Reinforcement Learning Signal Predicts Social Conformity

As we all know as people we often revise our decisions and judgements to conform to what we call normal group behavior, what is popular. Conformity refers to the act of changing one's behavior to match the response of others. Yet there is miniscule information in our reach as to how neural mechanisms of social conformity work. In this study done by Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behaviour, the use of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) deduced that conformity is established on mechanisms that comply with the principles of reinforcement learning. Their findings provide evidence that social group norms elicit conformity as a result of learning mechanisms reflected in activity in the region pertaining to the rostral cingulate zone and ventral striatum. Human behavior is advised by subjective values and/or attitudes, as well as by the perceived behaviors of those around the individual, particularly by social norms.

There are three central motivations for conforming behavior are suggested in social psychology:

1. A desire to be accurate by properly interpreting reality and behaving correctly.

2. To obtain social approval from others.

3. To maintain a favorable self-concept.

Researchers developed an archetype consistent of the subject's initial judgments of facial attractiveness were susceptible to influence via group opinion. Facial attractiveness is a decidedly prominent social characteristic as well as a daily target of normative influence used in everyday things such as fashion magazines and cosmetic commercials.

With this study, the conflict between the subject's own judgement and the normative group opinion. During fMRI participants rated the attractiveness of 222 female faces and were informed of a group rating of the face afterwards. To assess whether group opinions had an effect on perceived facial attractiveness, subjects were unexpectedly asked to rate the faces once again during a behavioral session approximately thirty minutes after scanning. The findings result in participants changing their ratings of attractiveness, coordinating themselves with group ratings.

This article culminated my curiosity in the brain's ability to bypass the feeling of the need to conform to social norms. In individuals who seemingly do not conform to social norms, is there different neural mechanisms that result in their ability to not care?

http://www.cell.com/neuron/pdf/S0896-6273(08)01020-9.pdf