Social media platforms offer convenient, instantaneous social sharing on a mass scale with tremendous impact on public perceptions, opinions, and behavior. There is a need to understand why information spreads including the human motivations, cognitive processes, and neural dynamics of large-scale sharing. This study introduces a novel approach for investigating the effect social media messaging and in-person discussion has on the inter-brain dynamics within small groups of participants. The psychophysiological impact of information campaigns and narrative messaging within a closed social media environment was assessed using 24-channel wireless EEG. Data were acquired from three- or four-person groups while subjects debated contemporary social issues framed by four scenarios of varying controversy: (a) investing in ethical vs. unethical corporations, (b) selecting travel destination based on social awareness, (c) determining verdict in a murder trial and the punishment of life in prison or death penalty, and (d) decision to vaccinate. Pre-/post-scenario questionnaires assess the effects of the social media information. Inter-brain coherence between subject pairs on each social issue discussed by subjects was analyzed by concordance, agreement vs. disagreement, and by group unanimity, unanimous vs. not unanimous. Subject pairs that agreed on the social issues raised in the scenarios had significantly greater inter-brain coherence in gamma frequency range than disagreeing pairs over cortical regions known to be involved in social interactions. These effects were magnified when comparing groups where subject pairs were unanimous in their stance on the social issues for some but not all scenarios. While there was considerable overlap between scenarios in what EEG channels were significant, there was enough variability to indicate the possibility of scenario-specific effects on inter-brain coherence.
Highlights
Humans, and primates in general, are fundamentally social creatures
Subjects were most equivocal on the verdict issue of scenario 3 with large numbers changing their stance after interacting with the content on the Social Media Analytical Replication Toolkit (SMART) platform and following the group discussion
Our investigation into the effects of social concordance on interbrain coherence has provided evidence in support of two primary conclusions: (1) that our results are largely in support of interbrain coupling at the gamma band as a biomarker for social concordance manifest here when subject pairs agreed on scenario issues, and (2) that patterns of Inter-brain coherence (IBC) appear to be sensitive to informational context and content based on IBC variability between the different scenario issues
Summary
Our interactions through social media only happen to be the latest manifestations of our species’ gregariousness. Social media usage has grown exponentially within the last few years and has evolved into numerous interactive multimedia platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube. These platforms among others have created virtual communities connecting strangers and neighbors. Social media networks support the rapid formation of virtual peer groups where individuals can share information with others sharing common interests, these virtual networks are often anonymous, and the experience of live social interaction can be lost. One approach to understanding the antecedents to the decision to share information and the impact of sharing on group behavior is to directly monitor the psychophysiological correlates of subject’s behavior on these social networks
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