Brain Reward Activity to Masked In-Group Smiling Faces Predicts Friendship Development

Abstract

This study examined whether neural responses in the ventral striatum (VS) to in-group facial expressions—presented without explicit awareness—could predict friendship patterns in newly arrived individuals from China 6 months later. Individuals who initially showed greater VS activity in response to in-group happy expressions during functional neuroimaging later made considerably more in-group friends, suggesting that VS activity might reflect reward processes that drive in-group approach behaviors.

Keywords

fMRI reward face acculturation friendship

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