0:00:06.279,0:00:09.985
(Applause)

0:00:11.326,0:00:14.546
I would like to start our talk,

0:00:14.546,0:00:16.361
our discussion,

0:00:16.361,0:00:19.029
with the film based [br]on Alberto Moravia's novel

0:00:19.029,0:00:21.697
“Il conformista” 1951 / “Conformist”.

0:00:21.697,0:00:24.365
Bernardo Bertolucci created[br]a wonderful, touching,

0:00:24.365,0:00:27.867
interesting story of the conflict,[br]personal conflict

0:00:27.867,0:00:31.675
between the main character[br]Marcello Clerici and the state.

0:00:31.675,0:00:34.166
As a result of this conflict,[br]the main character

0:00:34.167,0:00:36.939
lost his loved one.

0:00:36.939,0:00:39.603
Many of us in this room

0:00:39.603,0:00:44.774
are ready to confront the state,[br]the opinion of others or the crowd.

0:00:44.774,0:00:48.136
Actually, in our laboratory,[br]we are trying

0:00:48.136,0:00:52.925
to understand why we are strongly [br]inclined to be conformists,

0:00:52.925,0:00:57.017
how much we can understand the hidden[br]the cerebral mechanisms of conformism.

0:00:57.017,0:00:58.579
While preparing our talk,

0:00:58.579,0:01:03.181
I tried to find out where [br]my interest in this subject stemmed from.

0:01:03.181,0:01:05.854
I remembered a few interesting facts.

0:01:05.854,0:01:07.839
I have made my dissertation

0:01:07.839,0:01:09.982
under the supervision [br]of Natalia Behtereva --

0:01:09.982,0:01:13.913
granddaughter of the great Russian[br]physiologist and psychiatrist

0:01:13.913,0:01:15.358
Vladimir Bekhterev.

0:01:15.358,0:01:17.820
Vladimir Bekhterev’s interest[br]was in social influence.

0:01:17.820,0:01:19.422
If you look at this book

0:01:19.422,0:01:25.647
“Suggestion and its role[br]in public life”,

0:01:25.659,0:01:28.000
you will find a number [br]of very interesting chapters.

0:01:28.000,0:01:30.896
For example, the chapter [br]on clonic effects,

0:01:30.896,0:01:33.792
epidemics of witchcraft and demonomania.

0:01:33.792,0:01:36.690
Incredibly interesting stories

0:01:36.690,0:01:40.802
about how epidemics[br]of religious ecstasies and convulsions

0:01:40.802,0:01:43.689
spread with incredible speed[br]in groups of people.

0:01:43.689,0:01:46.555
Actually, Behterev’s curiosity,

0:01:46.558,0:01:50.202
went on to his granddaughter,[br]and then to me as her student.

0:01:50.207,0:01:52.272
At that time I was studying brain

0:01:52.272,0:01:54.991
and we absolutely did not[br]understand how we can study

0:01:54.991,0:01:57.785
“Neurobiology of social influence”.

0:01:58.515,0:01:59.795
Many of you are familiar

0:01:59.795,0:02:02.312
with the excellent research[br]in social psychology.

0:02:02.312,0:02:04.608
As a post-graduate student,[br]I became increasingly interested

0:02:04.608,0:02:06.199
in social psychology.

0:02:06.199,0:02:08.836
With excitement, I read books[br]by social psychologists,

0:02:08.836,0:02:11.335
the books of Cialdini, Zimbardo, Arnsen.

0:02:11.335,0:02:14.007
I read all these[br]fantastic experiments which show

0:02:14.007,0:02:16.002
how people are influencing us.

0:02:16.002,0:02:18.605
I read and, frankly, realized that

0:02:18.605,0:02:22.712
as a neuroscientist,[br]I will never learn it, never...

0:02:22.712,0:02:25.933
Many of you might remember[br]wonderful experiments of Solomon Asch.

0:02:25.933,0:02:29.646
He asked his subjects[br]to do a very simple task.

