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Updated: Jun 22, 2025

Post-Movie Subliminal Measurement PMSM, for Investigating Implicit Social Bias
Published on: February 29, 2020
Sisterhood predicts similar neural processing of a film
Mareike Bacha-Trams1, Gökce Ertas Yorulmaz2, Enrico Glerean2
1Brain and Mind Laboratory, Department of Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland; Institute of Research Methods in Psychology - Media-based Knowledge Construction, Computer Science and Applied Cognitive Science, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany.
Abstract:
Relationships between humans are essential for how we see the world. Using fMRI, we explored the neural basis of homophily, a sociological concept that describes the tendency to bond with similar others. Our comparison of brain activity between sisters, friends and acquaintances while they watched a movie, indicate that sisters' brain activity is more similar than that of friends and friends' activity is more similar than that of acquaintances. The increased similarity in brain activity measured as inter-subject correlation (ISC) was found both in higher-order brain areas including the default-mode network (DMN) and sensory areas. Increased ISC could not be explained by genetic relation between sisters neither by similarities in eye-movements, emotional experiences, and physiological activity. Our findings shed light on the neural basis of homophily by revealing that similarity in brain activity in the DMN and sensory areas is the stronger the closer is the relationship between the people.
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