The adaptation of trust behavior and the association with friendships in adolescents

Abstract

Being able to adapt one’s trust behavior is essential for social relationships. In the current fMRI study, we first examined adolescents’ ability to adapt trust behavior and the neural mechanisms of trust. Second, we examined developmental differences by comparing young and late adolescents. Third, we examined how positions in a friendship network, derived from social network analysis, relate to trust behavior in the late adolescent group. Seventeen young adolescents (Mage=12.6, SD=0.9, 10 female) and 33 late adolescents (Mage=17.2, SD=0.5, 25 female) played two trust games. Participants received a priori information suggesting that one partner was trustworthy and one partner untrustworthy. In reality, the behavior of both partners was programmed as trustworthy behavior. Results indicated that adolescents adapt their trust behavior when incorrect a priori information was provided, and developmental differences in this ability to adapt trust behavior were found. When incorrect a priori information was provided, late adolescents showed more dlPFC activity when receiving the partner’s feedback compared to young adolescents. Furthermore, late adolescents with less central network positions were more adaptive in their trust behavior compared to late adolescents with more central positions. This study provides insight into how age and social relationships influence trust behavior during adolescence.

Social network positions, trust behavior and its neural mechanisms in young adolescents

“…Also, the trend result showing that less central adolescents show lower baseline trust might suggest that the behavior at the beginning of the game influences the differences in overall trust behavior. In contrast, in our previous paper we did find that adolescents with more peripheral positions show a greater adaptive ability, as shown by a greater increase in trust behavior, compared to adolescents with more central positions (Sijtsma et al, 2020). This discrepancy might be due to differences in the experimental paradigms as we previously used information to inform the participants about the partner's trustworthiness before the game started.…”

“…So far, little is known about the relationship between social networks positions and the ability to adapt trust behavior. In a previous study, we found that late adolescents with less central social network positions were better able to adaptively increase their trust behavior than more central adolescents (Sijtsma et al, 2020). While speculative, we suggested that adolescents with less central positions are more motivated to understand the behavior and intentions of others, because their position is less powerful.…”