0:02:29.646,0:02:31.808
They saw on a screen

0:02:31.808,0:02:33.771
three lines[br]“А”, “В” and “С”.

0:02:33.771,0:02:35.195
And the question was very simple:

0:02:35.195,0:02:39.109
which of these lines[br]has the same length as line “X”?

0:02:39.109,0:02:40.839
The answer is obvious:

0:02:40.839,0:02:42.711
line “B” is equal to line “X”.

0:02:42.711,0:02:44.932
But imagine for a minute[br]that in a room,

0:02:44.932,0:02:46.991
there are 6 decoy subjects besides you

0:02:46.991,0:02:49.148
and all of them are giving a wrong answer.

0:02:49.148,0:02:52.268
Solomon Asch showed[br]that in this situation,

0:02:52.268,0:02:55.148
less than a third of people[br]give the correct answer,

0:02:55.148,0:02:57.937
the rest will show conformism,

0:02:57.937,0:03:01.683
they'll give the wrong answer,[br]just not to be different from others.

0:03:01.683,0:03:05.682
Social psychology through hundreds [br]of great experiments showed

0:03:05.682,0:03:08.148
the power of the people around you,[br]the power of the crowd.

0:03:08.148,0:03:09.875
We are afraid to be different,

0:03:09.875,0:03:11.898
we change our opinion[br]to follow the crowd.

0:03:11.898,0:03:14.114
For example,[br]social psychology revealed that

0:03:14.114,0:03:17.426
it is the behavior of others,[br]not our own opinion,

0:03:17.426,0:03:20.778
that determines the amount[br]of adultery, crime,

0:03:20.778,0:03:24.808
amount of dishonest taxpayers.

0:03:24.808,0:03:29.341
Social influence and the behavior[br]of others determine our behavior.

0:03:29.341,0:03:33.060
But I was a neurophysiologist,[br]I knew that

0:03:33.060,0:03:36.275
I would never explore[br]all these interesting processes.

0:03:36.275,0:03:40.233
In my academic career,[br]along my academic path,

0:03:40.233,0:03:42.811
the change happened very unexpectedly.

0:03:42.811,0:03:45.258
I understood that I would have[br]no chance to study

0:03:45.258,0:03:46.736
all the processes of social influence,

0:03:46.736,0:03:48.306
when we realize with horror

0:03:48.306,0:03:50.602
how our opinion differs from[br]the opinion of the majority.

0:03:50.602,0:03:52.877
But one day,

0:03:52.877,0:03:56.556
when I was[br]on an internship in Helsinki,

0:03:56.556,0:03:58.675
in a university, I parked my car

0:03:58.675,0:04:01.208
near this building.

0:04:01.208,0:04:02.779
The building was created

0:04:02.779,0:04:05.061
by a magnificent Scandinavian architect

0:04:05.061,0:04:06.300
Alvar Aalto.

0:04:06.300,0:04:09.209
I stopped my car[br]and leaned towards the radio receiver.

0:04:09.209,0:04:11.952
Somebody was talking[br]about a new science,

0:04:11.952,0:04:13.666
about neuroeconomics.

0:04:13.666,0:04:17.108
The new discipline appeared[br]at that very moment

0:04:17.108,0:04:20.793
as economists and neuroscientists[br]discovered each other.

0:04:20.793,0:04:22.579
It turned out that [br]for hundreds of years,

0:04:22.579,0:04:26.359
economists and neuroscientists [br]had been studying the same thing.

0:04:26.359,0:04:28.600
They studied decision-making process.

0:04:28.600,0:04:32.146
The economists were interested[br]in exploring complex solutions:

0:04:32.146,0:04:35.498
why we pay this amount of money[br]for these goods and not a different one,

0:04:35.498,0:04:38.361
why we invest money[br]or do not invest money,

0:04:38.361,0:04:42.340
why we save money

0:04:42.340,0:04:45.980
for pensions, or not.

