Neural detection of socially valued community members

Abstract

As people form social groups, they benefit from being able to detect socially valuable community members-individuals who act prosocially, support others, and form strong relationships. Multidisciplinary evidence demonstrates that people indeed track others' social value, but the mechanisms through which such detection occurs remain unclear. Here, we combine social network and neuroimaging analyses to examine this process. We mapped social networks in two freshman dormitories ( = 97), identifying how often individuals were nominated as socially valuable (i.e., sources of friendship, empathy, and support) by their peers. Next, we scanned a subset of dorm members ("perceivers"; = 50) as they passively viewed photos of their dormmates ("targets"). Perceiver brain activity in regions associated with mentalizing and value computation differentiated between highly valued targets and other community members but did not differentiate between targets with middle versus low levels of social value. Cross-validation analysis revealed that brain activity from novel perceivers could be used to accurately predict whether targets viewed by those perceivers were high in social value or not. These results held even after controlling for perceivers' own ratings of closeness to targets, and even though perceivers were not directed to focus on targets' social value. Overall, these findings demonstrate that individuals spontaneously monitor people identified as sources of strong connection in the broader community.

Cognitive Processes Unfold in a Social Context: A Review and Extension of Social Baseline Theory

“…A dynamic social network was created based on these measurements. By examining individuals within a social context, they found that those high in well-being (i.e., life satisfaction and positive emotion) were central to networks characterized by fun, whereas individuals high in empathy were central to networks characterized by trust (Morelli et al, 2018). This provides evidence that well-being is socially attractive, whereas empathy supports close relationships.…”

“…Emerging research of social networks offers a valuable extension of dyadic processes and a more thorough understanding of the relationship between an individual and not only their assumed social environment, but also within an ecologically valid context. Recent work by Morelli et al (2018) highlights the importance of studying not just the individual within the social environment but also the social environment as a whole. Participants identified different types of relationships with members of their proximate social environment and completed self-report measures of personality.…”

Strategic Regulation of Empathy

“…People who score higher on measures of empathic concern have larger networks of friends and maintain more close relationships that those scoring lower [4]. They also occupy more central positions and are more valued within these networks [3,76], and are more valued within their communities [76].…”

Physical effort exertion for peer feedback reveals evolving social motivations from adolescence to young adulthood

“…Similar themes have emerged in human neuroimaging studies using advanced analytical approaches (i.e., multi-voxel pattern analysis 45 ) and systematic reviews concluding that social and primary rewards engage similar neural circuitry 46 (although see 47 ). Social stimuli engage the neural reward system [48][49][50][51] , both when anticipating or receiving social feedback information, especially for positive feedback 70,71 , and work in humans and non-human primates showing that social information has greater value when it comes from high-status peers/conspecifics 40,72 . Research has shown that feedback from highly desirable peers is more influential in learning from peer feedback and shaping self-views 73 .…”