scholarly journals Strategies for integrating disparate social information

2020 ◽  
Vol 287 (1939) ◽  
pp. 20202413
Author(s):  
Lucas Molleman ◽  
Alan N. Tump ◽  
Andrea Gradassi ◽  
Stefan Herzog ◽  
Bertrand Jayles ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Social Information ◽  
Social Environments ◽  
Animal Kingdom ◽  
Useful Knowledge ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Information Use ◽  
Filter Bubble ◽  
Information Combining ◽  
Simple Heuristics

Social information use is widespread in the animal kingdom, helping individuals rapidly acquire useful knowledge and adjust to novel circumstances. In humans, the highly interconnected world provides ample opportunities to benefit from social information but also requires navigating complex social environments with people holding disparate or conflicting views. It is, however, still largely unclear how people integrate information from multiple social sources that (dis)agree with them, and among each other. We address this issue in three steps. First, we present a judgement task in which participants could adjust their judgements after observing the judgements of three peers. We experimentally varied the distribution of this social information, systematically manipulating its variance (extent of agreement among peers) and its skewness (peer judgements clustering either near or far from the participant's judgement). As expected, higher variance among peers reduced their impact on behaviour. Importantly, observing a single peer confirming a participant's own judgement markedly decreased the influence of other—more distant—peers. Second, we develop a framework for modelling the cognitive processes underlying the integration of disparate social information, combining Bayesian updating with simple heuristics. Our model accurately accounts for observed adjustment strategies and reveals that people particularly heed social information that confirms personal judgements. Moreover, the model exposes strong inter-individual differences in strategy use. Third, using simulations, we explore the possible implications of the observed strategies for belief updating. These simulations show how confirmation-based weighting can hamper the influence of disparate social information, exacerbate filter bubble effects and deepen group polarization. Overall, our results clarify what aspects of the social environment are, and are not, conducive to changing people's minds.

scholarly journals Strategies for integrating disparate social information

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucas Molleman ◽  
Alan Novaes Tump ◽  
Andrea Gradassi ◽  
Stefan Michael Herzog ◽  
Bertrand Jayles ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Social Information ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Social Environments ◽  
Belief Updating ◽  
The Social ◽  
Adjustment Strategies ◽  
Filter Bubble ◽  
Information Combining ◽  
Simple Heuristics

**Note that the paper has been published on https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2020.2413.** Our increasingly interconnected world provides virtually unlimited opportunities to observe the behavior of others. This affords abundant useful information but also requires navigating complex social environments with people holding disparate or conflicting views. It is, however, still largely unclear how people integrate information from multiple social sources that (dis)agree with them, and among each other. We address this issue in three steps. First, we present a judgment task in which participants could adjust their judgments after observing the judgments of three peers. We experimentally varied the distribution of this social information, systematically manipulating its variance (extent of agreement among peers) and its skewness (peer judgments clustering either near or far from the participant’s). As expected, higher variance among peers reduced their impact on behavior. Importantly, observing a single peer confirming an individual’s judgment markedly decreased the influence of other—more distant—peers. Second, we develop a framework for modelling the cognitive processes underlying the integration of disparate social information, combining Bayesian updating with simple heuristics. Our model accurately accounts for observed adjustment strategies and reveals that people particularly heed social information that confirms personal judgments. Moreover, the model exposes strong inter-individual differences in strategy use. Third, using simulations, we explore the possible implications of identified strategies for belief updating more broadly. They show how confirmation effects can hamper the influence of disparate social information, exacerbate filter bubble effects and worsen group polarization. Overall, our results clarify what aspects of the social environment are, and are not, conducive to changing people’s minds.

scholarly journals Follow the leader? Orange-fronted conures eavesdrop on conspecific vocal performance and utilise it in social decisions

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (6) ◽  
pp. e0252374
Author(s):  
Heidi M. Thomsen ◽  
Thorsten J. S. Balsby ◽  
Torben Dabelsteen
Keyword(s):  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Social Information ◽  
Vocal Performance ◽  
Social Environments ◽  
Contact Call ◽  
Vocal Behaviour ◽  
Social Decisions ◽  
The Social ◽  
Parrot Species