0:04:45.980,0:04:48.282
Biologists were interested[br]in simpler questions:

0:04:48.282,0:04:50.569
why we pursue the fat rabbit,[br]or not

0:04:50.569,0:04:54.631
or why we run away from a scary lion,[br]or not.

0:04:54.631,0:04:59.126
In fact, for hundreds of years [br]the two disciplines had been studying

0:04:59.147,0:05:01.484
the same thing, the same question:

0:05:01.484,0:05:03.093
how do we make decisions?

0:05:03.093,0:05:05.512
And here the new discipline appeared:[br]neuroeconomics.

0:05:05.512,0:05:07.960
This discipline tries to find out

0:05:07.960,0:05:10.849
how our brain[br]is programming our decisions

0:05:10.849,0:05:14.211
in various complex[br]economic and social contexts.

0:05:14.211,0:05:16.126
For me it was a turning point!

0:05:16.126,0:05:18.444
We were able to formalize the hypothesis,

0:05:18.444,0:05:21.742
the hypothesis of brain mechanisms[br]of conformism.

0:05:21.742,0:05:24.727
For us, conformism --[br]or social influence --

0:05:24.727,0:05:26.937
is a phenomenon of people nearby

0:05:26.937,0:05:29.931
manipulating our brain,

0:05:29.931,0:05:32.077
manipulating the activity[br]of certain brain areas

0:05:32.077,0:05:33.933
involved in the decision-making process.

0:05:33.933,0:05:36.625
Which areas of the brain[br]and which processes

0:05:36.625,0:05:38.879
are exploited by people around us,

0:05:38.879,0:05:42.070
forcing us to change our opinion?

0:05:42.070,0:05:43.929
To answer this question,

0:05:43.929,0:05:46.386
we can put our subjects in the scanner,

0:05:46.386,0:05:48.493
try to influence their opinion

0:05:48.493,0:05:50.527
and register that activity of the brain,

0:05:50.527,0:05:52.644
which is connected[br]to social influence.

0:05:52.644,0:05:55.131
But we need a hypothesis.

0:05:55.131,0:05:56.935
In fact, we are interested

0:05:56.935,0:05:58.942
in the following situation.

0:05:58.942,0:06:00.831
This is a famous German photo,

0:06:00.831,0:06:02.624
you see a man with crossed hands

0:06:02.624,0:06:05.580
amidst the crowd giving the Nazi salute.

0:06:05.580,0:06:06.966
Probably this person

0:06:06.966,0:06:09.329
has a different opinion.

0:06:09.329,0:06:12.228
What is going on[br]in this man's head?

0:06:12.228,0:06:13.578
We hypothesized

0:06:13.578,0:06:16.560
that our biology, our evolution

0:06:16.560,0:06:18.105
designed the brain in such a way

0:06:18.105,0:06:20.244
that the brain at this point tells him:

0:06:20.244,0:06:21.909
“You're wrong!

0:06:21.909,0:06:24.296
You should not be different[br]from others!”

0:06:24.296,0:06:26.876
Indeed, it is dangerous[br]to differ from the people around.

0:06:26.876,0:06:29.389
Let’s imagine[br]an FC “Spartak” Moscow t-shirt

0:06:29.389,0:06:32.095
at the fan sector of Petrovsky stadium[br][home stadium of a rival team]

0:06:32.095,0:06:35.545
in St. Petersburg.

0:06:35.546,0:06:39.404
It can be very dangerous[br]to differ from others!

0:06:39.404,0:06:40.595
Therefore we hypothesized

0:06:40.595,0:06:43.046
that the brain signals us danger:

0:06:43.046,0:06:44.550
“You are different, it is dangerous,

0:06:44.550,0:06:47.848
change your opinion[br]to agree with the majority!”

0:06:47.848,0:06:51.442
How to identify[br]this signal of danger?

0:06:51.442,0:06:53.873
Here we can refer

0:06:53.873,0:06:56.266
to a formal representation[br]of this mechanism,

0:06:56.266,0:07:00.269
formulated by a remarkable neuroeconomist,[br]mathematician Read Montague.

