Understanding the Link Between Brain Activation, Choice, and Attitude Change for European Americans and East Asians.

How do people make difficult choices, and how does the decision process influence subsequent attitudes towards the choice options? Moreover, does culture influence decision-making and attitude change? My dissertation addresses these questions using neuroimaging data from individuals who evaluated choice options before and after making difficult choices either for the self or a close friend. In Study 1, I measured neural activation during decision-making and found that brain regions involved in self-processing and reward processing predicted attitude change for European Americans but not East Asians. Moreover, regions involved in conflict detection and negative arousal were recruited when people made difficult (versus easy) choices for the self and a close friend, whereas mentalizing regions were recruited when people made difficult choices for a close friend (versus self choices). In Study 2, I found that post-choice connectivity between regions involved in self-processing predicted attitude change. In Study 3, I found that European Americans represented information about choice outcome (chosen versus rejected) in self-processing regions, whereas East Asians represented information about choice outcome in mentalizing regions. Both European Americans and East Asians represented information about choice target (self versus friend) in both self-processing and mentalizing brain regions. The current work provides evidence for key brain regions and networks that support decision-making and attitude change for both the self and close others. This research advances understanding of how culture shapes the way in which people evaluate choice options and make choice.PHDPsychologyUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/135786/1/tompson_1.pd