Neuromodulation of Group Prejudice and Religious Belief

TY - JOUR

T1 - Neuromodulation of Group Prejudice and Religious Belief

AU - Holbrook, Colin

AU - Izuma, Keise

AU - Deblieck, Choi

AU - Fessler, Daniel M T

AU - Iacoboni, Marco

N1 - © 2015, The Author. This is an author-produced version of the published paper. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self-archiving policy. Further copying may not be permitted; contact the publisher for details

PY - 2016

Y1 - 2016

N2 - People cleave to ideological convictions with greater intensity in the aftermath of threat. The posterior medial frontal cortex (pMFC) plays a key role in both detecting discrepancies between desired and current conditions and adjusting subsequent behavior to resolve such conflicts. Building on prior literature examining the role of the pMFC in shifts in relatively low-level decision processes, we demonstrate that the pMFC mediates adjustments in adherence to political and religious ideologies. We presented participants with a reminder of death and a critique of their in-group ostensibly written by a member of an out-group, then experimentally decreased both avowed belief in God and out-group derogation by down-regulating pMFC activity via transcranial magnetic stimulation. The results provide the first evidence that group prejudice and religious belief are susceptible to targeted neuromodulation, and point to a shared cognitive mechanism underlying concrete and abstract decision processes. We discuss the implications of these findings for further research characterizing the cognitive and affective mechanisms at play.

AB - People cleave to ideological convictions with greater intensity in the aftermath of threat. The posterior medial frontal cortex (pMFC) plays a key role in both detecting discrepancies between desired and current conditions and adjusting subsequent behavior to resolve such conflicts. Building on prior literature examining the role of the pMFC in shifts in relatively low-level decision processes, we demonstrate that the pMFC mediates adjustments in adherence to political and religious ideologies. We presented participants with a reminder of death and a critique of their in-group ostensibly written by a member of an out-group, then experimentally decreased both avowed belief in God and out-group derogation by down-regulating pMFC activity via transcranial magnetic stimulation. The results provide the first evidence that group prejudice and religious belief are susceptible to targeted neuromodulation, and point to a shared cognitive mechanism underlying concrete and abstract decision processes. We discuss the implications of these findings for further research characterizing the cognitive and affective mechanisms at play.

UR - https://academic.oup.com/scan/article/11/3/387/2375059/Neuromodulation-of-group-prejudice-and-religious

U2 - 10.1093/scan/nsv107

DO - 10.1093/scan/nsv107

M3 - Article

C2 - 26341901

SN - 1749-5016

VL - 11

SP - 387

EP - 394

JO - Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience

JF - Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience

IS - 3

ER -