Animals regularly use social information to make fitness-relevant decisions. Particularly in social interactions, social information can reduce uncertainty about the relative quality of conspecifics, thus optimising decisions on with whom and how to interact. One important resource for individuals living in social environments is the production of information by signalling conspecifics. Recent research has suggested that some species of parrots engage in affiliative contact call matching and that these interactions may be available to conspecific unintended receivers. However, it remains unclear what information third parties may gain from contact call matching and how it can be utilised during flock decisions. Here, using a combined choice and playback experiment, we investigated the flock fusion choices and vocal behaviour of a social parrot species, the orange-fronted conure (Eupsittula canicularis), to a contact call matching interaction between two individuals of different sexes and with different vocal roles. Our results revealed that orange-fronted conures chose to follow vocal leaders more often than vocal followers during fusions. Furthermore, flocks responded with higher call rates and matched the stimulus calls closer when subsequently choosing a vocal leader. Interestingly, orange-fronted conures also showed higher contact call rates and closer matches when choosing males over females. These results suggest that paying attention to conspecific contact call interactions can provide individuals with social information that can be utilised during fission and fusion events, significantly influencing the social dynamics of orange-fronted conures.

scholarly journals Individual differences in learning behaviours in humans: Asocial exploration tendency does not predict reliance on social learning

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wataru Toyokawa ◽  
Yoshimatsu Saito ◽  
Tatsuya Kameda
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Social Learning ◽  
Learning Strategies ◽  
Learning Strategy ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Social Information ◽  
Information Use ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Information Use ◽  
Exploration Exploitation

AbstractA number of empirical studies have suggested that individual differences in asocial exploration tendencies in animals may be related to those in social information use. However, because the ‘exploration tendency’ in most previous studies has been measured without considering the exploration-exploitation trade-off, it is yet hard to conclude that the animal asocial ‘exploration-exploitation’ tendency may be tied to social information use. Here, we studied human learning behaviour in both asocial and social multi-armed bandit tasks. By fitting reinforcement learning models including asocial and/or social decision processes, we measured each individual’s (1) asocial exploration tendency and (2) social information use. We found consistent individual differences in the exploration tendency in the asocial tasks. We also found substantive heterogeneity in the adopted learning strategies in the social task: One-third of participants were most likely to have used the copy-when-uncertain strategy, while the remaining two-thirds were most likely to have relied only on asocial learning. However, we found no significant individual association between the exploration frequency in the asocial task and the use of the social learning strategy in the social task. Our results suggest that the social learning strategies may be independent from the asocial search strategies in humans.

Vita Contemplativa

2004 ◽  
Vol 25 (7) ◽  
pp. 1233-1254 ◽  
Author(s):  
William H. Starbuck
Keyword(s):  
Computer Simulation ◽  
Mathematical Models ◽  
Behavioral Science ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Random Noise ◽  
Social Environments ◽  
Social Conventions ◽  
Useful Knowledge ◽  
The Social ◽  
Rational Thought

Years ago, I believed that rationality could manufacture understanding. I lived in physical and social environments that were real and I wanted to understand the social realities. I wanted to create a genuine ‘behavioral science’ based on mathematical models, computer simulation, and systematic experiments. Various experiences over the years have challenged these beliefs. I discovered that rationality can not only be a deceptive tool but a potentially dangerous one, and I learned a few techniques to help me challenge my rational thought. I discovered that research .ndings have very low reliabilities, that some .elds make no discernible progress over many decades, and that societal cultures strongly in.uence researchers’ judgments about what constitutes useful knowledge. I saw that much that passes for research is merely random noise dressed up in pretentious language. Rather than realities, the social systems I was studying proved to be arbitrary categories created by observers or social conventions. I became an advocate for research that actively attempts to change situations rather than merely to observe what happens spontaneously.

