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Preference uncertainty accounts for developmental effects on susceptibility to peer influence in adolescence

2021; Nature Portfolio; Volume: 12; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1038/s41467-021-23671-2

2041-1723

Andrea M.F. Reiter, Michael Moutoussis, Lucy D. Vanes, Rogier Kievit, Edward T. Bullmore, Ian Goodyer, Peter Fonagy, Peter B. Jones, Edward T. Bullmore, Edward T. Bullmore, Raymond J. Dolan, Ian Goodyer, Peter B. Jones, Tobias U. Hauser, Sharon Neufeld, Rafael Romero-García, Michelle St Clair, Petra E. Vértes, Kirstie Whitaker, Becky Inkster, Gita Prabhu, Cinly Ooi, Umar Toseeb, Barry Widmer, Junaid Bhatti, Laura Villis, Ayesha Alrumaithi, Sarah Birt, Aislinn Bowler, Kalia Cleridou, Hina Dadabhoy, Emma Davies, Ashlyn Firkins, Sian Granville, Elizabeth Harding, Alexandra Hopkins, Daniel Isaacs, Janchai King, Danae Kokorikou, Christina Maurice, Cleo McIntosh, Jessica Memarzia, Harriet L. Mills, Ciara O’Donnell, Sara Pantaleone, Jenny Scott, Matilde M. Vaghi, Anne‐Laura van Harmelen, Andrea Reiter, Raymond J. Dolan,

Cognitive Abilities and Testing

Adolescents are prone to social influence from peers, with implications for development, both adaptive and maladaptive. Here, using a computer-based paradigm, we replicate a cross-sectional effect of more susceptibility to peer influence in a large dataset of adolescents 14 to 24 years old. Crucially, we extend this finding by adopting a longitudinal perspective, showing that a within-person susceptibility to social influence decreases over a 1.5 year follow-up time period. Exploiting this longitudinal design, we show that susceptibility to social influences at baseline predicts an improvement in peer relations over the follow-up period. Using a Bayesian computational model, we demonstrate that in younger adolescents a greater tendency to adopt others' preferences arises out of a higher uncertainty about their own preferences in the paradigmatic case of delay discounting (a phenomenon called 'preference uncertainty'). This preference uncertainty decreases over time and, in turn, leads to a reduced susceptibility of one's own behaviour to an influence from others. Neuro-developmentally, we show that a measure of myelination within medial prefrontal cortex, estimated at baseline, predicts a developmental decrease in preference uncertainty at follow-up. Thus, using computational and neural evidence, we reveal adaptive mechanisms underpinning susceptibility to social influence during adolescence.