Playing nice: a multi-methodological study on the effects of social conformity on memory

Abstract

Conformity is an important aspect of social behavior. Two main motives have been identified: people may adapt their behavior to “play nice” despite knowing better (normative conformity) or they may accept the others' opinion as a valid source of information (informative conformity). Neuroimaging studies can help to distinguish between these two possibilities. Here, we present a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study on memory conformity in a real group situation. We investigated the effects of group pressure on activity in hippocampus and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) which likely support informative and normative memory conformity, respectively. Furthermore, we related the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs4680 [called Catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) Val158Met] on the gene coding for COMT to both behavior and fMRI activation. Homozygous Met-allele carriers (Val−) behaved more conformist than carriers of at least one Val-allele (Val+). In the neuroimaging data, we compared trials in which subjects were confronted with a majority of incorrect group responses to trials in which they were confronted with a majority of correct group responses. We found increased hippocampal activity when the majority of the group was correct, possibly indicating retrieval processes. Moreover, we observed enhanced activity in the ACC when the majority of the group was incorrect, suggesting that conformity was mostly normative. Most interestingly, this latter effect was more pronounced for Val− as compared to Val+ participants. This offers a speculative explanation for the higher behavioral levels of social conformity in Val− allele carriers, because their subjectively perceived conflict in the presence of an incorrect group majority may have been higher. Overall, this study demonstrates how the mechanisms leading to complex social behavior such as conformity can be studied by combining genetic analyses and fMRI in social neuroscience paradigms.

Investigating the Genetic Basis of Social Conformity: The Role of the Dopamine Receptor 3 <b><i>(DRD3)</i></b> Gene

“…Individuals with a greater number of Gly alleles of the DRD3 Ser9Gly polymorphism, which is related to increased dopamine affinity of the D 3 receptor, were more susceptible to social influence and more likely to adapt their own opinion to that of other people. On the surface, these findings are similar to those reported in a recent study demonstrating the genotype effect of a polymorphism (Val158Met) in the catechol- O -methyltransferase (COMT) gene on conforming behavior [42]. Homozygous Met allele carriers, which have the lowest COMT enzyme activity to degrade dopamine and norepinephrine, were more conformist than Val allele carriers.…”

“…This finding highlights the role of DRD3 Ser9Gly in predicting individual differences in social conformity and extends our knowledge regarding the impact of this polymorphism on reward-related incentive learning. Our findings, together with previous studies [10,42], support the idea that factors involved in dopaminergic neurotransmission, which could change the stimulus' desirability or the individual's learning ability, should be treated as candidate contributors to social conformity.…”

“…The current study was conducted on participants in a collectivist culture. Given the universal existence of conformity phenomena and the positive associations between dopamine signaling and conformity in individualist cultures [10,42] and a collectivist culture (the current study), we speculate that the impact of the DRD3 gene on conforming behavior is similar across cultures. Obviously, further studies are needed to replicate the current findings in other collectivist cultures and, more importantly, in individualist cultures.…”

“…As higher independence was found to be associated with less conformity [47], the pattern in individualist cultures [45] is different from the findings of positive associations between dopamine signaling and conforming behavior in pharmacological and genetic studies on individuals in individualist cultures (e.g. individuals in Denmark [10] or Germany [42]), suggesting that the acquisition of cultural norms is conceptually different from conformity to group opinions. The current study was conducted on participants in a collectivist culture.…”

Mesocorticolimbic dopamine functioning in primary psychopathy: A source of within-group heterogeneity

“…by parents or teachers) or social rejection (e.g. by peers) which can negatively affect the "social malleability" of behavior (Deuker et al, 2013;Stein et al, 2006). Therefore, Val-homozygotes may have a higher propensity towards social detachment.…”