We often believe that we can make our decisions objectively, without too much outside influence. However, whether it is for our choices in business, in love or related to pleasure, the opinion of our loved ones plays a big role. Neuroscience is interested in how our brain goes about changing its mind about a subject. We discover that different regions of this organ are involved in decision-making, whether it is based solely on information or influenced by our social group.
Information or the social norm?
In a study recently published by a team of British and German brain imaging researchers, they wanted to understand how the brain processes data necessary for decision-making. In your daily life, you always have a choice. On a particular subject, you can make a decision based on new information, which is called an informational change of mind, or you can be influenced by those around you, which is called a change of mind. normative idea. This study found that different regions of the brain are at work, depending on the type of thinking you’re doing.
To achieve this discovery, the researchers were particularly ingenious. They invented a simple video game that asks the player to memorize the first of a series of dots presented to them on a computer screen. The dots are erased and the player must put the first dot back in the right place. In the experiment, the researchers told each player to think about this decision, assess how certain it was, and then « change their minds » to move the point even closer to what they believe to be. its true initial position.
About sixty players took part in the experiment. They were divided into groups of two. Before repositioning their point on the screen, some had access to their partner’s accuracy rating so that the social influence of their change of mind could be measured. The researchers found that a player who doubted the position he had chosen relied more on the advice of his teammate.
The mind-changing brain
A region of our brain plays a major role when it comes time to change our minds. This is the anterior cingulate cortex. This part of the cortex looks like a necklace wrapped around the fibers that unite the two hemispheres of the brain, the left and the right. The dorsal part of this region activates when we have to think about changing a decision, a discovery that dates back just four years. Another study shows that it is also this region that activates when we decide to conform to social norms.
It was therefore not surprising to see the dorsal part of the anterior cingulate cortex of the players activate when they assessed the degree of certainty of others. The more the players were uncertain of their own decision, the more this region worked to take into account that of their partner.
Can software change our minds?
In fact, this experience contains a lure, a deception that says a lot about our confidence in computers. Some of the players were told that they had access to their teammate’s evaluation when this was not the case. In reality, the ratings came from software. In players who were told from the start that the normative information came from a computer, the dorsal region of the anterior cingulate cortex did not activate. The players therefore did not take into account the computer proposals, they rather relied on their own evaluation before changing their minds.
Other regions more traditionally associated with socialization also activate when the player is particularly hesitant between informative and normative decisions. These are the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, located at the front of the brain, and the temporoparietal junction, located above and behind the ears. Each individual being different, the results of this research reveal varied behaviors and also show the complexity of the brain at work.
The importance of neuroscience in understanding our decisions
This research on the mechanisms that are associated with our ability to change our minds is important. When we doubt the choices we have to make in our lives, we turn to outside help, through friends or reading from various sources. The discovery of these regions confirms that mechanisms allow us to make this analysis and benefit from it for our survival.
However, the question of the quality of the normative sources remains central to the resulting result. The discovery that a normative source of computer origin does not seem to be retained demonstrates that the brain has integrated the idea that the most relevant information comes from the clan, from the group with which we share the most affinity. Human nature is like that. The results of this study will have to be added to the others in the evaluation of our ability to adapt to the increasingly close links between humans and computers.
In the context of our great reliance on social media such as Facebook and Twitter to inform us, form opinions and even change our minds, the very veracity of the facts presented to us becomes problematic. We are entering an era of « post-truth », where the information that circulates is constantly manipulated. We should therefore use our brain more and more to question, search, verify everything that is presented to us before even agreeing to change our minds. Quite a challenge.
#Humans #influenced
