The Influence of Others on Decision-Making in Uncertain Situations

When individuals face uncertainty or lack sufficient information, they often look to others for guidance in their decision-making. For example, in a Chinese restaurant where most customers are ordering Jajangmyeon (noodles with black bean sauce), one might opt for the same dish, even if they originally preferred Jjamppong (spicy seafood noodle soup). This tendency to follow the crowd highlights a common strategy for dealing with ambiguous situations: conformity.

Research in computational neuroscience has shown that the brain activates certain processes when individuals follow others in uncertain environments. A team led by Professor Dongil Chung from the Department of Biomedical Engineering at UNIST, in collaboration with Virginia Tech, explored how the decisions of others influence individual choices in situations where personal preferences may not be clear.

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The study, published in PLOS Computational Biology, reveals that when people cannot rely on their personal preferences, the brain resorts to a "heuristic" strategy, which involves adopting social information from others' choices. In these circumstances, individuals tend to imitate others' decisions as a shortcut to making a choice.

To investigate this, the research team conducted experiments with participants who had partial damage to the brain's insula or dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), areas involved in processing uncertainty. Participants were asked to make decisions in a gambling task where they had to choose between two options, one risky with a wide range of outcomes and the other safer with narrower possibilities. Some trials allowed participants to observe others' choices before deciding, while other trials required independent decisions.

The results showed that participants with brain damage struggled to evaluate options based on their personal risk preferences. Furthermore, the effect of conforming to others' choices was stronger in social situations where they could observe others' decisions.

The findings suggest that adolescents, whose personal preferences are still developing, may be particularly sensitive to others' opinions, especially in uncertain circumstances. Professor Chung pointed out that this research sheds light on why individuals with unclear preferences are more likely to be influenced by the choices of those around them. He emphasized the importance of fostering environments that help individuals establish their own preferences to address social issues like addiction.