scholarly journals Social networks predict patch discovery in a wild population of songbirds

2012 ◽  
Vol 279 (1745) ◽  
pp. 4199-4205 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. M. Aplin ◽  
D. R. Farine ◽  
J. Morand-Ferron ◽  
B. C. Sheldon
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
Wild Population ◽  
Social Information ◽  
Social Connections ◽  
Novel Food ◽  
Network Position ◽  
Diffusion Analysis ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Information Use ◽  
Social Associations

Animals use social information in a wide variety of contexts. Its extensive use by individuals to locate food patches has been documented in a number of species, and various mechanisms of discovery have been identified. However, less is known about whether individuals differ in their access to, and use of, social information to find food. We measured the social network of a wild population of three sympatric tit species (family Paridae) and then recorded individual discovery of novel food patches. By using recently developed methods for network-based diffusion analysis, we show that order of arrival at new food patches was predicted by social associations. Models based only on group searching did not explain this relationship. Furthermore, network position was correlated with likelihood of patch discovery, with central individuals more likely to locate and use novel foraging patches than those with limited social connections. These results demonstrate the utility of social network analysis as a method to investigate social information use, and suggest that the greater probability of receiving social information about new foraging patches confers a benefit on more socially connected individuals.

scholarly journals Social networks and the development of social skills in cowbirds

2012 ◽  
Vol 367 (1597) ◽  
pp. 1892-1900 ◽  
Author(s):  
David J. White ◽  
Andrew S. Gersick ◽  
Noah Snyder-Mackler
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Skills ◽  
Reproductive Success ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Social Complexity ◽  
Molothrus Ater ◽  
Dynamic Structure ◽  
Social Environments ◽  
Group Interactions ◽  
The Social

The complex interrelationships among individuals within social environments can exert selection pressures on social skills: those behaviours and cognitive processes that allow animals to manipulate and out-reproduce others. Social complexity can also have a developmental effect on social skills by providing individuals with opportunities to hone their skills by dealing with the challenges posed in within-group interactions. We examined how social skills develop in captive, adult male brown-headed cowbirds ( Molothrus ater ) that were exposed to differing levels of ‘social complexity’ across a 2-year experiment. After each year, subjects housed in groups with dynamic social structure (where many individuals entered and exited the groups during the year) outcompeted birds who had been housed in static groups. Exposure to dynamic structure subsequently led to substantial changes to the social networks of the home conditions during the breeding season. Static groups were characterized by a predictable relationship between singing and reproductive success that was stable across years. In dynamic conditions, however, males showed significant variability in their dominance status, their courting and even in their mating success. Reproductive success of males varied dramatically across years and was responsive to social learning in adulthood, and socially dynamic environments ‘trained’ individuals to be better competitors, even at an age when the development of many traits important for breeding (like song quality) had ended.

scholarly journals Sex differences in the use of social information emerge under conditions of risk

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte Olivia Brand ◽  
Gillian R Brown ◽  
Catharine P Cross
Keyword(s):  
Sex Differences ◽  
Risk Aversion ◽  
Sex Difference ◽  
Social Information ◽  
Theoretical Work ◽  
Risk Tolerance ◽  
Similar Degree ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Information Use

Social learning provides an effective route to gaining up-to-date information, particularly when information is costly to obtain asocially. Theoretical work predicts that the willingness to switch between using asocial and social sources of information will vary between individuals according to their risk tolerance. We tested the prediction that, where there are sex differences in risk tolerance, altering the variance of the payoffs of using asocial and social information differentially influences the probability of social information use by sex. In a computer-based task that involved building a virtual spaceship, men and women (N=88) were given the option of using either asocial or social sources of information to improve their performance. When the asocial option was risky (i.e., the participant’s score could markedly increase or decrease) and the social option was safe (i.e., their score could slightly increase or remain the same), women, but not men, were more likely to use the social option than the asocial option. In all other conditions, both women and men preferentially used the asocial option to a similar degree. We therefore found both a sex difference in risk aversion and a sex difference in the preference for social information when relying on asocial information was risky, consistent with the hypothesis that levels of risk-aversion influence the use of social information.

