Neural signals predict information sharing across cultures.

Information sharing influences which messages spread and shape beliefs, behavior, and culture. In a preregistered neuroimaging study conducted in the United States and the Netherlands, we demonstrate replicability, predictive validity, and generalizability of a brain-based prediction model of information sharing. Replicating findings in Scholz et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 114, 2881-2886 (2017), self-, social-, and value-related neural signals in a group of individuals tracked the population sharing of US news articles. Preregistered brain-based prediction models trained on Scholz et al. (2017) data proved generalizable to the new data, explaining more variance in population sharing than self-report ratings alone. Neural signals (versus self-reports) more reliably predicted sharing cross-culturally, suggesting that they capture more universal psychological mechanisms underlying sharing behavior. These findings highlight key neurocognitive foundations of sharing, suggest potential target mechanisms for interventions to increase message effectiveness, and advance brain-as-predictor research.

Can we have a second helping? A preregistered direct replication study on the neurobiological mechanisms underlying self-control.

Self-control is of vital importance for human wellbeing. Hare et al. (2009) were among the first to provide empirical evidence on the neural correlates of self-control. This seminal study profoundly impacted theory and empirical work across multiple fields. To solidify the empirical evidence supporting self-control theory, we conducted a preregistered replication of this work. Further, we tested the robustness of the findings across analytic strategies. Participants underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging while rating 50 food items on healthiness and tastiness and making choices about food consumption. We closely replicated the original analysis pipeline and supplemented it with additional exploratory analyses to follow-up on unexpected findings and to test the sensitivity of results to key analytical choices. Our replication data provide support for the notion that decisions are associated with a value signal in ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), which integrates relevant choice attributes to inform a final decision. We found that vmPFC activity was correlated with goal values regardless of the amount of self-control and it correlated with both taste and health in self-controllers but only taste in non-self-controllers. We did not find strong support for the hypothesized role of left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) in self-control. The absence of statistically significant group differences in dlPFC activity during successful self-control in our sample contrasts with the notion that dlPFC involvement is required in order to effectively integrate longer-term goals into subjective value judgments. Exploratory analyses highlight the sensitivity of results (in terms of effect size) to the analytical strategy, for instance, concerning the approach to region-of-interest analysis.

Being the Gatekeeper: How Thinking about Sharing Affects Neural Encoding of Information.

Information transmission in a society depends on individuals' intention to share or not. Yet, little is known about whether being the gatekeeper shapes the brain's processing of incoming information. Here, we examine how thinking about sharing affects neural encoding of information, and whether this effect is moderated by the person's real-life social network position. In an functional magnetic resonance imaging study, participants rated abstracts of news articles on how much they wanted to read for themselves (read) or-as information gatekeepers-to share with a specific other (narrowcast) or to post on their social media feed (broadcast). In all conditions, consistent spatial blood oxygen level-dependent patterns associated with news articles were observed across participants in brain regions involved in perceptual and language processing as well as higher-order processes. However, when thinking about sharing, encoding consistency decreased in higher-order processing areas (e.g., default mode network), suggesting that the gatekeeper role involves more individualized processing in the brain, that is, person- and context-specific. Moreover, participants whose social networks had high ego-betweenness centrality (i.e., more likely to be information gatekeeper in real life) showed more individualized encoding when thinking about broadcasting. This study reveals how gatekeeping shapes our brain's processing of incoming information.

Effects of self-transcendence on neural responses to persuasive messages and health behavior change.

Self-transcendence refers to a shift in mindset from focusing on self-interests to the well-being of others. We offer an integrative neural model of self-transcendence in the context of persuasive messaging by examining the mechanisms of self-transcendence in promoting receptivity to health messages and behavior change. Specifically, we posited that focusing on values and activities that transcend the self can allow people to see that their self-worth is not tied to a specific behavior in question, and in turn become more receptive to subsequent, otherwise threatening health information. To test whether inducing self-transcendent mindsets before message delivery would help overcome defensiveness and increase receptivity, we used two priming tasks, affirmation and compassion, to elicit a transcendent mindset among 220 sedentary adults. As preregistered, those who completed a self-transcendence task before health message exposure, compared with controls, showed greater increases in objectively logged levels of physical activity throughout the following month. In the brain, self-transcendence tasks up-regulated activity in a region of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, chosen for its role in positive valuation and reward processing. During subsequent health message exposure, self-transcendence priming was associated with increased activity in subregions of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, implicated in self-related processing and positive valuation, which predicted later decreases in sedentary behavior. The present findings suggest that having a positive self-transcendent mindset can increase behavior change, in part by increasing neural receptivity to health messaging.

