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(Applause)

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I would like to start our talk,

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our discussion,

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with the film based 
on Alberto Moravia's novel

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“Il conformista” 1951 / “Conformist”.

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Bernardo Bertolucci created
a wonderful, touching,

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interesting story of the conflict,
personal conflict

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between the main character
Marcello Clerici and the state.

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As a result of this conflict,
the main character

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lost his loved one.

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Many of us in this room

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are ready to confront the state,
the opinion of others or the crowd.

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Actually, in our laboratory,
we are trying

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to understand why we are strongly 
inclined to be conformists,

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how much we can understand the hidden
the cerebral mechanisms of conformism.

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While preparing our talk,

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I tried to find out where 
my interest in this subject stemmed from.

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I remembered a few interesting facts.

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I have made my dissertation

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under the supervision 
of Natalia Behtereva --

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granddaughter of the great Russian
physiologist and psychiatrist

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Vladimir Bekhterev.

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Vladimir Bekhterev’s interest
was in social influence.

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If you look at this book

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“Suggestion and its role
in public life”,

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you will find a number 
of very interesting chapters.

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For example, the chapter 
on clonic effects,

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epidemics of witchcraft and demonomania.

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Incredibly interesting stories

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about how epidemics
of religious ecstasies and convulsions

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spread with incredible speed
in groups of people.

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Actually, Behterev’s curiosity,

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went on to his granddaughter,
and then to me as her student.

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At that time I was studying brain

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and we absolutely did not
understand how we can study

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“Neurobiology of social influence”.

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Many of you are familiar

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with the excellent research
in social psychology.

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As a post-graduate student,
I became increasingly interested

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in social psychology.

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With excitement, I read books
by social psychologists,

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the books of Cialdini, Zimbardo, Arnsen.

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I read all these
fantastic experiments which show

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how people are influencing us.

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I read and, frankly, realized that

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as a neuroscientist,
I will never learn it, never...

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Many of you might remember
wonderful experiments of Solomon Asch.

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He asked his subjects
to do a very simple task.

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They saw on a screen

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three lines
“А”, “В” and “С”.

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And the question was very simple:

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which of these lines
has the same length as line “X”?

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The answer is obvious:

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line “B” is equal to line “X”.

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But imagine for a minute
that in a room,

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there are 6 decoy subjects besides you

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and all of them are giving a wrong answer.

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Solomon Asch showed
that in this situation,

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less than a third of people
give the correct answer,

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the rest will show conformism,

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they'll give the wrong answer,
just not to be different from others.

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Social psychology through hundreds 
of great experiments showed

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the power of the people around you,
the power of the crowd.

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We are afraid to be different,

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we change our opinion
to follow the crowd.

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For example,
social psychology revealed that

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it is the behavior of others,
not our own opinion,

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that determines the amount
of adultery, crime,

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amount of dishonest taxpayers.

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Social influence and the behavior
of others determine our behavior.

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But I was a neurophysiologist,
I knew that

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I would never explore
all these interesting processes.

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In my academic career,
along my academic path,

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the change happened very unexpectedly.

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I understood that I would have
no chance to study

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all the processes of social influence,

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when we realize with horror

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how our opinion differs from
the opinion of the majority.

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But one day,

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when I was
on an internship in Helsinki,

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in a university, I parked my car

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near this building.

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The building was created

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by a magnificent Scandinavian architect

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Alvar Aalto.

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I stopped my car
and leaned towards the radio receiver.

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Somebody was talking
about a new science,

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about neuroeconomics.

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The new discipline appeared
at that very moment

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as economists and neuroscientists
discovered each other.

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It turned out that 
for hundreds of years,

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economists and neuroscientists 
had been studying the same thing.

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They studied decision-making process.

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The economists were interested
in exploring complex solutions:

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why we pay this amount of money
for these goods and not a different one,

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why we invest money
or do not invest money,

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why we save money

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for pensions, or not.

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Biologists were interested
in simpler questions:

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why we pursue the fat rabbit,
or not

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or why we run away from a scary lion,
or not.

