Persuasion and influence: what makes a successful persuader?

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Social Psychology
• Decision Science

Background:

• Understanding persuasion is crucial for social interaction.
• Previous research often overlooks the persuader's cognitive and neural mechanisms.
• Identifying key drivers of successful influence attempts remains an active area of inquiry.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review the role of the persuader in influencing others.
• To highlight neuroscientific findings related to information sharing and persuasion.
• To identify variables distinguishing successful from less successful persuaders.

Main Methods:

• Literature review integrating findings from neuroscience and social psychology.
• Analysis of brain mechanisms underlying value-based decision-making in information sharing.
• Examination of the role of social awareness and mentalizing in persuasion.

Main Results:

• Persuaders' information-sharing decisions are driven by value-based decision-making in the brain.
• Self-relevance and social-relevance are key inputs to this value computation.
• Higher social awareness and increased recruitment of the brain's mentalizing system correlate with greater persuasion success.

Conclusions:

• Successful persuasion is linked to the persuader's cognitive processes, particularly social awareness and mentalizing.
• Value-based decision-making, incorporating self- and social-relevance, guides information sharing.
• Integrating social and neural network approaches offers a promising path for future research in persuasion.