In-group Social Conformity Updates the Neural Representation of Facial Attractiveness

Abstract

AbstractPeople readily change their behavior to comply with the public. However, to which extent they will internalize the social influence remains elusive. In this pre-registered electroencephalogram (EEG) study, we employed a facial attractiveness social learning paradigm to investigate how learning from one’s in-group or out-group members would change attractiveness perception and neural representation. We found that participants changed their explicit attractiveness ratings to both in-group and out-group influences, i.e., public compliance. We next quantified the neural representational similarities of learned faces with prototypical attractive faces during a face perception task without overt social influence and intentional evaluation. We found that the neural representation of facial attractiveness changed only when participants learned from their in-group members, and among those who perceived tighter social norms. These findings provided novel knowledge on how group affiliations and individual differences modulate the impact of social influence on the internalization of social influence.Statement of RelevanceEvolutionary-wise, following the crowd is important given its survival benefits. However, blind compliance with group opinions can also result in immoral decisions when group influence is toxic. Therefore, the crucial question is: To what extent, in which context, and for which population do individuals internalize social influence? We found that while people complied with opinions from both in- and out-group members, they only internalized such social influence from their in-group members, as evidenced by updated neural representations even when social influence was no longer present, and when the intentional evaluation was not required. This neural internalization effect was particularly pronounced among those who perceived tighter social norms. Our study suggests that in-group social influence is internalized and explains why in-group social influence is hard to eliminate afterward.