A lot of parents and teachers who deal with students every day know how hard it is to encourage them to do something that their friends don’t like. Now, a new study by a Harvard research team shows that peer pressure actually affects how brains work.
The team showed 14 young men pictures of women’s faces and asked them to rate their attractiveness. Subjects were told, falsely, that hundreds of other men had already rated the pictures. After seeing the “peer” rating, the subjects were asked to re-rate the pictures. In every case, they changed their ratings to match those of their supposed peers and MRI scans showed significantly different activity in the parts of their brains associated with determining subjective value and rewards.
The research suggests that being in a class with other students who are interested can increase an individual student’s engagement. The study may also provide additional support for other research showing changes in a school’s overall culture have a bigger effect on student achievement than smaller, targeted programs.
An early version was summarized in a February 25th post in Education Week’s blog, Inside School Research.
