The Effect of Acetaminophen on Conformity

Why do certain individuals feel the pressure of social influence, and thus conform to their peers, more than others? Normative conformity postulates that it is due to individuals’ fears of being deviant from the group. Consistent with this hypothesis, neuroimaging studies have shown that greater conformity is associated with activity in brain areas that are involved in processing the emotional pain of social rejection. Since the physical pain-killer acetaminophen reduces activation in these brain areas as well as reduces hurt feeling associated with rejection, we sought to determine if acetaminophen also reduced conformity. If acetaminophen can reduce social pain, can it also lessen the submission to social pressure? This hypothesis was tested using a between-subjects design that compares the performance of an acetaminophen (test) group to the placebo (control) group on a commonly used social influence task (Berns et al., 2005). Participants are presented with two 3D shapes and asked to determine whether they are mirror images of each other or the same image merely rotated. Then, they are presented with the decision of their “peers” and asked again what kind of transformation is related between the two shapes. Although there were no significant differences in conformity between groups in the rotation judgment condition, there was a significant difference in the preference condition and several significant correlations within the survey data. There were no significant differences in conformity between the placebo and drug condition. A secondary hypothesis was to explore the degree to which collectivism, a psychological construct related to rejection sensitivity, was related to conformity. A significant positive correlation between dispositional sensitivity to rejection and collectivistic orientation was found. THE EFFECT OF ACETAMINOPHEN ON CONFORMITY 3 The Effect of Acetaminophen on Conformity: Most of us have endured the uncomfortable feeling of not fitting in. During middle school, cliques form, and while some teenagers are included, others are excluded to the point of being ridiculed and bullied. This exclusion does not stop in middle school; we feel the pressure to belong in all areas of life—with colleagues, in an organization, or even within our own families (Leary and Baumeister, 1995). How do we, as human beings, resolve this pressure? Peer pressure influences us to conform to the group by adopting the group values, beliefs, and actions in order to be accepted and well liked. This is called normative conformity and is likely to be a reason that groups form. Normative conformity may result from a fear of being rejected. Because humans are such social beings and throughout evolutionary history often required social interactions for survival, the fear of being rejected by a group is great. When rejected, there is a decrease in chances of survival for the individual, so he or she may resolve this rejection by conforming to be accepted by the group. Once accepted, they have a social support group to help find food, reproduce, and have protection. To better understand conformity, studies have sought to identify brain areas that are activated during social influence. Berns et al (2010) conducted a study evaluating participants’ ratings of popular songs before and after they are presented with the opinion of others. When participants changed their answer after seeing the ratings of others, the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and anterior insula showed greater activation. Furthermore, those who were more inclined to match their answer with the popularity of the song had greater activation in these areas of the brain. THE EFFECT OF ACETAMINOPHEN ON CONFORMITY 4 Activation of the ACC and anterior insula during social influence potentially provides insight into the psychological processes occurring during conformity. These two brain areas are also reliably activated during an experience of social rejection (Eisenberger et al., 2003). Similarly, viewing paintings of rejection-related themes also activates these areas (Kross et al., 2011). Therefore, because the ACC and anterior insula seem to be reliably activated during the experience of rejection as well as social conformity, they may be performing a similar psychological operation: concern over social rejection. This brain-based data may also provide further insight into the cognitive computations performed by the ACC and anterior insula. The anterior cingulate cortex and anterior insula are key areas of the brain that are involved in responding to the affective cocmponent of physical pain. Patients with lesions in these areas report less unpleasantness to physical pain, although they are still aware it is there (Berthier, Starkstein, & Leiguarda, 1988; Foltz & White, 1962; Hebben, 1985). A meta-analysis of physical pain neuroimaging studies showed that these two areas were the most reliably associated with physical pain (Apkarian et al., 2005). In terms of the psychological correlates of this neural activity, it appears that these areas are primarily associated with the emotional distress of the pain, as oppose to its location or type (Rainville et al., 1998). This similarity in brain areas activated during physical pain and social rejection may suggest that social rejection can be considered a form of pain, which has been termed social pain (Eisenberger & Lieberman, 2005; MacDonaled & Leary, 2005) and that there are common underlying processes. Based on the theory that social pain and physical pain rely on similar brain processes, researchers have tried to investigate whether physical pain-killers can reduce social pain. DeWall et al. (2010) investigated this question using acetaminophen, a common pain-killer, THE EFFECT OF ACETAMINOPHEN ON CONFORMITY 5 which exerts analgesic effects in the central rather than peripheral nervous system. DeWall et al. chronic acetaminophen decreased activation in the dACC and anterior insula during an experience of social rejection. They also reported that chronic acetaminophen reduced hurt feelings elicited by social situations. Because taking acetaminophen reduces self-reports of sensitivity to social rejection while simultaneously reducing activity in the dACC and anterior insula, areas of the brain associated with both social pain and conformity, we hypothesized that acetaminophen would also reduce conformity. To test this hypothesis, this study evaluated the effect of acetaminophen on participants’ responses to a 3D shape rotation task adapted from Berns et al. (2005). In this task, participants were asked to provide an answer and were then presented with the responses of a group of individuals and asked to indicate their own response again. The amount of times they switched their answer to the group response is a measure of conformity. A secondary goal of the study was to determine of acetaminophen moderated the relationship between the psychological construct of collectivism and conformity. Conformity has been found to be higher in collectivistic societies. Collectivism can be defined using the words teamwork, in-group, society, and interdependence, which is a mutual necessity for other people. Conversely, individualism can be defined by self-reliance, reaching for one’s own goals, and self-success, independence,. Traditionally, these have been attributed to East Asian and Western cultures, respectively. These can be related to independence and interdependence (Singelis, 1994). Singelis describes independent self-construal having four different aspects: “internal abilities, thoughts, and feelings,” “being unique and expressing the self,” “realizing internal attributes and promoting one’s own goals,” and “being direct in communication. ” He also describes interdependent self-construal, which consists of: “external, public features such as THE EFFECT OF ACETAMINOPHEN ON CONFORMITY 6 statuses, roles, and relationships,” “belonging and fitting in,” “occupying one’s proper place and engaging in appropriate action,” and “being indirect in communication and ‘reading others’ minds. ” Comparing these two definitions, independent self-construal can be related to individualism, while interdependent self-construal can be related to collectivism. We will be using Singelis’ self-construal scale to evaluate the degree of interdependence and independence in participants and further evaluate collectivism and individualism. So what does this have to do with conformity? Due to the highly dependent nature of collectivistic societies, people are more likely to care about what others think about their actions and decisions. When faced with a discrepancy between the actions and behaviors of an individual and the thoughts of the society as a whole, those with a collectivistic orientation tend to conform more because they find more hardship in not following society than those in individualistic cultures. Several researchers have examined what exactly causes people to succumb to the pressure of peer influence. Asch (1951) has been one of the pioneers in conformity research and a variant of his paradigm forms the foundation of the study performed here. In his study, he invited participants to partake in a “visual task. ” The group of participants consisted of several confederates in addition to the individual subject of the study. For each trial run, the experimenter would show the group a line and ask each individual in the group to say in sequential order which of three differing length lines was equivalent to a target line. The confederates each specified their answer before the subject, who always answered last. At first, the confederates responded correctly, which provided an opportunity for the participant to be familiar with the task without the pressure of social influence. However, as the trials continued, the confederates started naming the clearly wrong line as the answer. Faced with the pressure to THE EFFECT OF ACETAMINOPHEN ON CONFORMI