Abstract
When individuals’ actions are incongruent with those of the group they belong to, they may change their initial behavior in order to conform to the group norm. This phenomenon is known as “social conformity.” In the present study, we used event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate brain activity in response to group opinion during an ultimatum game. Results showed that participants changed their choices when these choices conflicted with the normative opinion of the group they were members of, especially in conditions of unfair treatment. The fMRI data revealed that a conflict with group norms activated the brain regions involved in norm violations and behavioral adjustment. Furthermore, in the reject-unfair condition, we observed that a conflict with group norms activated the medial frontal gyrus. These findings contribute to recent research examining neural mechanisms involved in detecting violations of social norms, and provide information regarding the neural representation of conformity behavior in an economic game.
Highlights
We live in a highly complex social environment where social information continuously affects perception and decision-making
Klucharev et al (2009) found that conflict with group opinions triggered a neuronal response in the dorsal region of the posterior medial frontal cortex and the ventral striatum – brain areas that are often involved in reward processing and behavioral adjustments (Berns et al, 2001; Holroyd and Coles, 2002)
A follow-up study indicated that transient down-regulation of the posterior medial frontal cortex by theta-burst transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) reduced conformity, suggesting that a fundamental performance-monitoring neural mechanism underlies social influence (Klucharev et al, 2011)
Summary
We live in a highly complex social environment where social information continuously affects perception and decision-making. Klucharev et al (2009) found that conflict with group opinions triggered a neuronal response in the dorsal region of the posterior medial frontal cortex and the ventral striatum – brain areas that are often involved in reward processing and behavioral adjustments (Berns et al, 2001; Holroyd and Coles, 2002). Signal changes in these regions predicted subsequent adjustments of behavior in line with that of the group (Klucharev et al, 2009). During a music choice task, activity in the ventral striatum – involved in object evaluation – suggested that social influence mediates the basic value signals in known reinforcement learning circuitry (Campbell-Meiklejohn et al, 2010)
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