Нейрокогнитивные механизмы социального влияния на принятие решений посредством нарративовNeurocognitive mechanisms of social influence on decision-making through narratives

Narratives, in the form of, e.g., videos or audio messages, can display the opinion of others and they can provoke a variety of emotions. Such elements can widely shape everyday decision-making, which makes narratives a particularly effective means of social influence. The present dissertation investigated how persuasive narratives can influence decision-making by inducing certain emotions or by conveying the opinion of experts. We studied these effects at the behavioural level, as well as at the neural level using electroencephalography (EEG). We found that narrative-evoked sadness increases risk-aversion, especially in individuals with low levels of emotional contagion. Moreover, we demonstrated that a narrative by an expert against sugar consumption can decrease individuals’ willingness to pay for sugar-containing food. Finally, our EEG data suggested that the persuasiveness of a narrative positively depends on how similarly people’s brains respond to it. Overall, the dissertation expands knowledge on the neurocognitive mechanisms of social influence on decision-making through narratives.