Intervening through Conversations: How Instructions Influence Conversational Valence and Binge Drinking Determinants.

A promising avenue for health behavior change is to influence conversational valence, that is, the extent to which people talk negatively or positively about health behaviors. However, no research to date has experimentally manipulated conversational valence, thereby inhibiting conclusions about causal inferences. This study aims to fill this gap by investigating the influence of conversational valence instructions on perceived conversational valence and subsequent binge drinking determinants. College students (N = 138) read either negative or positive conversational valence instructions. Subsequently, dyads engaged in a 5-min conversation about drinking, before self-reporting perceived conversational valence and binge drinking determinants (i.e., attitudes, norms, perceived behavioral control, and intentions). Results revealed that valence instructions influenced binge drinking determinants via perceived conversational valence. Those instructed to talk negatively about binge drinking reported healthier binge drinking determinants than those instructed to talk positively. Furthermore, this effect on binge drinking determinants was mediated by perceived conversational valence. These findings demonstrate that conversational valence about health can be manipulated through simple instructions and confirm the idea that conversational valence is causally linked to binge drinking determinants. Thereby, these findings show the potential that interpersonal communication in general, and conversational valence instructions, in particular, have when integrated in health interventions.

A neural model of valuation and information virality.

Information sharing is an integral part of human interaction that serves to build social relationships and affects attitudes and behaviors in individuals and large groups. We present a unifying neurocognitive framework of mechanisms underlying information sharing at scale (virality). We argue that expectations regarding self-related and social consequences of sharing (e.g., in the form of potential for self-enhancement or social approval) are integrated into a domain-general value signal that encodes the value of sharing a piece of information. This value signal translates into population-level virality. In two studies (n = 41 and 39 participants), we tested these hypotheses using functional neuroimaging. Neural activity in response to 80 New York Times articles was observed in theory-driven regions of interest associated with value, self, and social cognitions. This activity then was linked to objectively logged population-level data encompassing n = 117,611 internet shares of the articles. In both studies, activity in neural regions associated with self-related and social cognition was indirectly related to population-level sharing through increased neural activation in the brain's value system. Neural activity further predicted population-level outcomes over and above the variance explained by article characteristics and commonly used self-report measures of sharing intentions. This parsimonious framework may help advance theory, improve predictive models, and inform new approaches to effective intervention. More broadly, these data shed light on the core functions of sharing-to express ourselves in positive ways and to strengthen our social bonds.

Persuasion, Influence, and Value: Perspectives from Communication and Social Neuroscience.

Opportunities to persuade and be persuaded are ubiquitous. What determines whether influence spreads and takes hold? This review provides an overview of evidence for the central role of subjective valuation in persuasion and social influence for both propagators and receivers of influence. We first review evidence that decisions to communicate information are determined by the subjective value a communicator expects to gain from sharing. We next review evidence that the effects of social influence and persuasion on receivers, in turn, arise from changes in the receiver's subjective valuation of objects, ideas, and behaviors. We then review evidence that self-related and social considerations are two key inputs to the value calculation in both communicators and receivers. Finally, we highlight biological coupling between communicators and receivers as a mechanism through which perceptions of value can be transmitted.

The Value of Sharing Information: A Neural Account of Information Transmission.

Humans routinely share information with one another. What drives this behavior? We used neuroimaging to test an account of information selection and sharing that emphasizes inherent reward in self-reflection and connecting with other people. Participants underwent functional MRI while they considered personally reading and sharing New York Times articles. Activity in neural regions involved in positive valuation, self-related processing, and taking the perspective of others was significantly associated with decisions to select and share articles, and scaled with preferences to do so. Activity in all three sets of regions was greater when participants considered sharing articles with other people rather than selecting articles to read themselves. The findings suggest that people may consider value not only to themselves but also to others even when selecting news articles to consume personally. Further, sharing heightens activity in these pathways, in line with our proposal that humans derive value from self-reflection and connecting to others via sharing.

The role of mental well-being in the effects of persuasive health messages: A scoping review.

