Side- and similarity-biases during confidence conformity

Winny W Y Yue,Wendy W S Yue,Kiyofumi Miyoshi,Giuseppe Sartori

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0253577

Winny W Y Yue, Wendy W S Yue + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0253577

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Abstract

Memory conformity may develop when people are confronted with distinct memories reported by others in social situations and knowingly/unknowingly adhere to these exogenous memories. Earlier research on memory conformity suggests that (1) subjects were more likely to conform to confederate with high confidence; (2) subjects with low confidence on their memory accuracy were more likely to conform, and; (3) this subjective confidence could be adjusted by social manipulations. Nonetheless, it remains unclear how the confidence levels of ours and others may interact and produce a combined effect on our degree of conformity. More importantly, is memory conformity, defined by a complete adoption of the opposite side, the result of a gradual accumulation of subtler changes at the confidence level, i.e., a buildup of confidence conformity? Here, we followed participant’s confidence transformation quantitatively over three confederate sessions in a memory test. After studying a set of human motion videos, participants had to answer simultaneously whether a target or lure video had appeared before by indicating their side (i.e., Yes/No) and their associated confidence rating. Participants were allowed to adjust their responses as they were being shown randomly-generated confederates’ answers and confidence values. Results show that participants indeed demonstrated confidence conformity. Interestingly, they tended to become committed to their side early on and gain confidence gradually over subsequent sessions. This polarizing behaviour may be explained by two kinds of preferences: (1) Participant’s confidence enhancement towards same-sided confederates was greater in magnitude compared to the decrement towards an opposite-sided confederate; and (2) Participants had the most effective confidence boost when the same-sided confederates shared similar, but not considerably different, confidence level to theirs. In other words, humans exhibit side- and similarity-biases during confidence conformity.

Highlights

Quick dissemination of information via new media has enhanced shared exposure to a variety of information or point of view
Memory conformity is usually tested by including social manipulation (i.e., engaging participants with confederate(s)) in a two alternative forced choice (2-AFC) memory test
We follow how people may adjust their subjective confidence on their memory accuracy and conform to the opinions of others when engaged in some visual human motion memory tasks in a simulated online environment

Summary

Introduction

Quick dissemination of information via new media has enhanced shared exposure to a variety of information or point of view. People’s sets of memories towards the same event are often not identical due to individual differences in perception [1] and the level of memory loss/corruption each experienced [2,3,4]. When we encounter these nonidentical sets of memories, we may knowingly or unknowingly be influenced due to social pressure and/or our desire to be accurate, reporting to adopt memories congruent to other’s [5, 6]. We may use different memorization strategies depending on our confidence on our memory; under-confident people tend to set more external reminders [10]

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