scholarly journals Stakes and expertise modulate conformity in economic choice

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jordanne Greenberg ◽  
Mimi Liljeholm
Keyword(s):  
Positive Affect ◽  
Group Size ◽  
Group Membership ◽  
Minority Group ◽  
Monetary Reward ◽  
Gambling Task ◽  
Majority Opinion ◽  
Economic Choice

AbstractThe influences of expertise and group size on an individual’s tendency to align with a majority opinion have been attributed to informational and normative conformity, respectively: Whereas the former refers to the treatment of others’ decisions as proxies for outcomes, the latter involves positive affect elicited by group membership. In this study, using a social gambling task, we pitted alignment with a high- vs. low-expertise majority against a hypothetical monetary reward, thus relating conformity to a broader literature on valuation and choice, and probed the countering influence of a high-expertise minority opinion. We found that the expertise of a countering minority group significantly modulated alignment with a low-expertise majority, but only if such alignment did not come at a cost. Conversely, participants’ knowledge of payoff probabilities predicted the degree of majority alignment only when a high-expertise majority endorsed a more costly option. Implications for the relative influences of expertise and stakes on conformity are discussed.

Shoaling decisions in female swordtails: how do fish gauge group size?

Behaviour ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 144 (11) ◽  
pp. 1333-1346 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bob Wong ◽  
Gil Rosenthal ◽  
Jessica Buckingham
Keyword(s):  
Gauge Group ◽  
Group Size ◽  
Group Membership ◽  
Size Ratio ◽  
Numerical Comparison ◽  
Weber’S Law ◽  
Significant Preference ◽  
Xiphophorus Helleri ◽  
Weber's Law ◽  
Numerical Comparisons

AbstractLittle is known about the mechanisms individuals might use to compare group sizes when making decisions about group membership. One possibility is that animals use ratio to determine differences in group sizes. Weber's Law states that the ease of any numerical comparison is based on the ratio between the stimuli compared; as the ratio becomes smaller the comparison becomes more difficult. We set out to test this prediction by offering female green swordtails, Xiphophorus helleri, dichotomous choices between different shoal sizes, varying both in ratios and absolute numbers of fish. Swordtails attended to the ratio of group size between stimulus shoals, rather than the numerical difference between shoals, when making shoaling decisions. Where group size ratio was 2:1, subjects showed a significant preference for the larger shoal, independent of the numerical difference between the shoals. When the ratio was 1.5:1, subjects showed no preference. The ratio between group sizes may, thus, be an important factor in shoaling decisions. More broadly, ratio could prove to be a widespread mechanism for animals to make numerical comparisons in group assessments.

Being the minority hurts or helps? A moderated mediation model of group membership, cross-cultural acceptance, and school adjustment

2020 ◽  
pp. 136843022095213
Author(s):  
Kathy Kar-man Shum ◽  
Winnie Wai Lan Chan ◽  
Emily Wing See Tsoi ◽  
Shui-fong Lam
Keyword(s):  
School Engagement ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
Group Membership ◽  
Minority Group ◽  
School Adjustment ◽  
Moderated Mediation ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Mediation Model ◽  
Mediation Analyses ◽  
Moderated Mediation Model

This study examined the relations between majority/minority group membership and cross-cultural acceptance, and their linkage to school adjustment. A total of 2,016 students (ethnic minority [EM]: 51%; boys: 50%) at Grades 2, 5, 8, and 11 from 15 schools in Hong Kong participated in the study. These schools were either of low (below 30%) or high EM concentrations (over 70%). EM students at low-EM-concentration schools and Chinese students at high-EM-concentration schools both belonged to the minority groups in their respective schools. Moderated mediation analyses showed that being the numerical minority in school predicted higher school engagement and more positive affect. The associations between numerical group membership and adjustment outcomes were each mediated by the intention to accept outgroup members. In other words, higher cross-cultural acceptance was found among students who were themselves the minority in school, and stronger outgroup acceptance, in turn, predicted better adjustment.

scholarly journals Multi-generational persistence of traditions in neighbouring meerkat groups

2010 ◽  
Vol 277 (1700) ◽  
pp. 3623-3629 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Thornton ◽  
Jamie Samson ◽  
Tim Clutton-Brock
Keyword(s):  
Gene Flow ◽  
Genetic Differentiation ◽  
Group Size ◽  
Food Availability ◽  
Group Membership ◽  
Compelling Evidence ◽  
Suricata Suricatta ◽  
Environmental Causes

Reports of socially transmitted traditions based on behavioural differences between geographically separated groups of conspecifics are contentious because they cannot exclude genetic or environmental causes. Here, we report persistent differences between neighbouring groups of meerkats ( Suricata suricatta ) where extensive gene flow precludes genetic differentiation. Over 11 years, some groups consistently emerged later from their sleeping burrows in the morning than others, despite complete turnovers in group membership and the influx of immigrants. Group territories overlapped and, in many cases, the same sleeping burrows were used by different groups. Differences persisted even after accounting for effects of group size, weather and burrow characteristics, and were unrelated to food availability within territories. These results provide compelling evidence that the emergence times of meerkat groups represent conservative traditions.

Who Controls Criminal Law? Racial Threat and the Adoption of State Sentencing Law, 1975 to 2012

2020 ◽  
pp. 000312242096764
Author(s):  
Scott W. Duxbury
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Racial Differences ◽  
Group Size ◽  
Criminal Law ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
Minority Group ◽  
Public Support ◽  
State Level ◽  
Policy Support ◽  
Sentencing Policy

Threat theory argues that states toughen criminal laws to repress the competitive power of large minority groups. Yet, research on threat suffers from a poor understanding of why minority group size contributes to social control and a lack of evidence on whether criminal law is uniquely responsive to the political interests of majority racial groups at all. By compiling a unique state-level dataset on 230 sentencing policy changes during mass incarceration and using data from 257,362 responses to 79 national surveys to construct new state-level measures of racial differences in punitive policy support, I evaluate whether criminal sentencing law is uniquely responsive to white public policy interests. Pooled event history models and mediation analyses support three primary conclusions: (1) states adopted new sentencing policies as a nonlinear response to minority group size, (2) sentencing policies were adopted in response to white public, but not black public, support for punitive crime policy, and (3) minority group size and race-specific homicide victimization both indirectly affect sentencing policy by increasing white public punitive policy support. These findings support key theoretical propositions for the threat explanation of legal change and identify white public policy opinion as a mechanism linking minority group size to variation in criminal law.

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