The emergence of moral alignment within human groups is facilitated by interbrain synchrony.

Abstract

Humans tend to align their behaviors and beliefs with their group peers. Establishing alignment between group members is crucial for group unity, yet the mechanisms underlying its emergence are under-explored. Here we examined the extent to which the brains of group members synchronize during deliberation on moral issues, and how interbrain synchrony supports alignment in their moral beliefs. We scanned 200 participants, who were divided into groups of four, using functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) during discussions on moral dilemmas. Behavioral results show that following group deliberations, members aligned their beliefs by adjusting their private beliefs towards the collective sentiment. Critically, neuroimaging results reveal that increased interbrain synchrony in the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) between group members predicts the degree of alignment post-deliberation. These findings indicate that the human tendency to align with group members extends to moral beliefs and reveal that regions related to mirroring and semantic sequence processing work across brains in coordination, to promote shared moral beliefs.