Do you have a "winning mindset"?

The socially dominant don’t always win, according to some interesting new research. There is a ”winning mindset” which can overcome rank—but it doesn’t happen naturally.

If you’re reaching for the last piece of pizza at a party and see another hand going for it at the same time, your next move probably depends both on how you feel and whom the hand belongs to. Your little sister—you might go ahead and grab the pizza. Your boss—you’re probably more likely to step back and give up the slice. But if you’re hungry and feeling particularly confident, you might go for it.

Now researchers have begun to understand how the mammalian (including us homo sapiens) brain encodes social rank and uses this information to shape behaviors—such as whether to fight for that last pizza slice. In mice engaged in a competition, the team discovered, patterns of brain activity differ depending on the social rank of the opposing animal. Moreover, the scientists could use brain readouts to accurately predict which animal would win a food reward—the victor was not always the more socially dominant animal, but the one more engaged in a “winning mindset.” The findings are in Nature.

What the researchers say: “Most social species organize themselves into hierarchies that guide each individual’s behavior,” said the senior researcher. “Understanding how the brain mediates this may help us understand the interplay between social rank, isolation, and psychiatric diseases, such as depression, anxiety, or even substance abuse.”

Researchers already knew that an area of the brain called the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) was responsible for representing social rank in mammals; alterations to a mouse’s mPFC change an animal’s dominance behavior. But it was unknown how the mPFC represented this information and which neurons (if any) were involved in altering dominance behavior.

In the new study, the team let groups of four mice share a cage, allowing a social hierarchy to naturally develop—some animals became more dominant and others more subordinate. Then, the researchers selected pairs of cohabitating mice to compete for food rewards in a “round robin” tournament style structure.

To capture the brain activity of the animals, as well as slight, difficult to measure differences in their behavior as they competed, the researchers spearheaded several new technologies. They used new wireless devices to record brain activity in free-roaming animals and developed a multi-animal artificial intelligence tracking tool to follow the movements of the mice over time, even when two animals looked identical. Finally, they turned to new modeling approaches to analyze the data.

As soon as the mice were paired up, the scientists discovered, the activity of neurons in their mPFC could predict—with 90 percent certainty—the rank of their opponent.  

“We expected that the animals might only signal rank when they heard a beep to start the competition,” said the study’s co-first author. “But it turns out that animals are walking around with this representation of social rank in their brain all the time.”

When the researchers next asked whether the activity of the mPFC neurons was associated with behavior, they found something surprising. The brain activity patterns were linked with slight changes in behavior, such as how fast a mouse moved, and they also could predict—a full 30 seconds before the competition started—which mouse would win the food reward.

While the more dominant mouse was usually predicted to win, sometimes the model accurately predicted that the subordinate animal would win. The model, the team says, was capturing competitive success, or what some people might call a “winning mindset.”

Just as you might sometimes be in a more competitive mood and be more likely to snatch that pizza slice before your boss, a subordinate mouse might be in a more “winning mindset” than a more dominant animal and end up winning.

The areas of the mPFC associated with social rank and competitive success are adjacent to one another, the researchers discovered, and highly connected. Signals on social rank, they say, impact the state of the brain involved in competitive success. In other words, a subordinate animal’s confidence and “winning mindset” may partially diminish when faced with the alpha mouse.

“This is the first time we’ve been able to capture these internal states that connect social rank to behavior,” the researchers noted. “At any timepoint, we could predict an animal’s next move from brain activity using these internal states.”

The researchers also showed that changes in brain activity occurred when the animals were in competition versus when they were collecting rewards alone. However, social rank of the animals’ living group could still be decoded from the brain activity even when animals were alone.

“This is all further evidence to suggest that we are in different brain states when we are with others compared to when we’re alone,” concluded the researchers. “Regardless of who you’re with, if you’re aware of other people around you, your brain is using different neurons.”

So, what? The role of dominance in mice and humans will not be that different because brain functionality and structure are similar in both species.

If we combine this study with other recent research, we can see a clear picture emerging. Dominance and hierarchy—especially social hierarchy as opposed to the artificial hierarchy imposed at work—is common to all mammals and will influence behavior. Normally, the more socially dominant animals—mice or human—will win out in competition. Generally, it’s safer for less dominant individuals to “let the Wookie win.”

But if the less dominant human or other mammal has sufficient social support—praise and encouragement in human terms—that individual can develop the “winning mindset,” which will, in certain situations, allow them to overcome their lack of social dominance.

What’s becoming clear from a series of studies since 2015 is that social dominance is largely genetic in origin. It could be that the less dominant individual with the “winning mindset” has subconsciously discovered a behavioral or other trigger to alter the expression of their own or the dominant animal’s dominance-deciding genes.

With humans that trigger seems to be specific kinds of praise and acknowledgement given to the less dominant (“the poorer performers” in corporate speak). The trigger for change for us, as opposed to mice—perhaps—is external (because of our very high need for social support).

Without that trigger, genetics will determine that the poorer performers will always be poor performers and the high achievers always high achievers. Praise helps superior performers to maintain their position, but not improve it. But poorer performers can greatly benefit from it in terms of their performance.

In other words, you inherit dominance but you can be given a “winning mindset.”