Subjects

Thirty individuals (12 male) from the Princeton University community participated for monetary compensation (age: M = 23.0 years, SD = 4.2; education: M = 15.3 years, SD = 3.2; all right-handed). The sample size was determined a priori based on prior fMRI studies using naturalistic stimuli and employing analysis techniques identical to those in the current study (e.g., Andric et al., 2016; Chen et al., 2016, 2017; Hasson et al., 2004, 2008; Honey et al., 2012b; Lerner et al., 2011; Simony et al., 2016). Although the sample size varies across these studies, the average is about 15 subjects. Because we had two counterbalancing conditions (see below), we opted to run 15 subjects in each, for a total sample size of 30.

We only tested individuals who had not previously seen the movie used in this study. Informed consent was obtained from all subjects, and the study was approved by the Institutional Review Board at Princeton University.