Neurobiological susceptibility to peer influence in adolescence

Peers have a profound impact on shaping adolescents’ attitudes and norms about the consequences of engaging in health risk behaviors. However, not all adolescents are equally susceptible to peer influence. Thus, a question that remains unanswered is whether there are potential biomarkers that index an individual’s level of susceptibility to peer environments. The present review considers emerging evidence on the construct of peer influence susceptibility and proposes neurobiological biomarkers that might render some adolescents more susceptible to peer influence than others. Using a differential susceptibility framework, this chapter discusses how individual variation in peer influence susceptibility interacts with different types of peer environments (e.g., risk-promoting versus risk-averse) to predict shifts in adolescent behavior. This perspective suggests that a heightened susceptibility to peer influence may not only increase maladaptive, antisocial behavior in negative peer environments, but may also promote adaptive, prosocial behavior in positive peer environments.