Abstract
What happens in the mind of a person who first hears a potentially exciting idea?We examined the neural precursors of spreading ideas with enthusiasm, and dissected enthusiasm into component processes that can be identified through automated linguistic analysis, gestalt human ratings of combined linguistic and non-verbal cues, and points of convergence/divergence between the two. We combined tools from natural language processing (NLP) with data gathered using fMRI to link the neurocognitive mechanisms that are set in motion during initial exposure to ideas and subsequent behaviors of these message communicators outside of the scanner. Participants' neural activity was recorded as they reviewed ideas for potential television show pilots. Participants' language from video-taped interviews collected post-scan was transcribed and given to an automated linguistic sentiment analysis (SA) classifier, which returned ratings for evaluative language (evaluative vs. descriptive) and valence (positive vs. negative). Separately, human coders rated the enthusiasm with which participants transmitted each idea. More positive sentiment ratings by the automated classifier were associated with activation in neural regions including medial prefrontal cortex; MPFC, precuneus/posterior cingulate cortex; PC/PCC, and medial temporal lobe; MTL. More evaluative, positive, descriptions were associated exclusively with neural activity in temporal-parietal junction (TPJ). Finally, human ratings indicative of more enthusiastic sentiment were associated with activation across these regions (MPFC, PC/PCC, DMPFC, TPJ, and MTL) as well as in ventral striatum (VS), inferior parietal lobule and premotor cortex. Taken together, these data demonstrate novel links between neural activity during initial idea encoding and the enthusiasm with which the ideas are subsequently delivered. This research lays the groundwork to use machine learning and neuroimaging data to study word of mouth communication and the spread of ideas in both traditional and new media environments.
Highlights
NEURAL PRECURSORS OF THE SPREAD OF IDEAS In the present study, we investigated the neural precursors of spreading ideas with enthusiasm from the perspective of the message communicator
We examined the neural precursors of spreading ideas with enthusiasm as one way of beginning to understand the underlying processes that may lead to the successful spread of ideas
We hypothesized that activity in regions that have been implicated in self-related processing, reward, mentalizing (DMPFC, TPJ), and memory during initial idea encoding may be associated with later enthusiasm expressed for those ideas
Summary
When I muse about memes, I often find myself picturing an ephemeral flickering pattern of sparks leaping from brain to brain, screaming “Me, me!”- Douglas Hofstadter (Hofstadter, 1985)MESSAGE PROPAGATION How does an idea move from being an ordinary idea to a leaping spark, potentially spreading like wildfire to an entire society? What happens in the mind of a person who first hears a potentially exciting idea, reads a potentially viral story online, or adopts a potentially contagious new behavior? What processes determine whether that person will go on to promote the idea, story or behavior? Message propagation from one person to the is one of the oldest forms of advertising, and a powerful form of social influence (Subramani and Rajagopalan, 2003; Brown et al, 2007; Christakis and Fowler, 2007; Smith et al, 2007; Fowler and Christakis, 2008, 2010). MESSAGE PROPAGATION How does an idea move from being an ordinary idea to a leaping spark, potentially spreading like wildfire to an entire society? What happens in the mind of a person who first hears a potentially exciting idea, reads a potentially viral story online, or adopts a potentially contagious new behavior? A considerable body of literature has examined the spread of ideas from the point of view of message recipients [for a review, see (Berger, 2012)]. Recent work from a marketing perspective has examined content and context-based factors that predict when online content, such as news items, are likely to go viral (Wojnicki and Godes, 2008; Berger and Milkman, 2012) and when online reviews are influential
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