Emerging evidence in health communication and psychology suggests that a) exposure to specific persuasive health messages can have unintended effects on the mental well-being of recipients and b) recipients' mental well-being before exposure can influence message processing. Available evidence regarding the relationship between mental well-being and exposure to specific health messages lacks consistency and is scattered across different fields. This scoping review of 24 publications summarizes what is known about mental health effects in health communication and provides a research agenda for future work. Among others, key findings suggest that particularly negative emotional appeals may have broad, negative effects on indicators of hedonic well-being. Further, humor and gain appeals may positively impact mental well-being, although positive message features are strongly understudied in this space. Lower mental well-being prior to message exposure may impact message processing, but not necessarily message effectiveness. We find that potential well-being effects of health communication have been largely ignored, especially outside the realm of mental health research. Yet, initial evidence does underline the importance of such inquiry. This review summarizes initial evidence of systematic, unintended effects of health messaging on mental well-being and highlights fruitful avenues for future work in this space.

Invoking self-related and social thoughts impacts online information sharing.

Online sharing impacts which information is widely available and influential in society. Yet, systematically influencing sharing behavior remains difficult. Past research highlights two factors associated with sharing: the social and self-relevance of the to-be-shared content. Based on this prior neuroimaging work and theory, we developed a manipulation in the form of short prompts that are attached to media content (here health news articles). These prompts encourage readers to think about how sharing the content may help them to fulfill motivations to present themselves positively (self-relevance) or connect positively to others (social relevance). Fifty-three young adults completed this pre-registered experiment while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging. Ninety-six health news articles were randomly assigned to three within-subject conditions that encouraged self-related or social thinking or a control. Invoking self-related or social thoughts about health-related news (vs control) (i) causally increased brain activity in a priori regions of interest chosen for their roles in processing social and self-relevance and (ii) causally impacted self-reported sharing intentions. This study provides evidence corroborating prior reverse inferences regarding the neural correlates of sharing. It further highlights the feasibility and utility of targeting neuropsychological processes to systematically facilitate online information spread.

Mentalizing in an economic games context is associated with enhanced activation and connectivity in the left temporoparietal junction.

Prior studies in Social Neuroeconomics have consistently reported activation in social cognition regions during interactive economic games, suggesting mentalizing during economic choice. Such mentalizing occurs during active participation in the game, as well as during passive observation of others' interactions. We designed a novel version of the classic false-belief task (FBT) in which participants read vignettes about interactions between agents in the ultimatum and trust games and were subsequently asked to infer the agents' beliefs. We compared activation patterns during the economic games FBT to those during the classic FBT using conjunction analyses. We find significant overlap in the left temporoparietal junction (TPJ) and dorsal medial prefrontal cortex, as well as the temporal pole (TP) during two task phases: belief formation and belief inference. Moreover, generalized Psychophysiological Interaction (gPPI) analyses show that during belief formation, the right TPJ is a target of both the left TPJ and the right TP seed regions, whereas during belief inferences all seed regions show interconnectivity with each other. These results indicate that across different task types and phases, mentalizing is associated with activation and connectivity across central nodes of the social cognition network. Importantly, this is the case for both the novel economic games and the classic FBTs.

Message self and social relevance increases intentions to share content: Correlational and causal evidence from six studies.

Information sharing within social networks can catalyze widespread attitudinal and behavioral change and the chance to share information with others has been characterized as inherently valuable to people. But what are the sources of value and how might they be leveraged to promote sharing? We test ideas from the value-based virality model that the value of sharing increases when people perceive messages as more relevant to themselves and to people they know, resulting in stronger intentions to share. We extend this work by considering how sharing context-broadcasting to a wide audience or narrowcasting directly to someone-may alter these relationships. Six online studies with adults in the United States (N participants = 3,727; messages = 362; message ratings = 30,954) showed robust evidence that self and social relevance are positively and uniquely related to sharing intentions within- and between-person. Specification curve analysis showed these relationships were consistent across message content (COVID-19, voting, general health, climate change), medium (social media post and news articles), and sharing context (broad- and narrowcasting). A preregistered experiment showed that manipulating the self and social relevance of messages through a framing manipulation causally increased sharing intentions. These causal effects were mediated by changes in both self and social relevance, but the relative strength of the causal pathways differed depending on sharing context. These findings extend existing models of information sharing, and highlight self and social relevance as psychological mechanisms that motivate information sharing that can be targeted to promote sharing across contexts. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Correction to: Learning from the COVID-19 pandemic to combat climate change: comparing drivers of individual action in global crises.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1007/s13412-021-00727-9.].

