Brain-Based Prediction of Influence Message Effectiveness (BB-PRIME)

Behavior change is a common objective across the Defense community. Recent studies suggest that neuroimaging can improve our ability to predict what messages are effective in changing behavior in individuals and at scale (Falk & Scholz, 2018). However, current neuroscience results have not established definitive causal relationships between specific types of messages and behavior change. In BB-PRIME, we will execute a plan that: (1) delivers insight about causal relationships between message features and behavior change; (2) is based on whole-brain research paradigms; (3) conducts parallel brain imaging and field experiments to map brain activity to behavior change; and (4) explores the impact of cross- cultural factors by integrating data from a broad subject sample. We will build computational models of social influence that quantify the relationship between message features, brain reactions, and behavior, such that knowing about any one of these variables has predictive value for the others. The resulting computational models of social influence will be useful to entities in both the public and private sectors. In the private sector, several non-governmental organizations (NGOs) would likely benefit from the research findings and computational models.