0:07:00.269,0:07:02.856
He expressed this hypothesis[br]quite abstractly.

0:07:02.856,0:07:06.037
Imagine that the brain[br]perceives the behavior of others --

0:07:06.037,0:07:09.065
this is a green line,[br]green curve,

0:07:09.065,0:07:11.778
this is how our brain[br]perceives the norm.

0:07:11.778,0:07:13.356
The red line indicates

0:07:13.356,0:07:15.874
how our brain perceives[br]our own behavior.

0:07:15.874,0:07:17.688
This is an abstract curve.

0:07:17.688,0:07:21.202
The difference between them[br]is a mathematical error.

0:07:21.202,0:07:22.813
This mathematical error

0:07:22.813,0:07:24.368
forces us to change our opinion

0:07:24.368,0:07:26.103
to agree with the opinions[br]of people nearby.

0:07:26.103,0:07:27.614
Many will say: “What a strange

0:07:27.614,0:07:29.810
simplified mechanism,

0:07:29.810,0:07:31.068
which is not clear enough.”

0:07:31.068,0:07:33.337
Why do they say that[br]about this mathematical error?

0:07:33.337,0:07:34.782
It is because we then translate

0:07:34.782,0:07:36.888
the whole problem of social influence

0:07:36.888,0:07:39.308
into the language of neuroeconomics.

0:07:39.308,0:07:41.858
For neuroeconomics, for biology,

0:07:41.858,0:07:44.179
error is the key point.

0:07:44.179,0:07:45.507
For neurobiology

0:07:45.507,0:07:47.013
error -- or the awareness of error --

0:07:47.013,0:07:48.586
is the moment when we change.

0:07:48.586,0:07:50.939
If we do not realize it,

0:07:50.939,0:07:53.958
and make a mistake,[br]we learn almost nothing,

0:07:53.958,0:07:57.052
we stick to the same opinion,[br]the same behavior.

0:07:57.052,0:07:59.554
If we are wrong and notice the mistake,

0:07:59.554,0:08:01.864
we change, we learn.

0:08:01.864,0:08:03.836
Therefore, we hypothesized[br]that at the moment

0:08:03.836,0:08:06.165
when our opinion differs[br]from the opinion of others,

0:08:06.165,0:08:08.718
our brain screams: “You're wrong!”

0:08:08.718,0:08:10.559
The brain signals us an error

0:08:10.559,0:08:12.193
and this signal forces us

0:08:12.218,0:08:15.683
to automatically change our opinion[br]to agree with the opinion of others.

0:08:15.683,0:08:18.762
How to find this error signal[br]in a human brain?

0:08:18.762,0:08:21.490
A huge body of neurobiological research

0:08:21.490,0:08:23.439
shows that there is

0:08:23.439,0:08:26.389
a distributed network in our brain

0:08:26.389,0:08:28.561
which monitors our mistakes.

0:08:28.561,0:08:30.510
It warns us about our mistakes and,

0:08:30.510,0:08:32.202
first of all,[br]it is the cingulate cortex,

0:08:32.202,0:08:35.155
marked here by a yellow circle.

0:08:35.155,0:08:38.625
If you mentally cut our brain[br]like apple, between the hemispheres,

0:08:38.625,0:08:40.705
then the cingulate cortex[br]will be located

0:08:40.705,0:08:43.491
on the inner surface[br]of the cerebral hemispheres.

0:08:43.491,0:08:46.251
This area signals us our mistakes,

0:08:46.251,0:08:48.701
this area triggers internal changes.

0:08:48.701,0:08:51.080
Therefore, if our hypothesis is correct,

0:08:51.080,0:08:52.773
if for our brain

0:08:52.773,0:08:55.331
differing from others is an error,

0:08:55.331,0:08:57.214
we should detect this activity,

0:08:57.214,0:09:00.458
when our opinion[br]differs from the opinion of others.

