User:Grace E. McDowell/sandbox

Recent Study on Conformity
A recent study has shown that conformity may be linked to the size of a brain region. This research has been funded by the Danish National Research Foundation and the Wellcome Trust. Scientists at New York University, Aarhus University and the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at UCL (University College London) measured the volumes of brain regions in 28 participants Researchers observed the amount of grey matter in the brain through MRI scans. Participants were tested to see how their preferences of music changed after being told what music critics thought about each piece of music. Prior to testing, the participants listed 20 songs they liked, but did not own. Then, they rated each song on a scale of one to ten. Next, the researchers informed the participants that music critics had rated the same songs. The degree to which their opinions changed after hearing the critics' ratings served as a measure of conformity under social influence. Researchers discovered only grey matter volume in one certain brain region associated with social influence, the lateral orbitofrontal cortex. The correlation between grey matter volume and the tendency of individuals to conform was observed in this region of both hemispheres of the brain. Grey matter volume in the lateral orbitofrontal cortex also predicted how participants reacted when the critics disagreed with their musical opinions. This study suggests that this brain region is particularly used to recognize cues of social conflict, which can prompt the subject to change their opinions on the matter.