Abstract
Understanding changes in attitudes towards others is critical to understanding human behaviour. Neuropolitical studies have found that the activation of emotion-related areas in the brain is linked to resilient political preferences, and neuroeconomic research has analysed the neural correlates of social preferences that favour or oppose consideration of intrinsic rewards. This study aims to identify the neural correlates in the prefrontal cortices of changes in political attitudes toward others that are linked to social cognition. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiments have presented videos from previous electoral campaigns and television commercials for major cola brands and then used the subjects' self-rated affinity toward political candidates as behavioural indicators. After viewing negative campaign videos, subjects showing stronger fMRI activation in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex lowered their ratings of the candidate they originally supported more than did those with smaller fMRI signal changes in the same region. Subjects showing stronger activation in the medial prefrontal cortex tended to increase their ratings more than did those with less activation. The same regions were not activated by viewing negative advertisements for cola. Correlations between the self-rated values and the neural signal changes underscore the metric representation of observed decisions (i.e., whether to support or not) in the brain. This indicates that neurometric analysis may contribute to the exploration of the neural correlates of daily social behaviour.
Highlights
Exploring human nature is one of the primary motivations for investigations in neuroscience
We explored the neural mechanism involved in preference changes toward others in a situation that is relevant to social life, the exposure to positive and negative advertisements
We found that the left medial prefrontal region was activated significantly more in the Unchanged Group during the negative political advertisement session only (Figure 4B) This indicates that the activation of this part of the brain was specific to the political task in our experiment and to the negative advertisements among political sessions
Summary
Exploring human nature is one of the primary motivations for investigations in neuroscience. Attitudes and attitude changes have constituted major concerns of political psychology (Mutz et al, 1996). In this regard, stable preferences towards others, such as those based on partisanship and membership in social groups, as well as preferences that are more susceptible to change constitute important subjects for study. Social preferences are identified as divergence from purely self-interested choices in which subjects consider only their own primary rewards. Neuroeconomics experiments have identified the neural circuitry of social preferences as part of the reward-related regions of the brain (Fehr and Camerer, 2007; Lee, 2008; Loewenstein et al, 2008)
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.