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In fact, for hundreds of years 
the two disciplines had been studying

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the same thing, the same question:

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how do we make decisions?

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And here the new discipline appeared:
neuroeconomics.

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This discipline tries to find out

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how our brain
is programming our decisions

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in various complex
economic and social contexts.

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For me it was a turning point!

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We were able to formalize the hypothesis,

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the hypothesis of brain mechanisms
of conformism.

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For us, conformism --
or social influence --

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is a phenomenon of people nearby

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manipulating our brain,

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manipulating the activity
of certain brain areas

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involved in the decision-making process.

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Which areas of the brain
and which processes

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are exploited by people around us,

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forcing us to change our opinion?

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To answer this question,

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we can put our subjects in the scanner,

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try to influence their opinion

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and register that activity of the brain,

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which is connected
to social influence.

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But we need a hypothesis.

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In fact, we are interested

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in the following situation.

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This is a famous German photo,

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you see a man with crossed hands

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amidst the crowd giving the Nazi salute.

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Probably this person

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has a different opinion.

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What is going on
in this man's head?

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We hypothesized

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that our biology, our evolution

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designed the brain in such a way

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that the brain at this point tells him:

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“You're wrong!

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You should not be different
from others!”

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Indeed, it is dangerous
to differ from the people around.

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Let’s imagine
an FC “Spartak” Moscow t-shirt

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at the fan sector of Petrovsky stadium
[home stadium of a rival team]

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in St. Petersburg.

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It can be very dangerous
to differ from others!

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Therefore we hypothesized

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that the brain signals us danger:

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“You are different, it is dangerous,

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change your opinion
to agree with the majority!”

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How to identify
this signal of danger?

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Here we can refer

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to a formal representation
of this mechanism,

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formulated by a remarkable neuroeconomist,
mathematician Read Montague.

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He expressed this hypothesis
quite abstractly.

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Imagine that the brain
perceives the behavior of others --

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this is a green line,
green curve,

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this is how our brain
perceives the norm.

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The red line indicates

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how our brain perceives
our own behavior.

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This is an abstract curve.

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The difference between them
is a mathematical error.

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This mathematical error

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forces us to change our opinion

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to agree with the opinions
of people nearby.

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Many will say: “What a strange

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simplified mechanism,

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which is not clear enough.”

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Why do they say that
about this mathematical error?

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It is because we then translate

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the whole problem of social influence

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into the language of neuroeconomics.

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For neuroeconomics, for biology,

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error is the key point.

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For neurobiology

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error -- or the awareness of error --

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is the moment when we change.

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If we do not realize it,

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and make a mistake,
we learn almost nothing,

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we stick to the same opinion,
the same behavior.

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If we are wrong and notice the mistake,

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we change, we learn.

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Therefore, we hypothesized
that at the moment

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when our opinion differs
from the opinion of others,

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our brain screams: “You're wrong!”

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The brain signals us an error

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and this signal forces us

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to automatically change our opinion
to agree with the opinion of others.

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How to find this error signal
in a human brain?

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A huge body of neurobiological research

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shows that there is

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a distributed network in our brain

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which monitors our mistakes.

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It warns us about our mistakes and,

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first of all,
it is the cingulate cortex,

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marked here by a yellow circle.

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If you mentally cut our brain
like apple, between the hemispheres,

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then the cingulate cortex
will be located

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on the inner surface
of the cerebral hemispheres.

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This area signals us our mistakes,

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this area triggers internal changes.

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Therefore, if our hypothesis is correct,

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if for our brain

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differing from others is an error,

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we should detect this activity,

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when our opinion
differs from the opinion of others.

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We thought a lot about
how to explore conformism,

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how to trigger conformism many times,
and at the same time

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not stress our subjects too much.

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At that time, I was working
in the Netherlands.

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My professor, Hyenas Fernandez
suggested:

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“Let’s study conformism

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as a change of opinion
about the attractiveness of faces.”

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I like this

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digital masterpiece,

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you see beautiful faces
of different races

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and carefully crafted
transient versions.

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All these people are beautiful.