0:09:00.458,0:09:03.405
We thought a lot about[br]how to explore conformism,

0:09:03.405,0:09:06.293
how to trigger conformism many times,[br]and at the same time

0:09:06.293,0:09:08.402
not stress our subjects too much.

0:09:08.402,0:09:10.333
At that time, I was working[br]in the Netherlands.

0:09:10.358,0:09:11.952
My professor, Hyenas Fernandez[br]suggested:

0:09:11.977,0:09:13.355
“Let’s study conformism

0:09:13.355,0:09:16.045
as a change of opinion[br]about the attractiveness of faces.”

0:09:16.045,0:09:18.842
I like this

0:09:18.842,0:09:20.249
digital masterpiece,

0:09:20.249,0:09:22.864
you see beautiful faces[br]of different races

0:09:22.864,0:09:26.086
and carefully crafted[br]transient versions.

0:09:26.086,0:09:28.253
All these people are beautiful.

0:09:28.253,0:09:30.923
Indeed, there is something[br]universal in beauty

0:09:30.923,0:09:32.679
and psychology says[br]that beauty is universal.

0:09:32.679,0:09:35.031
But at the same time[br]there is something special

0:09:35.031,0:09:37.144
in the faces of people[br]of different cultures,

0:09:37.144,0:09:39.249
that we do not fully understand.

0:09:39.249,0:09:41.261
These faces are beautiful[br]for a given culture,

0:09:41.261,0:09:43.804
but we cannot grasp this beauty.

0:09:43.804,0:09:46.730
We decided to study how our opinion

0:09:46.730,0:09:49.311
changes

0:09:49.311,0:09:51.351
under the influence[br]of the opinion of others.

0:09:51.351,0:09:52.602
We created a very simple test.

0:09:52.602,0:09:55.799
We put our subjects into a scanner[br]and asked them

0:09:55.799,0:09:57.853
to assess the attractiveness[br]of people's faces.

0:09:57.853,0:09:59.672
They saw a face on the screen

0:09:59.672,0:10:01.721
and had to assess it

0:10:01.721,0:10:03.074
from not attractive -- 1,

0:10:03.074,0:10:05.903
to very attractive -- 8

0:10:05.903,0:10:07.456
The subject evaluates the face,

0:10:07.456,0:10:09.749
see their assessment on the screen,

0:10:09.749,0:10:10.922
but every time they did so,

0:10:10.922,0:10:14.158
every time they assessed the face,

0:10:14.158,0:10:16.196
we presented them the opinion

0:10:16.196,0:10:19.644
of more than one hundred students[br]from the same university.

0:10:19.644,0:10:22.941
Sometimes this opinion differed[br]from the subject's opinion,

0:10:22.941,0:10:24.399
sometimes it matched.

0:10:24.399,0:10:26.190
We were interested in[br]what is happening at the moment,

0:10:26.190,0:10:27.874
when our opinion differs

0:10:27.874,0:10:29.872
from the opinion of others.

0:10:29.872,0:10:31.466
Whether the cingulate cortex activates,

0:10:31.466,0:10:34.224
whether it tells us about the error...

0:10:34.224,0:10:36.179
Our research has shown that indeed,

0:10:36.179,0:10:38.628
you see it in yellow,[br]the cingulate cortex activates,

0:10:38.628,0:10:40.988
as soon as our opinion differs[br]from the opinion of others.

0:10:40.988,0:10:43.407
For our brain, the difference

0:10:43.407,0:10:46.051
from others in our behavior, [br]in our opinion --

0:10:46.051,0:10:47.885
is an error!

0:10:47.885,0:10:50.971
How quickly does the brain[br]tell us about this error?

0:10:50.971,0:10:52.258
To investigate this,

0:10:52.258,0:10:53.738
we used a different method --

0:10:53.738,0:10:55.713
magnetic encephalography.

0:10:55.713,0:10:57.819
With this method,[br]we can surround your head

0:10:57.819,0:11:00.560
with lots of hypersensitive sensors

0:11:00.560,0:11:02.229
which are able to catch a small signal

0:11:02.229,0:11:04.343
produced by the cingulate cortex.

