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Similar neural responses predict friendship

Author

Listed:
  • Carolyn Parkinson

    (University of California, Los Angeles)

  • Adam M. Kleinbaum

    (Dartmouth College)

  • Thalia Wheatley

    (Dartmouth College)

Abstract

Human social networks are overwhelmingly homophilous: individuals tend to befriend others who are similar to them in terms of a range of physical attributes (e.g., age, gender). Do similarities among friends reflect deeper similarities in how we perceive, interpret, and respond to the world? To test whether friendship, and more generally, social network proximity, is associated with increased similarity of real-time mental responding, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to scan subjects’ brains during free viewing of naturalistic movies. Here we show evidence for neural homophily: neural responses when viewing audiovisual movies are exceptionally similar among friends, and that similarity decreases with increasing distance in a real-world social network. These results suggest that we are exceptionally similar to our friends in how we perceive and respond to the world around us, which has implications for interpersonal influence and attraction.

Suggested Citation

  • Carolyn Parkinson & Adam M. Kleinbaum & Thalia Wheatley, 2018. "Similar neural responses predict friendship," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 9(1), pages 1-14, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:9:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-017-02722-7
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-02722-7
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    Cited by:

    1. Hongmi Lee & Janice Chen, 2022. "Predicting memory from the network structure of naturalistic events," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-14, December.
    2. Becker, Kai & Ebbers, Joris J. & Engel, Yuval, 2023. "Network to passion or passion to network? Disentangling entrepreneurial passion selection and contagion effects among peers and teams in a startup accelerator," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 38(4).
    3. Jennifer M. Murray & Sharon C. Sánchez-Franco & Olga L. Sarmiento & Erik O. Kimbrough & Christopher Tate & Shannon C. Montgomery & Rajnish Kumar & Laura Dunne & Abhijit Ramalingam & Erin L. Krupka & F, 2023. "Selection homophily and peer influence for adolescents’ smoking and vaping norms and outcomes in high and middle-income settings," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-35, December.
    4. Thibaud Deguilhem & Jean-Philippe Berrou & François Combarnous, 2019. "Using your ties to get a worse job? The differential effects of social networks on quality of employment in Colombia," Review of Social Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 77(4), pages 493-522, October.
    5. Elisa C. Baek & Ryan Hyon & Karina López & Emily S. Finn & Mason A. Porter & Carolyn Parkinson, 2022. "In-degree centrality in a social network is linked to coordinated neural activity," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-13, December.

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