Seeing is believing: Early perceptual brain processes are modified by social feedback

Over 6 decades ago, experimental evidence from social psychology revealed that individuals could alter their responses in perceptual judgement tasks if they differed from the prevailing view emitted by a group of peers. Responses were thus modulated to agree with the opinion of the social group. An...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Zanesco, J, Tipura, E, Posada, A, Clément, F, Pegna, A
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: Routledge 2018
_version_ 1797073657123569664
author Zanesco, J
Tipura, E
Posada, A
Clément, F
Pegna, A
author_facet Zanesco, J
Tipura, E
Posada, A
Clément, F
Pegna, A
author_sort Zanesco, J
collection OXFORD
description Over 6 decades ago, experimental evidence from social psychology revealed that individuals could alter their responses in perceptual judgement tasks if they differed from the prevailing view emitted by a group of peers. Responses were thus modulated to agree with the opinion of the social group. An open question remains whether such changes actually reflect modified perception, or whether they are simply the result of a feigned agreement, indicating submissive acceptance. In this study, we addressed this topic by performing a perceptual task involving the assessment of ambiguous and distinct stimuli. Participants were asked to judge the colours of squares, before, and after receiving feedback for their response. In order to pinpoint the moment in time that social feedback affected neural processing, ERP components to ambiguous stimuli were compared before and after participants received supposed social feedback that agreed with, or disputed their response. The comparison revealed the presence of differences beginning already 100ms after stimulus presentation (on the P1 and N1 components) despite otherwise identical stimuli. The modulation of these early components, normally thought to be dependent on low-level visual features, demonstrate that social pressure tangibly modifies early perceptual brain processes.
first_indexed 2024-03-06T23:25:12Z
format Journal article
id oxford-uuid:6a2107a1-6687-4310-925b-d54361cd3383
institution University of Oxford
language English
last_indexed 2024-03-06T23:25:12Z
publishDate 2018
publisher Routledge
record_format dspace
spelling oxford-uuid:6a2107a1-6687-4310-925b-d54361cd33832022-03-26T18:55:25ZSeeing is believing: Early perceptual brain processes are modified by social feedbackJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:6a2107a1-6687-4310-925b-d54361cd3383EnglishSymplectic Elements at OxfordRoutledge2018Zanesco, JTipura, EPosada, AClément, FPegna, AOver 6 decades ago, experimental evidence from social psychology revealed that individuals could alter their responses in perceptual judgement tasks if they differed from the prevailing view emitted by a group of peers. Responses were thus modulated to agree with the opinion of the social group. An open question remains whether such changes actually reflect modified perception, or whether they are simply the result of a feigned agreement, indicating submissive acceptance. In this study, we addressed this topic by performing a perceptual task involving the assessment of ambiguous and distinct stimuli. Participants were asked to judge the colours of squares, before, and after receiving feedback for their response. In order to pinpoint the moment in time that social feedback affected neural processing, ERP components to ambiguous stimuli were compared before and after participants received supposed social feedback that agreed with, or disputed their response. The comparison revealed the presence of differences beginning already 100ms after stimulus presentation (on the P1 and N1 components) despite otherwise identical stimuli. The modulation of these early components, normally thought to be dependent on low-level visual features, demonstrate that social pressure tangibly modifies early perceptual brain processes.
spellingShingle Zanesco, J
Tipura, E
Posada, A
Clément, F
Pegna, A
Seeing is believing: Early perceptual brain processes are modified by social feedback
title Seeing is believing: Early perceptual brain processes are modified by social feedback
title_full Seeing is believing: Early perceptual brain processes are modified by social feedback
title_fullStr Seeing is believing: Early perceptual brain processes are modified by social feedback
title_full_unstemmed Seeing is believing: Early perceptual brain processes are modified by social feedback
title_short Seeing is believing: Early perceptual brain processes are modified by social feedback
title_sort seeing is believing early perceptual brain processes are modified by social feedback
work_keys_str_mv AT zanescoj seeingisbelievingearlyperceptualbrainprocessesaremodifiedbysocialfeedback
AT tipurae seeingisbelievingearlyperceptualbrainprocessesaremodifiedbysocialfeedback
AT posadaa seeingisbelievingearlyperceptualbrainprocessesaremodifiedbysocialfeedback
AT clementf seeingisbelievingearlyperceptualbrainprocessesaremodifiedbysocialfeedback
AT pegnaa seeingisbelievingearlyperceptualbrainprocessesaremodifiedbysocialfeedback