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Neural sensitivity to conflicting attitudes supports greater conformity toward positive over negative influence in early adolescence

Adolescents often need to reconcile discrepancies between their own attitudes and those of their parents and peers, but the social contexts under which adolescents conform to the attitudes of others, or the neurocognitive processes underlying decisions to conform, remain unexplored. This fMRI study...

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Autores principales: Do, Kathy T., McCormick, Ethan M., Telzer, Eva H.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Elsevier 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7562935/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32830094
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2020.100837
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author Do, Kathy T.
McCormick, Ethan M.
Telzer, Eva H.
author_facet Do, Kathy T.
McCormick, Ethan M.
Telzer, Eva H.
author_sort Do, Kathy T.
collection PubMed
description Adolescents often need to reconcile discrepancies between their own attitudes and those of their parents and peers, but the social contexts under which adolescents conform to the attitudes of others, or the neurocognitive processes underlying decisions to conform, remain unexplored. This fMRI study assessed the extent to which early adolescents (n = 39, ages 12–14) conform to their parents’ and peers’ conflicting attitudes toward different types of behavior (unconstructive and constructive) and in response to different types of influence (negative and positive). Overall, adolescents exhibited low rates of conformity, sticking with their pre-existing attitudes 65 % of the time. When they did conform, adolescents were more likely to conform to their peers’ attitudes towards constructive than unconstructive behaviors, exhibiting decreased activation in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, insula, and inferior frontal gyrus during peer conformity toward constructive over unconstructive behaviors. Adolescents were also more likely to conform when their parents and peers endorsed relatively more positive influence than negative influence, exhibiting increased activation in the temporoparietal junction when considering conforming to negative over positive influence. These results highlight early adolescents’ ability to stick with their own opinions when confronted with opposing attitudes and conform selectively based on the social context.
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spelling pubmed-75629352020-10-20 Neural sensitivity to conflicting attitudes supports greater conformity toward positive over negative influence in early adolescence Do, Kathy T. McCormick, Ethan M. Telzer, Eva H. Dev Cogn Neurosci Articles from the Special Issue from the Flux Congress 2019: Cutting edge approaches to developmental neuroscience; Edited by Deanna Barch. Adolescents often need to reconcile discrepancies between their own attitudes and those of their parents and peers, but the social contexts under which adolescents conform to the attitudes of others, or the neurocognitive processes underlying decisions to conform, remain unexplored. This fMRI study assessed the extent to which early adolescents (n = 39, ages 12–14) conform to their parents’ and peers’ conflicting attitudes toward different types of behavior (unconstructive and constructive) and in response to different types of influence (negative and positive). Overall, adolescents exhibited low rates of conformity, sticking with their pre-existing attitudes 65 % of the time. When they did conform, adolescents were more likely to conform to their peers’ attitudes towards constructive than unconstructive behaviors, exhibiting decreased activation in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, insula, and inferior frontal gyrus during peer conformity toward constructive over unconstructive behaviors. Adolescents were also more likely to conform when their parents and peers endorsed relatively more positive influence than negative influence, exhibiting increased activation in the temporoparietal junction when considering conforming to negative over positive influence. These results highlight early adolescents’ ability to stick with their own opinions when confronted with opposing attitudes and conform selectively based on the social context. Elsevier 2020-08-11 /pmc/articles/PMC7562935/ /pubmed/32830094 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2020.100837 Text en http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
spellingShingle Articles from the Special Issue from the Flux Congress 2019: Cutting edge approaches to developmental neuroscience; Edited by Deanna Barch.
Do, Kathy T.
McCormick, Ethan M.
Telzer, Eva H.
Neural sensitivity to conflicting attitudes supports greater conformity toward positive over negative influence in early adolescence
title Neural sensitivity to conflicting attitudes supports greater conformity toward positive over negative influence in early adolescence
title_full Neural sensitivity to conflicting attitudes supports greater conformity toward positive over negative influence in early adolescence
title_fullStr Neural sensitivity to conflicting attitudes supports greater conformity toward positive over negative influence in early adolescence
title_full_unstemmed Neural sensitivity to conflicting attitudes supports greater conformity toward positive over negative influence in early adolescence
title_short Neural sensitivity to conflicting attitudes supports greater conformity toward positive over negative influence in early adolescence
title_sort neural sensitivity to conflicting attitudes supports greater conformity toward positive over negative influence in early adolescence
topic Articles from the Special Issue from the Flux Congress 2019: Cutting edge approaches to developmental neuroscience; Edited by Deanna Barch.
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7562935/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32830094
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2020.100837
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