Neural responses to peers moderate conversation-drinking associations in daily life
Abstract Conversations shape future behaviors, particularly among young adults. However, young adults vary widely in their susceptibility to peer influence. What neural processes relate to this susceptibility? We examined whether activity in brain regions associated with social rewards and making se...
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Nature Portfolio
2025-07-01
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| Series: | Scientific Reports |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-05846-9 |
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| author | Mia Jovanova Ovidia Stanoi Christin Scholz Bruce Doré Danielle Cosme Yoona Kang Nicole Cooper Zachary M. Boyd Dani S. Bassett Peter J. Mucha David M. Lydon-Staley Kevin N. Ochsner Emily B. Falk |
| author_facet | Mia Jovanova Ovidia Stanoi Christin Scholz Bruce Doré Danielle Cosme Yoona Kang Nicole Cooper Zachary M. Boyd Dani S. Bassett Peter J. Mucha David M. Lydon-Staley Kevin N. Ochsner Emily B. Falk |
| author_sort | Mia Jovanova |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Conversations shape future behaviors, particularly among young adults. However, young adults vary widely in their susceptibility to peer influence. What neural processes relate to this susceptibility? We examined whether activity in brain regions associated with social rewards and making sense of others’ minds relates to a common health behavior—drinking, following conversations about alcohol. We studied ten social groups of college students (N = 104 students; 4760 total observations) across two university campuses. We collected whole-brain fMRI data while participants viewed photographs of peers with whom they tended to drink at varying frequencies. Next, using ecological momentary assessment, we tracked alcohol conversations and drinking twice daily for 28 days. On average, talking about alcohol was associated with a higher likelihood of next-day drinking. Controlling for baseline drinking, participants who responded more strongly to peers with whom they drank alcohol more frequently—in brain regions associated with social rewards and mentalizing—showed a stronger, positive association between alcohol conversations and next-day drinking. Conversely, stronger neural responses to peers with whom they drank less frequently decoupled associations between alcohol conversations and next-day drinking. We conceptually replicate prior findings linking conversations and drinking in an observational, longitudinal setting and provide new evidence that neural responses to peers moderate links between alcohol conversations and drinking behavior among young adults. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-c0f3c5ce84aa4b0d8fe47902752bf5b7 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2045-2322 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-07-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Scientific Reports |
| spelling | doaj-art-c0f3c5ce84aa4b0d8fe47902752bf5b72025-08-20T03:42:35ZengNature PortfolioScientific Reports2045-23222025-07-0115111310.1038/s41598-025-05846-9Neural responses to peers moderate conversation-drinking associations in daily lifeMia Jovanova0Ovidia Stanoi1Christin Scholz2Bruce Doré3Danielle Cosme4Yoona Kang5Nicole Cooper6Zachary M. Boyd7Dani S. Bassett8Peter J. Mucha9David M. Lydon-Staley10Kevin N. Ochsner11Emily B. Falk12School of Medicine, University of St. GallenAnnenberg School for Communication, University of PennsylvaniaFaculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences, University of AmsterdamDesautels Faculty of Management, McGill UniversityAnnenberg School for Communication, University of PennsylvaniaDepartment of Psychology, The State University of New JerseyAnnenberg School for Communication, University of PennsylvaniaDepartment of Mathematics, Brigham Young UniversityDepartment of Bioengineering, University of PennsylvaniaDepartment of Mathematics, Dartmouth CollegeAnnenberg School for Communication, University of PennsylvaniaDepartment of Psychology, Columbia UniversityAnnenberg School for Communication, University of PennsylvaniaAbstract Conversations shape future behaviors, particularly among young adults. However, young adults vary widely in their susceptibility to peer influence. What neural processes relate to this susceptibility? We examined whether activity in brain regions associated with social rewards and making sense of others’ minds relates to a common health behavior—drinking, following conversations about alcohol. We studied ten social groups of college students (N = 104 students; 4760 total observations) across two university campuses. We collected whole-brain fMRI data while participants viewed photographs of peers with whom they tended to drink at varying frequencies. Next, using ecological momentary assessment, we tracked alcohol conversations and drinking twice daily for 28 days. On average, talking about alcohol was associated with a higher likelihood of next-day drinking. Controlling for baseline drinking, participants who responded more strongly to peers with whom they drank alcohol more frequently—in brain regions associated with social rewards and mentalizing—showed a stronger, positive association between alcohol conversations and next-day drinking. Conversely, stronger neural responses to peers with whom they drank less frequently decoupled associations between alcohol conversations and next-day drinking. We conceptually replicate prior findings linking conversations and drinking in an observational, longitudinal setting and provide new evidence that neural responses to peers moderate links between alcohol conversations and drinking behavior among young adults.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-05846-9Functional neuroimagingHealth behaviorAlcohol useEMA (ecological momentary assessment)Social influenceSocial groups |
| spellingShingle | Mia Jovanova Ovidia Stanoi Christin Scholz Bruce Doré Danielle Cosme Yoona Kang Nicole Cooper Zachary M. Boyd Dani S. Bassett Peter J. Mucha David M. Lydon-Staley Kevin N. Ochsner Emily B. Falk Neural responses to peers moderate conversation-drinking associations in daily life Scientific Reports Functional neuroimaging Health behavior Alcohol use EMA (ecological momentary assessment) Social influence Social groups |
| title | Neural responses to peers moderate conversation-drinking associations in daily life |
| title_full | Neural responses to peers moderate conversation-drinking associations in daily life |
| title_fullStr | Neural responses to peers moderate conversation-drinking associations in daily life |
| title_full_unstemmed | Neural responses to peers moderate conversation-drinking associations in daily life |
| title_short | Neural responses to peers moderate conversation-drinking associations in daily life |
| title_sort | neural responses to peers moderate conversation drinking associations in daily life |
| topic | Functional neuroimaging Health behavior Alcohol use EMA (ecological momentary assessment) Social influence Social groups |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-05846-9 |
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