Leadership-driven persuasion: Neural network reorganization supports decision-preference updating and dyadic consensus formation

Persuasive communication is fundamental to information propagation and human social interaction. However, prior work has predominantly focused on immediate persuasive process, neglecting how decision-preferences updating following persuasion and its underlying neural reorganization. Using a naturalistic dyadic persuasion task and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) hyperscanning, we examined how distinct persuasion models—Role-Differentiated Leadership and Egalitarian-Reciprocity—shape decision-preference updating and group decision consensus at both behavioral and neural levels. Behaviorally, the Role-Differentiated Leadership model, rather than Egalitarian-reciprocity model, as the predominant form of persuasive communication, wherein persuadees significantly updated their decision-preferences while persuaders remained relatively stable. Intra-brain network revealed that persuadees exhibited pronounced reorganization in both global and nodal network metrics (including global efficiency, small-worldness, degree centrality, and nodal efficiency), particularly in the left temporo-parietal junction and frontoparietal regions. These neural changes predicted the magnitude of individual decision-preference updating. Furthermore, inter-brain network synchronization in fronto-temporo-parietal circuits such as rDLPFC-lSFG, lSTG-lDLPFC, and lITG-AG increased in post-ranking session compared to pre-ranking session and robustly predicted group decision consensus through support vector regression. Together, these findings provide converging neurobehavioral evidence that structured persuasive roles shape decision-preference updating through coordinated intra- and inter-brain network reorganizations, offering novel insights into how interpersonal persuasion operates in real-time social influence.