Predicting persuasion-induced behavior change from the brain.
Although persuasive messages often alter people's self-reported attitudes and intentions to perform behaviors, these self-reports do not necessarily predict behavior change. We demonstrate that neural responses to persuasive messages can predict variability in behavior change in the subsequent week. Specifically, an a priori region of interest (ROI) in medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) was reliably associated with behavior change (r = 0.49, p < 0.05). Additionally, an iterative cross-validation approach using activity in this MPFC ROI predicted an average 23% of the variance in behavior change beyond the variance predicted by self-reported attitudes and intentions. Thus, neural signals can predict behavioral changes that are not predicted from self-reported attitudes and intentions alone. Additionally, this is the first functional magnetic resonance imaging study to demonstrate that a neural signal can predict complex real world behavior days in advance.
Falk
Emily B
EB
University of California, Los Angeles, Department of Psychology, Los Angeles, California 90095-1563, USA.
Berkman
Elliot T
ET
Mann
Traci
T
Harrison
Brittany
B
Lieberman
Matthew D
MD
D000328:Adult; D001294:Attitude to Health; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D033182:Intention; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D010565:Persuasive Communication