Brain Systems Underlying Fundamental Motivations of Human Social Conformity

 Xinling Chen1,2,3,4 · Jiaxi Liu1,2,3,4 · Yue‑Jia Luo5,6,7,8 · Chunliang Feng1,2,3,4
1 Key Laboratory of Brain, Cognition and Education Sciences (South China Normal University), Ministry of Education, Guangzhou 510631, China 
2 School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, China 
3 Center for Studies of Psychological Application, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, China 
4 Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, China 
5 Department of Applied Psychology, University of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, Qingdao 266113, China 
6 The State Key Lab of Cognitive and Learning, Faculty of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China 
7 The Research Center of Brain Science and Visual Cognition, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming 650506, China 
8 College of Teacher Education, Qilu Normal University, Jinan 250200, China

Abstract

From birth to adulthood, we often align our behaviors, attitudes, and opinions with a majority, a phenomenon known as social conformity. A seminal framework has proposed that conformity behaviors are mainly driven by three fundamental motives: a desire to gain more information to be accurate, to obtain social approval from others, and to maintain a favorable self-concept. Despite extensive interest in neuroimaging investigation of social conformity, the relationship between brain systems and these fundamental motivations has yet to be established. Here, we reviewed brain imaging findings of social conformity with a componential framework, aiming to reveal the neuropsychological substrates underlying different conformity motivations. First, information-seeking engages the evaluation of social information, information integration, and modification of task-related activity, corresponding to brain networks implicated in reward, cognitive control, and tasks at hand. Second, social acceptance involves the anticipation of social acceptance or rejection and mental state attribution, mediated by networks of reward, punishment, and mentalizing. Third, self-enhancement entails the excessive representation of positive self-related information and suppression of negative self-related information, ingroup favoritism and/or outgroup derogation, and elaborated mentalizing processes to the ingroup, supported by brain systems of reward, punishment, and mentalizing. Therefore, recent brain imaging studies have provided important insights into the fundamental motivations of social conformity in terms of component processes and brain mechanisms.


Keywords
Social conformity; Motivation; Information seeking; Social acceptance; Positive self-concept; Brain mechanisms