The mentalizing network updates neural representations of romantic interest in response to social feedback

Abstract When we think about the start of a successful close relationship, we often imagine two people independently evaluating each other. But what if how much we like someone depends on how much we think they like us? In the current study, we asked how social feedback changes how one thinks about potential romantic partners, as well as how often one thinks about them. We hypothesized that the mentalizing network would play a role in both of these processes. During an fMRI scan, participants watched dating profile videos of eight different target individuals, both before and after receiving social feedback from the target. We found that neural representations in the mentalizing network changed most in response to social feedback that was incongruent with one’s initial evaluation, likely because romantic interest in another person is at least partially based on what one believes that other person is thinking. In addition, during a resting-state scan, reactivation frequency in the TPJ increased in response to congruent feedback. Considered together, these results demonstrate that the desire to be aligned with another person motivates both how and how often one thinks about that person, thus highlighting the importance of others’ social evaluations in our own.