0:11:04.343,0:11:06.075
And by using this method,

0:11:06.075,0:11:08.605
we saw this peak of activity[br]240 milliseconds later,

0:11:08.605,0:11:11.058
a quarter of a second later

0:11:11.058,0:11:14.735
our brain tells us:[br]“You differ from others!

0:11:14.735,0:11:16.503
Change your opinion!”

0:11:16.503,0:11:19.156
If such a signal[br]really exists in the brain,

0:11:19.156,0:11:21.410
can we suppress it by modern methods?

0:11:21.410,0:11:22.739
Yes, we can!

0:11:22.739,0:11:26.229
We can use[br]transcranial magnetic stimulation.

0:11:26.229,0:11:28.588
Using a focused magnetic field,

0:11:28.588,0:11:31.421
we can temporarily suppress,

0:11:31.421,0:11:33.442
reduce the activity[br]of the cingulate cortex,

0:11:33.442,0:11:35.822
which tells us about this error.

0:11:35.822,0:11:38.916
We can expose our subject

0:11:38.916,0:11:40.268
to a transcranial magnetic stimulation.

0:11:40.268,0:11:43.108
For 20-30 minutes, their cingulate cortex

0:11:43.108,0:11:46.072
will produce much fewer signals.

0:11:46.072,0:11:48.504
We did this with our subjects,

0:11:48.504,0:11:50.776
asked them to do the same task.

0:11:50.776,0:11:52.943
The results show that our subjects

0:11:52.943,0:11:55.714
change their opinion only half as much

0:11:55.714,0:11:57.477
after their cingulate cortex

0:11:57.477,0:11:59.700
was temporarily blocked

0:11:59.700,0:12:01.689
with magnetic field.

0:12:01.689,0:12:04.809
That is, the brain[br]automatically informs us:

0:12:04.809,0:12:07.046
“We differ from others.”

0:12:07.046,0:12:10.605
This signal appears[br]in a quarter of a second.

0:12:10.605,0:12:12.145
Modern methods allow us

0:12:12.145,0:12:13.283
to suppress this signal

0:12:13.283,0:12:15.019
and make people less conformists.

0:12:15.019,0:12:17.726
My colleagues in various laboratories

0:12:17.726,0:12:19.613
studied how the cingulate cortex responds

0:12:19.613,0:12:21.630
to the opinion of the group of people[br]that we love,

0:12:21.630,0:12:24.058
and to the opinion of the group[br]that we hate,

0:12:24.058,0:12:27.427
how it reacts when our opinion differs[br]from the opinion of experts.

0:12:27.427,0:12:28.629
My colleagues in Denmark

0:12:28.629,0:12:30.575
used chemical substances

0:12:30.575,0:12:32.307
that change a certain amount

0:12:32.307,0:12:34.360
of neurotransmitters[br]in the cingulate cortex

0:12:34.360,0:12:37.061
and temporarily made people[br]more conformists.

0:12:37.061,0:12:39.205
That is, we are increasingly aware

0:12:39.205,0:12:41.742
of what happens[br]in the brain of a conformist.

0:12:41.742,0:12:43.140
We all seem to be prone

0:12:43.140,0:12:45.467
to automatically change our opinion

0:12:45.467,0:12:49.151
to agree with the opinion of others.

0:12:49.151,0:12:51.908
All this research has shown[br]that for our brain,

0:12:51.908,0:12:55.187
our difference from others is an error

0:12:55.187,0:12:57.154
and it showed that the brain tends

0:12:57.155,0:13:00.557
to automatically change our opinion[br]to agree with the opinion of others.

0:13:00.557,0:13:03.440
Why did we become such conformists?

0:13:03.453,0:13:05.591
Why are we inclined to conformism?

0:13:05.591,0:13:08.229
We can cite here[br]a few theories.