scholarly journals Sex differences in the use of social information emerge under conditions of risk

PeerJ ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. e4190 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte O. Brand ◽  
Gillian R. Brown ◽  
Catharine P. Cross
Keyword(s):  
Sex Differences ◽  
Risk Aversion ◽  
Sex Difference ◽  
Social Information ◽  
Theoretical Work ◽  
Risk Tolerance ◽  
Similar Degree ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Information Use

Social learning provides an effective route to gaining up-to-date information, particularly when information is costly to obtain asocially. Theoretical work predicts that the willingness to switch between using asocial and social sources of information will vary between individuals according to their risk tolerance. We tested the prediction that, where there are sex differences in risk tolerance, altering the variance of the payoffs of using asocial and social information differentially influences the probability of social information use by sex. In a computer-based task that involved building a virtual spaceship, men and women (N = 88) were given the option of using either asocial or social sources of information to improve their performance. When the asocial option was risky (i.e., the participant’s score could markedly increase or decrease) and the social option was safe (i.e., their score could slightly increase or remain the same), women, but not men, were more likely to use the social option than the asocial option. In all other conditions, both women and men preferentially used the asocial option to a similar degree. We therefore found both a sex difference in risk aversion and a sex difference in the preference for social information when relying on asocial information was risky, consistent with the hypothesis that levels of risk-aversion influence the use of social information.

scholarly journals A social insect perspective on the evolution of social learning mechanisms

2017 ◽  
Vol 114 (30) ◽  
pp. 7838-7845 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellouise Leadbeater ◽  
Erika H. Dawson
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Social Learning ◽  
Social Insects ◽  
Social Information ◽  
Information Use ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Learning Mechanisms ◽  
Animal Kingdom ◽  
Social Information Use ◽  
Context Specific

The social world offers a wealth of opportunities to learn from others, and across the animal kingdom individuals capitalize on those opportunities. Here, we explore the role of natural selection in shaping the processes that underlie social information use, using a suite of experiments on social insects as case studies. We illustrate how an associative framework can encompass complex, context-specific social learning in the insect world and beyond, and based on the hypothesis that evolution acts to modify the associative process, suggest potential pathways by which social information use could evolve to become more efficient and effective. Social insects are distant relatives of vertebrate social learners, but the research we describe highlights routes by which natural selection could coopt similar cognitive raw material across the animal kingdom.

scholarly journals Tutors do not facilitate rapid resource exploitation in temporary tadpole aggregations

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zoltán Tóth ◽  
Boglárka Jaloveczki
Keyword(s):  
Rana Temporaria ◽  
Social Information ◽  
Information Use ◽  
Food Type ◽  
Food Patch ◽  
Resource Exploitation ◽  
Social Effect ◽  
Animal Kingdom ◽  
Social Information Use ◽  
The Difference

The utilization of social cues is usually considered an important adaptation to living in social groups, but recent evidence suggests that social information use may be more prevalent in the animal kingdom than previously thought. However, it is debated whether such information can efficiently diffuse in temporary aggregations of non-grouping individuals where social cohesion does not facilitate information transmission. Here, we provide experimental evidence that a simple social cue, the movement of conspecifics in a structured environment affected individuals' spatial decisions in common frog ( Rana temporaria ) tadpoles and thereby facilitated the discovery rate of a novel food patch. However, this was true only in those tadpole collectives that consisted solely of untutored individuals. In those collectives where tutors with prior experience with the presented food type were also present, this social effect was negligible most probably due to the difference in activity between naive and tutor individuals. We also showed that the proportion of tadpoles that discovered the food patch was higher in the control than in the tutored collectives, while the proportion of feeding tadpoles was only marginally higher in the latter collectives. Our findings indicate that social information use can influence resource acquisition in temporary aggregations of non-grouping animals, but individual differences in satiety may hinder effective information spread associated with exploitable food patches.

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