Brain Reward Activity to Masked In-Group Smiling Faces Predicts Friendship Development. (May 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Chen, Pin-Hao A.; Whalen, Paul J.; Freeman, Jonathan B.; Taylor, James M.; Heatherton, Todd F.
• Is Part Of: Social psychological & personality science. Volume 6:Number 4(2015:May.)
• Page Start: 415
• Page End: 421
• Publication Date: 2015-05
• Subjects: fMRI -- reward -- face -- acculturation -- friendship; Personality -- Periodicals; Social psychology -- Periodicals; Electronic journals; 155.2
• DOI: 10.1177/1948550614566093
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1948-5506

Abstract

This study examined whether neural responses in the ventral striatum (VS) to in-group facial expressions—presented without explicit awareness—could predict friendship patterns in newly arrived individuals from China 6 months later. Individuals who initially showed greater VS activity in response to in-group happy expressions during functional neuroimaging later made considerably more in-group friends, suggesting that VS activity might reflect reward processes that drive in-group approach behaviors.