How does friendship affect the human brain and influence behavior? In a new JNeurosci paper, Jia Jin and colleagues, from Shanghai International Studies University, present their work examining how close relationships influence consumer behavior and neural activity. Through a combination of long-term behavioral experiments with 175 participants and neuroimaging data from 47 participants, the researchers shed light on how friendships promote neural and behavioral similarity.
Participants evaluated products more similarly to their friends than strangers. As friends grew closer over time, this similarity became even stronger. Neuroimaging revealed that as friends viewed advertisements together, they had synchronized neural activity linked to object perception, attention, memory, social judgement, and reward processing. Lastly, Jin et al. discovered brain activity of study participants that could predict not only their own purchasing intentions, but also the intentions of their friends.
According to the authors, this work advances understanding of how strongly dynamic social relationships can influence behavior. The authors’ findings suggest that close relationships can predictably shape the way people act, at least when it comes to consumer-related behaviors.
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About JNeurosci
JNeurosci was launched in 1981 as a means to communicate the findings of the highest quality neuroscience research to the growing field. Today, the journal remains committed to publishing cutting-edge neuroscience that will have an immediate and lasting scientific impact, while responding to authors' changing publishing needs, representing breadth of the field and diversity in authorship.
About The Society for Neuroscience
The Society for Neuroscience is the world's largest organization of scientists and physicians devoted to understanding the brain and nervous system. The nonprofit organization, founded in 1969, now has nearly 35,000 members in more than 95 countries.
JNeurosci
10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0073-25.2025
People
Neural Synchrony and Consumer Behavior: Predicting Friends’ Behavior in Real-World Social Networks
14-Jul-2025
The authors declare no competing financial interests.