TY - JOUR

T1 - Contradicted by the Brain: Predicting Individual and Group Preferences via Brain-Computer Interfacing

AU - Davis, Keith M.

AU - Spape, Michiel

AU - Ruotsalo, Tuukka

PY - 2023

Y1 - 2023

N2 - We investigate inferring individual preferences and the contradiction of individual preferences with group preferences through direct measurement of the brain. We report an experiment where brain activity collected from 31 participants produced in response to viewing images is associated with their self-reported preferences. First, we show that brain responses present a graded response to preferences, and that brain responses alone can be used to train classifiers that reliably estimate preferences. Second, we show that brain responses reveal additional preference information that correlates with group preference, even when participants self-reported having no such preference. Our analysis of brain responses carries significant implications for researchers in general, as it suggests an individual's explicit preferences are not always aligned with the preferences inferred from their brain responses. These findings call into question the reliability of explicit and behavioral signals. They also imply that additional, multimodal sources of information may be necessary to infer reliable preference information.

AB - We investigate inferring individual preferences and the contradiction of individual preferences with group preferences through direct measurement of the brain. We report an experiment where brain activity collected from 31 participants produced in response to viewing images is associated with their self-reported preferences. First, we show that brain responses present a graded response to preferences, and that brain responses alone can be used to train classifiers that reliably estimate preferences. Second, we show that brain responses reveal additional preference information that correlates with group preference, even when participants self-reported having no such preference. Our analysis of brain responses carries significant implications for researchers in general, as it suggests an individual's explicit preferences are not always aligned with the preferences inferred from their brain responses. These findings call into question the reliability of explicit and behavioral signals. They also imply that additional, multimodal sources of information may be necessary to infer reliable preference information.

U2 - 10.1109/TAFFC.2022.3225885

DO - 10.1109/TAFFC.2022.3225885

M3 - Journal article

VL - 14

SP - 3094-3105,

JO - IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing

JF - IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing

SN - 1949-3045

IS - 4

ER -