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Indeed, there is something
universal in beauty

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and psychology says
that beauty is universal.

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But at the same time
there is something special

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in the faces of people
of different cultures,

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that we do not fully understand.

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These faces are beautiful
for a given culture,

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but we cannot grasp this beauty.

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We decided to study how our opinion

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changes

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under the influence
of the opinion of others.

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We created a very simple test.

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We put our subjects into a scanner
and asked them

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to assess the attractiveness
of people's faces.

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They saw a face on the screen

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and had to assess it

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from not attractive -- 1,

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to very attractive -- 8

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The subject evaluates the face,

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see their assessment on the screen,

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but every time they did so,

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every time they assessed the face,

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we presented them the opinion

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of more than one hundred students
from the same university.

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Sometimes this opinion differed
from the subject's opinion,

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sometimes it matched.

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We were interested in
what is happening at the moment,

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when our opinion differs

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from the opinion of others.

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Whether the cingulate cortex activates,

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whether it tells us about the error...

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Our research has shown that indeed,

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you see it in yellow,
the cingulate cortex activates,

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as soon as our opinion differs
from the opinion of others.

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For our brain, the difference

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from others in our behavior, 
in our opinion --

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is an error!

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How quickly does the brain
tell us about this error?

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To investigate this,

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we used a different method --

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magnetic encephalography.

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With this method,
we can surround your head

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with lots of hypersensitive sensors

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which are able to catch a small signal

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produced by the cingulate cortex.

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And by using this method,

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we saw this peak of activity
240 milliseconds later,

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a quarter of a second later

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our brain tells us:
“You differ from others!

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Change your opinion!”

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If such a signal
really exists in the brain,

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can we suppress it by modern methods?

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Yes, we can!

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We can use
transcranial magnetic stimulation.

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Using a focused magnetic field,

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we can temporarily suppress,

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reduce the activity
of the cingulate cortex,

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which tells us about this error.

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We can expose our subject

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to a transcranial magnetic stimulation.

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For 20-30 minutes, their cingulate cortex

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will produce much fewer signals.

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We did this with our subjects,

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asked them to do the same task.

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The results show that our subjects

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change their opinion only half as much

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00:11:55,714 --> 00:11:57,477
after their cingulate cortex

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00:11:57,477 --> 00:11:59,700
was temporarily blocked

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00:11:59,700 --> 00:12:01,689
with magnetic field.

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That is, the brain
automatically informs us:

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“We differ from others.”

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This signal appears
in a quarter of a second.

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Modern methods allow us

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to suppress this signal

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and make people less conformists.

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My colleagues in various laboratories

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00:12:17,726 --> 00:12:19,613
studied how the cingulate cortex responds

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to the opinion of the group of people
that we love,

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00:12:21,630 --> 00:12:24,058
and to the opinion of the group
that we hate,

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00:12:24,058 --> 00:12:27,427
how it reacts when our opinion differs
from the opinion of experts.

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00:12:27,427 --> 00:12:28,629
My colleagues in Denmark

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used chemical substances

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that change a certain amount

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00:12:32,307 --> 00:12:34,360
of neurotransmitters
in the cingulate cortex

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00:12:34,360 --> 00:12:37,061
and temporarily made people
more conformists.

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That is, we are increasingly aware

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00:12:39,205 --> 00:12:41,742
of what happens
in the brain of a conformist.

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00:12:41,742 --> 00:12:43,140
We all seem to be prone

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to automatically change our opinion

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00:12:45,467 --> 00:12:49,151
to agree with the opinion of others.

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00:12:49,151 --> 00:12:51,908
All this research has shown
that for our brain,

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our difference from others is an error

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and it showed that the brain tends

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to automatically change our opinion
to agree with the opinion of others.

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Why did we become such conformists?

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Why are we inclined to conformism?

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00:13:05,591 --> 00:13:08,229
We can cite here
a few theories.

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00:13:08,229 --> 00:13:11,466
One theory -- “wisdom of the crowds” --
says that the crowd

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is a more accurate device
to evaluate the reality.

315
00:13:15,550 --> 00:13:17,118
There are many opinions in the crowd.