0:13:08.229,0:13:11.466
One theory -- “wisdom of the crowds” --[br]says that the crowd

0:13:11.466,0:13:15.536
is a more accurate device[br]to evaluate the reality.

0:13:15.550,0:13:17.118
There are many opinions in the crowd.

0:13:17.118,0:13:19.296
It leads to the crowd more accurately

0:13:19.296,0:13:22.390
assessing the situation,[br]evaluating information,

0:13:22.390,0:13:24.119
so you should follow the crowd.

0:13:24.119,0:13:26.138
Another theory is --[br]evolutionary theory --

0:13:26.138,0:13:28.717
tells us about evolutionarily stable[br]strategies of behavior.

0:13:28.717,0:13:30.790
It says that for millions of years

0:13:30.790,0:13:33.115
evolution has been testing us.

0:13:33.115,0:13:36.812
All wrong decisions,[br]suboptimal solutions,

0:13:36.812,0:13:39.265
are immediately punished[br]by natural selection.

0:13:39.265,0:13:42.033
We become somebody's food,[br]we do not leave posterity,

0:13:42.033,0:13:43.570
we die from hunger.

0:13:43.570,0:13:46.520
Therefore, if a group, a flock,

0:13:46.520,0:13:50.099
learns the same behavior,[br]the same opinion...

0:13:50.099,0:13:51.907
It can happen only

0:13:51.907,0:13:55.141
if this opinion, this behavior,[br]is better than the alternative.

0:13:55.141,0:13:57.948
Because the alternative was punished[br]for millions of years.

0:13:57.948,0:14:00.665
From the point of view of evolution,[br]we must follow the flock.

0:14:00.665,0:14:04.136
Their opinion is checked[br]by natural selection.

0:14:04.136,0:14:07.499
But we are living[br]in a rapidly changing world,

0:14:07.499,0:14:09.318
where the opinion of the majority

0:14:09.318,0:14:11.332
may slow down progress, for example.

0:14:11.332,0:14:16.288
The majority can suppress[br]the creative minority opinion,

0:14:16.288,0:14:18.018
it can suppress changes.

0:14:18.018,0:14:19.340
Therefore we have to remember

0:14:19.340,0:14:21.783
about this internal[br]tendency to conformism,

0:14:21.783,0:14:25.490
we tend to change our opinion[br]to agree with the opinion of others.

0:14:25.490,0:14:28.345
We should remember this when we see[br]the number of likes on the Internet,

0:14:28.345,0:14:30.655
when we read surveys,

0:14:30.655,0:14:35.332
when we listen to TED talks.

0:14:35.332,0:14:38.900
If we go back to the main question[br]of our conversation:

0:14:38.900,0:14:41.713
what was going on[br]in the head of Marcello Clerici

0:14:41.713,0:14:45.135
during his conflict with the state?

0:14:45.135,0:14:48.430
Probably his brain signaled him

0:14:48.430,0:14:50.641
about, possibly,[br]the most important mistake:

0:14:50.641,0:14:52.752
his opinion differs[br]from the opinion of the state,

0:14:52.752,0:14:55.875
his opinion differs[br]from the opinion of others.

0:14:55.875,0:14:59.562
And we should remember that.

0:14:59.562,0:15:02.105
Perhaps not everyone in this room[br]will be able to overcome...

0:15:02.105,0:15:03.554
Because when we go

0:15:03.554,0:15:07.260
against the state, against others,[br]against the opinion of the crowd,

0:15:07.260,0:15:11.072
we go, in some sense,[br]against our own brain.

0:15:11.072,0:15:12.663
Perhaps at this point, [br]I should conclude my presentation.

0:15:12.663,0:15:15.301
And finally,[br]I want to thank all my colleagues,

0:15:15.301,0:15:16.631
who helped me carry out

0:15:16.631,0:15:18.055
all these quite difficult experiments

0:15:18.055,0:15:19.653
and you for your patience and attention.

0:15:19.653,0:15:21.421
Thank You![br](Applause)