Adolescents often need to reconcile discrepancies between their own attitudes and those of their parents and peers, but the social contexts under which adolescents conform to the attitudes of others, or the neurocognitive processes underlying decisions to conform, remain unexplored. This fMRI study assessed the extent to which early adolescents (n = 39, ages 12–14) conform to their parents’ and peers’ conflicting attitudes toward different types of behavior (unconstructive and constructive) and in response to different types of influence (negative and positive). Overall, adolescents exhibited low rates of conformity, sticking with their pre-existing attitudes 65 % of the time. When they did conform, adolescents were more likely to conform to their peers’ attitudes towards constructive than unconstructive behaviors, exhibiting decreased activation in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, insula, and inferior frontal gyrus during peer conformity toward constructive over unconstructive behaviors. Adolescents were also more likely to conform when their parents and peers endorsed relatively more positive influence than negative influence, exhibiting increased activation in the temporoparietal junction when considering conforming to negative over positive influence. These results highlight early adolescents’ ability to stick with their own opinions when confronted with opposing attitudes and conform selectively based on the social context.

青少年通常需要调和自己的态度与父母和同伴的态度之间的差异，但仍未探索青少年遵循他人态度的社会环境或决定遵循的神经认知过程。这项功能磁共振成像研究评估了早期青少年的程度（n= 39岁（12-14岁）符合他们父母和同伴对不同行为类型（无建设性和建设性）以及对不同类型影响（消极和积极）的冲突态度。总体而言，青少年的合规率较低，在65％的时间内坚持其原有的态度。当他们做到顺从时，青少年更倾向于顺从他们的同伴对建设性行为的态度，而不是非建设性行为，在同伴对建设性而非非建设性行为的顺从性中，腹侧前额叶皮层，背前扣带回皮层，岛叶和下额回的激活减少。 。当父母和同伴认可相对积极的影响大于负面影响时，青少年也更有可能顺从，考虑到负面影响超过正面影响时，在颞顶接合处的活化作用增强。这些结果凸显了青少年在面对相反的态度时会坚持自己的观点，并根据社会背景有选择地适应自己的能力。