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00:13:17,118 --> 00:13:19,296
It leads to the crowd more accurately

317
00:13:19,296 --> 00:13:22,390
assessing the situation,
evaluating information,

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00:13:22,390 --> 00:13:24,119
so you should follow the crowd.

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00:13:24,119 --> 00:13:26,138
Another theory is --
evolutionary theory --

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tells us about evolutionarily stable
strategies of behavior.

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00:13:28,717 --> 00:13:30,790
It says that for millions of years

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evolution has been testing us.

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00:13:33,115 --> 00:13:36,812
All wrong decisions,
suboptimal solutions,

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00:13:36,812 --> 00:13:39,265
are immediately punished
by natural selection.

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00:13:39,265 --> 00:13:42,033
We become somebody's food,
we do not leave posterity,

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00:13:42,033 --> 00:13:43,570
we die from hunger.

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00:13:43,570 --> 00:13:46,520
Therefore, if a group, a flock,

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00:13:46,520 --> 00:13:50,099
learns the same behavior,
the same opinion...

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00:13:50,099 --> 00:13:51,907
It can happen only

330
00:13:51,907 --> 00:13:55,141
if this opinion, this behavior,
is better than the alternative.

331
00:13:55,141 --> 00:13:57,948
Because the alternative was punished
for millions of years.

332
00:13:57,948 --> 00:14:00,665
From the point of view of evolution,
we must follow the flock.

333
00:14:00,665 --> 00:14:04,136
Their opinion is checked
by natural selection.

334
00:14:04,136 --> 00:14:07,499
But we are living
in a rapidly changing world,

335
00:14:07,499 --> 00:14:09,318
where the opinion of the majority

336
00:14:09,318 --> 00:14:11,332
may slow down progress, for example.

337
00:14:11,332 --> 00:14:16,288
The majority can suppress
the creative minority opinion,

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00:14:16,288 --> 00:14:18,018
it can suppress changes.

339
00:14:18,018 --> 00:14:19,340
Therefore we have to remember

340
00:14:19,340 --> 00:14:21,783
about this internal
tendency to conformism,

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00:14:21,783 --> 00:14:25,490
we tend to change our opinion
to agree with the opinion of others.

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00:14:25,490 --> 00:14:28,345
We should remember this when we see
the number of likes on the Internet,

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00:14:28,345 --> 00:14:30,655
when we read surveys,

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00:14:30,655 --> 00:14:35,332
when we listen to TED talks.

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00:14:35,332 --> 00:14:38,900
If we go back to the main question
of our conversation:

346
00:14:38,900 --> 00:14:41,713
what was going on
in the head of Marcello Clerici

347
00:14:41,713 --> 00:14:45,135
during his conflict with the state?

348
00:14:45,135 --> 00:14:48,430
Probably his brain signaled him

349
00:14:48,430 --> 00:14:50,641
about, possibly,
the most important mistake:

350
00:14:50,641 --> 00:14:52,752
his opinion differs
from the opinion of the state,

351
00:14:52,752 --> 00:14:55,875
his opinion differs
from the opinion of others.

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00:14:55,875 --> 00:14:59,562
And we should remember that.

353
00:14:59,562 --> 00:15:02,105
Perhaps not everyone in this room
will be able to overcome...

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00:15:02,105 --> 00:15:03,554
Because when we go

355
00:15:03,554 --> 00:15:07,260
against the state, against others,
against the opinion of the crowd,

356
00:15:07,260 --> 00:15:11,072
we go, in some sense,
against our own brain.

357
00:15:11,072 --> 00:15:12,663
Perhaps at this point, 
I should conclude my presentation.

358
00:15:12,663 --> 00:15:15,301
And finally,
I want to thank all my colleagues,

359
00:15:15,301 --> 00:15:16,631
who helped me carry out

360
00:15:16,631 --> 00:15:18,055
all these quite difficult experiments

361
00:15:18,055 --> 00:15:19,653
and you for your patience and attention.

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00:15:19,653 --> 00:15:21,421
Thank You!
(Applause)