New fMRI data shows specific brain mechanisms are involved in finding out who’s boss. In the study, subjects were asked to determine social hierarchy at a fictional organization by observing and evaluating interactions between pairs of employees. The participants also determined social rank both for a company they’d supposedly work for, or that which employs their friends. The findings demonstrated that each employee was assigned a level of power, which was subsequently updated with each new interaction the subject observed. Additionally, fMRI results showed that cognitive processes involved in figuring out the subject’s own social standing were different than those determining social rank of others.
Authors:
Dharshan Kumaran, Andrea Banino, Charles Blundell, Demis Hassabis, Peter Dayan
Corresponding author:
Dharshan Kumaran, Senior Research Scientist, DeepMind, Email: dkumaran@google.com
Original paper published in Neuron on December 7, 2016.
