We begin sketching a mental picture of characters as we watch the drama play out on the screen. This includes who the allies are, who the antagonists are, and what the tensions between them might be. How does the brain create this complex web of rivalries and friendships?
New research from Osaka University reveals that friendships are not as deeply etched in the brain’s activity as antagonistic, conflictual, or rivalrous relationships.
The findings, published in Communication Psychology suggest that narrative experiences help our brains create a multidimensional “social map” with rivalries as strong anchors.
Researchers asked students at 21 universities to watch six episodes from the TV drama SUITS. Participants were scanned with fMRI before and after watching the television drama SUITS. After rating each pair of characters, participants rated the strength of their relationship and whether they were friendly or hostile.
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The researchers used representational similarity to compare these ratings and brain activity patterns. Results were shocking: the antagonistic relationship was strongly represented in both left anterior supramarginal cortex and right prefrontal cortex medial. The same criteria did not have any significant effect on affiliations.
The human being must understand both the individual and their relationships.
In previous neuroscience studies, social networks were examined by counting the connections between people or mapping their positions in a group. Real relationships have a richer emotional content, ranging from friendship and trust to hostility and competition.
Conflict may be a prominent theme in this study. The neural signatures of rivalries are bolder, possibly because they demand more attention. They also influence how we read and interpret stories.
The brain regions that represent human antagonistic relationships
Photo: Tamami Nkano
Professor Tamami Nakano explains: When we visualize a character map of a play, we are not just looking at who’s close to us, but who has a conflict.
The brain reflects this natural understanding of social relationships.
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These results provide a deeper understanding of the way humans interpret stories, engage in entertainment and social cognition. These results provide some useful use cases for AI system that is being developed to determine human relationships. AI models may need to give priority to conflict if this is how our brains map conflicts on social networks.
Tension is the lifeblood of every drama. Rivalries drive plots, determine character development and engage viewers.
It is now confirmed that your brain will always point out these conflicts, as they’re much more deeply ingrained in our mind than friendships.
As Nakano et al. show, watching a drama is not about following the storyline. It’s also about creating a social map that unfolds in your mind. It is rivalries which are the bright stars on this map.
Journal Reference
- Chikazawa I., Ishibashi R. & Nakano T. Social maps are shaped by antagonism in the brain.
Commun Psychol 4, 100 (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s44271-026-00491-y
