When and why are people’s decisions influenced by the actions and opinions of others?

Social influence tasks measure people's willingness to change their rating behaviors about certain scenarios after observing the rating behaviors of other social groups (i.e. friends, peers, parents, family, etc.). Social influence has been found to be an effective way to change people’s behaviors, from reducing bullying in schools to eating healthier. Processing social influence recruits several brain regions associated with conflict monitoring, social cognition, and reward processing. Adolescents may be especially sensitive to social influence: teen decision-making is often influenced by their peers and adolescents can have difficulties controlling risky or impulsive behaviors when friends are present. Peer pressure, however, is not always negative. Peers can introduce teens to hobbies and interests, inspire positive choices, offer moral support and share new experiences. The differences in decision-making between teens on one hand, and adults and children on the other, are related to dopamine, a neurotransmitter that acts on the brain’s reward center. The number of dopamine receptors is higher in adolescence than at any other time of life. As a result, when a teenager is exposed to a reward—such as a compliment—the reward center reacts more strongly. In addition, it has been shown that being with friends increases teens’ sensitivity to rewards. These two factors can encourage peers to take on new challenges and start new activities.

Resources:

• Joorman, J. Why adolescents make riskier choices when with their peers. (2020). https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/thoughts-and-feelings/202001/why-adolescents-make-riskier-choices-when-their-peers
• Siegel, D. (2014). Dopamine and teenage logic. https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/01/dopamine-and-teenage-logic/282895/
• Stevenson, K. T. et al. (2016): The influence of personal beliefs, friends, and family in building climate change concern among adolescents, Environmental Education Research https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2016.1177712
• Nature videos: Adolescent risk-takers: The power of peers. (2018). https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-07891-z``

Parameters
The following features can be tweaked (default values in parentheses):

• Task scenario phrasing
• Number of trials (100)
• Whether trials should be randomized (yes)
• Inter-trial interval (1000 ms)
• Task instructions
• Labels for min and max values on sliding scale
• Can write/add custom scenario statements
• Whether conditions should be randomized between subjects
• Which conditions should be randomized

What data is collected? How is it scored?
The following variables are recorded:

• SIF_other_group (e.g. peers)
• SIF_diff_score_lower
• SIF_diff_score_same
• SIF_diff_score_higher

"diff_score_..." are computed for three groups of peer feedback: lower, about the same, or higher ratings provided by the other group. Difference score measures how the response of the person changed after seeing the rating of the other group (post rating - pre rating)