The Neurosocial Landscape
New tools, methods, and discoveries have driven growth in applied neuroscience over the last quarter century. Steadily improving resolution and sensitivity of real-time sensing technology have given scientists the ability to correlate some aspects of brain function to particular words or images. Meanwhile, hardware, software, networks, and services have made possible the handling of large amounts of data. The result is an ever-growing human capacity to understand complex human phenomenon by taking a neurosocial approach.
Because we don’t yet have a “neuroscience of changemaking,” we can infer what one might look like by looking at the neurosocial approaches found in comparable or relevant fields.
Patrick McNamara: The Neuroscience of Religious Experience
How do neuroscientists connect the brain and the self in the context of another universal social pattern — religion?
Templeton Foundation
Abigail Marsh: The Altruistic Brain
The neuroscience of empathy and altruism
Roots of Empathy
Terry Wu: The New Science of Neuromarketing
A "new science" from 2009!
TED
Tania Singer: The Neuroscience of Compassion
Neuroplasticity and brain training.
World Economic Forum
Links
Neuroscientific Research on Social Values:
The Neural Basis of Human Social Values: Evidence from Functional MRI
“This neural architecture may provide the basis of our ability to communicate about the meaning of social values across cultural contexts without limiting our flexibility to adapt their emotional interpretation.”
Building a conceptual framework for the scientific study of Inspiration:
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2014.00436/full
“Brain-level explanations of an inspiration episode can then be integrated with explanations at other levels of analysis to produce a richer and more holistic understanding of inspiration. This deeper understanding will aid in determining how and why individuals sometimes feel (or do not feel) compelled to act on their creative ideas. Inspiration has the power to effect change not just for individuals, but also for societies.”
Persuasion and attitude change:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S095943881300086X
“This review focuses on human social neuroscience research and summarizes recent findings that show neural processes of attitude/preference change induced by three processes: first, social conformity (attitude change to match group opinions), secondly, cognitive consistency motivation (attitude change to reduce cognitive dissonance), and thirdly, persuasion (attitude change in response to persuasive messages).”
Behavioral Economics:
What Funtional Imaging of the Brain Can Add to Behavioral Economics Experiments
“Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technology has provided economists with an unmatched ability to test individual theories, and to resolve competing theories.”
What can be measured?
Biophysical Measurement in the Social Sciences
“Many behavioral laboratories across the globe have acquired increasingly sophisticated biophysical measurement equipment, sometimes for particular research projects or for financial or institutional reasons. Yet the expertise required to use this technology and integrate the measures it can generate on human subjects into successful social science research endeavors is often scarce and concentrated amongst a small minority of researchers. This book aims to open the door to wider and more productive use of biophysical measurement in laboratory-based experimental social science research.”