Learning from the COVID-19 pandemic to combat climate change: comparing drivers of individual action in global crises.

The COVID-19 pandemic and climate change are two global crises that require collective action. Yet, the inertia typically associated with behavior change to limit climate change stands in contrast to the speed associated with behavior change to stop the spread of COVID-19. Identifying the roots of these differences can help us stimulate climate-friendly behaviors. We assessed the extent to which a number of theory-based drivers underlie behaviors aiming to counter COVID-19 and climate change with an online survey (N = 534). We focused on the role of a number of drivers derived from prominent behavior change theories and meta-analyses in the field, namely, personal threat, threat to close others, threat to vulnerable others, fear, participative efficacy, injunctive and descriptive social norms, and governmental policy perceptions. We investigated (1) what drivers people perceived as most important to engage in behaviors that limit the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change and (2) the strength of the associations between these drivers and engaging in behaviors that limit the spread of the pandemic and climate change. Results highlight three key drivers for climate change action: changing perceptions of governmental policy and perceptions of threat to close others and priming participative efficacy beliefs.

Activity in the brain's valuation and mentalizing networks is associated with propagation of online recommendations.

Word of mouth recommendations influence a wide range of choices and behaviors. What takes place in the mind of recommendation receivers that determines whether they will be successfully influenced? Prior work suggests that brain systems implicated in assessing the value of stimuli (i.e., subjective valuation) and understanding others' mental states (i.e., mentalizing) play key roles. The current study used neuroimaging and natural language classifiers to extend these findings in a naturalistic context and tested the extent to which the two systems work together or independently in responding to social influence. First, we show that in response to text-based social media recommendations, activity in both the brain's valuation system and mentalizing system was associated with greater likelihood of opinion change. Second, participants were more likely to update their opinions in response to negative, compared to positive, recommendations, with activity in the mentalizing system scaling with the negativity of the recommendations. Third, decreased functional connectivity between valuation and mentalizing systems was associated with opinion change. Results highlight the role of brain regions involved in mentalizing and positive valuation in recommendation propagation, and further show that mentalizing may be particularly key in processing negative recommendations, whereas the valuation system is relevant in evaluating both positive and negative recommendations.

Media content sharing as a value-based decision.

Exposure to media content (e.g. persuasive campaigns) affects daily behaviors, but these effects are partially determined by whether and how people who are exposed to the content share it with their peers. To decide whether to share, potential sharers need to compare and integrate diverse sources of information including characteristics of the media content and various social influences. What are the mechanisms that enable sharers to make such complex decisions quickly and effortlessly? We review evidence that sharing is preceded by a value-based decision-making process supported by three key characteristics of the so-called neural valuation system (domain-generality, value integration, and context-dependence). Finally, we describe theoretical and methodological advances that can be gained from conceptualizing sharing as a value-based decision-making process.

Neural valuation of antidrinking campaigns and risky peer influence in daily life.

OBJECTIVE: Health behavior is affected by competing sources of influence like media messages and peers. In the context of alcohol consumption, college students are targeted by antidrinking media messages, but tend to have proalcohol conversations with peers. How do humans integrate competing sources of influence on daily behavior? We observed individuals under exposure to antialcohol media messages and proalcohol conversations and tested a "common neural value" account of how contradictory influences are integrated to affect behavior. METHODS: Participants were instructed to cognitively regulate responses to antidrinking media messages while undergoing fMRI at baseline. Individual differences in success in message-consistent or -derogating regulation were indexed by changes in activity within the neural valuation system (ventral striatum/VS, ventromedial prefrontal cortex/VMPFC), providing a proxy for success in finding value in message-consistent/-derogating engagement. To measure peer influence, we tracked daily drinking-related conversations and drinking behavior for 30 days using mobile electronic diaries. RESULTS: Peer conversations, on average, were positive toward drinking. More positive conversations led to more future drinking, particularly for participants who showed greater neural value signals when derogating antidrinking media. Susceptibility to risky peer influence decreased with increasing success in up-regulating message-consistent neural valuation responses to antidrinking media. Neural effects were driven by VS-activity. CONCLUSIONS: Results are consistent with a dynamic value integration process where contradictory influences inform a common neural value signal. Reductions in the value of a behavior (through antidrinking campaigns) may buffer against future value increases after exposure to competing influences (proalcohol peers) with important real-world consequences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).