Princeton University, USA.
Neuroimage. 2013 Dec;83:599-608. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2013.07.001. Epub 2013 Jul 9.
How do people maintain consistent impressions of other people when other people are often inconsistent? The present research addresses this question by combining recent neuroscientific insights with ecologically meaningful behavioral methods. Participants formed impressions of real people whom they met in a personally involving situation. fMRI and supporting behavioral data revealed that outcome dependency (i.e., depending on another person for a desired outcome) alters previously identified neural dynamics of impression formation. Consistent with past research, a functional localizer identified a region of dorsomedial PFC previously linked to social impression formation. In the main task, this ROI revealed the predicted patterns of activity across outcome dependency conditions: greater BOLD response when information confirmed (vs. violated) social expectations if participants were outcome-independent, and the reverse pattern if participants were outcome-dependent. We suggest that, although social perceivers often discount expectancy-disconfirming information as noise, being dependent on another person for a desired outcome focuses impression-formation processing on the most diagnostic information, rather than on the most tractable information.
当人们经常不一致时，他们如何保持对他人的一致印象？本研究通过将最近的神经科学见解与具有生态意义的行为方法相结合来解决这个问题。参与者对他们在个人参与的情况下遇到的真实的人形成印象。fMRI 和支持性的行为数据显示，结果依赖性（即，依赖另一个人获得期望的结果）改变了先前确定的印象形成的神经动力学。与过去的研究一致，功能定位器识别了与社会印象形成相关的背内侧前额叶皮层的一个区域。在主要任务中，该 ROI 揭示了在结果依赖性条件下预期活动的预测模式：如果参与者是独立于结果的，则当信息证实（而不是违反）社会期望时，BOLD 反应更大，如果参与者是依赖于结果的，则呈现相反的模式。我们认为，尽管社会感知者经常将与期望不符的信息视为噪声，但依赖于另一个人获得期望的结果会将印象形成处理的重点放在最具诊断性的信息上，而不是最容易处理的信息上。
