Schnuerch Robert, Schnuerch Martin, Gibbons Henning
Department of Psychology, University of Bonn Bonn, Germany.
Department of Psychology, University of Mannheim Mannheim, Germany.
Front Psychol. 2015 May 22;6:669. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00669. eCollection 2015.
Our understanding of the mechanisms underlying social conformity has recently advanced due to the employment of neuroscience methodology and novel experimental approaches. Most prominently, several studies have demonstrated the role of neural reinforcement-learning processes in conformal adjustments using a specifically designed and frequently replicated paradigm. Only very recently, the validity of the critical behavioral effect in this very paradigm was seriously questioned, as it invites the unwanted contribution of regression toward the mean. Using a straightforward control-group design, we corroborate this recent finding and demonstrate the involvement of statistical distortions. Additionally, however, we provide conclusive evidence that the paradigm nevertheless captures behavioral effects that can only be attributed to social influence. Finally, we present a mathematical approach that allows to isolate and quantify the paradigm's true conformity effect both at the group level and for each individual participant. These data as well as relevant theoretical considerations suggest that the groundbreaking findings regarding the brain mechanisms of social conformity that were obtained with this recently criticized paradigm were indeed valid. Moreover, we support earlier suggestions that distorted behavioral effects can be rectified by means of appropriate correction procedures.
由于神经科学方法和新颖实验方法的应用，我们对社会从众背后机制的理解最近有了进展。最突出的是，几项研究使用专门设计且经常重复的范式，证明了神经强化学习过程在从众调整中的作用。直到最近，这一范式中关键行为效应的有效性受到了严重质疑，因为它存在均值回归带来的不良影响。通过直接的对照组设计，我们证实了这一最新发现，并证明了统计失真的影响。然而，此外，我们提供了确凿证据，表明该范式仍然捕捉到了只能归因于社会影响的行为效应。最后，我们提出了一种数学方法，能够在群体层面以及针对每个个体参与者分离并量化该范式的真正从众效应。这些数据以及相关理论思考表明，用这个最近受到批评的范式获得的关于社会从众大脑机制的开创性发现确实是有效的。此外，我们支持早期的建议，即可以通过适当的校正程序纠正扭曲的行为效应。
