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Neural correlates of cognitive dissonance and choice-induced preference change.

ABSTRACT: According to many modern economic theories, actions simply reflect an individual's preferences, whereas a psychological phenomenon called "cognitive dissonance" claims that actions can also create preference. Cognitive dissonance theory states that after making a difficult choice between two equally preferred items, the act of rejecting a favorite item induces an uncomfortable feeling (cognitive dissonance), which in turn motivates individuals to change their preferences to match their prior decision (i.e., reducing preference for rejected items). Recently, however, Chen and Risen [Chen K, Risen J (2010) J Pers Soc Psychol 99:573-594] pointed out a serious methodological problem, which casts a doubt on the very existence of this choice-induced preference change as studied over the past 50 y. Here, using a proper control condition and two measures of preferences (self-report and brain activity), we found that the mere act of making a choice can change self-report preference as well as its neural representation (i.e., striatum activity), thus providing strong evidence for choice-induced preference change. Furthermore, our data indicate that the anterior cingulate cortex and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex tracked the degree of cognitive dissonance on a trial-by-trial basis. Our findings provide important insights into the neural basis of how actions can alter an individual's preferences.

SUBMITTER: Izuma K

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3009797 | biostudies-other | 2010 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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Neural correlates of cognitive dissonance and choice-induced preference change.

Izuma Keise K Matsumoto Madoka M Murayama Kou K Samejima Kazuyuki K Sadato Norihiro N Matsumoto Kenji K

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20101206 51

According to many modern economic theories, actions simply reflect an individual's preferences, whereas a psychological phenomenon called "cognitive dissonance" claims that actions can also create preference. Cognitive dissonance theory states that after making a difficult choice between two equally preferred items, the act of rejecting a favorite item induces an uncomfortable feeling (cognitive dissonance), which in turn motivates individuals to change their preferences to match their prior dec ...[more]

PMID: 21135218

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Project description:Liking is one of the most important psychological processes associated with the reward system, being involved in affective processing and pleasure/displeasure encoding. Currently, there is no consensus regarding the combination of physiological indicators which best predict liking, especially when applied to dynamic stimuli such as videos. There is a lack of a standard methodology to assess likeability over time and therefore in assessing narrative and semantic aspects of the stimulus. We developed a time-dependent method to evaluate the physiological correlates of likeability for three different thematic categories, namely: adventure (AV), comedy (CM), and nature landscape (LS). Twenty-eight healthy adults with ages ranging from 18 to 35 years (average: 23.85 years) were enrolled in the study. The participants were asked to provide likeability ratings for videos as they watched them, using a response box. Three 60-s videos were presented, one for each category, in randomized order while the participant's physiological data [electroencephalogram (EEG), electrocardiogram (ECG) and eye tracking (ET)] was recorded. The comedy video (CM) presented the smallest minimum accumulated normalized rating (ANR; p = 0.013) and the LS video presented the highest maximum ANR (p = 0.039). The LS video presented the longest time for first response (p < 0.001) and the AV video presented the shortest time for maximum response (p = 0.016). The LS video had the highest mean likeability rating with 1.43 ± 2.31 points; and the CM video had the lowest with 0.57 ± 1.77. Multiple linear regression models were created to predict the likeability of each video using the following physiological indicators; AV: power in beta band at C4 and P4 (p = 0.004, adj. R 2 = 0.301); CM: alpha power in Fp2 (p = 0.001, adj. R 2 = 0.326) and LS: alpha power in P4, F8, and Fp2; beta power in C4 and P4 and pupil size, (p = 0.002, adj. R 2 = 0.489). Despite its limitations (e.g., using one 1-min video per category) our findings suggest that there is a considerable difference in the psychophysiological correlates of stimuli with different contextual properties and that the use of time-dependent methods to assess videos should be considered as best practices.

Dataset Information

Neural correlates of cognitive dissonance and choice-induced preference change.

Publications

Neural correlates of cognitive dissonance and choice-induced preference change.

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