scholarly journals Is it costly to deceive? People are adept at detecting gossipers' lies but may not reward honesty

2021 ◽  
Vol 376 (1838) ◽  
Author(s):  
Miguel A. Fonseca ◽  
Kim Peters
Keyword(s):  
Laboratory Study ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Game Studies ◽  
Trust Game ◽  
Potential Utility ◽  
Theme Issue ◽  
Honest Signalling ◽  
Strategy Method ◽  
Social Sanctions ◽  
Shed Light

The possibility that gossipers may share dishonest reputational information is a key challenge to claims that gossip can shore up cooperation in social groups. It has been suggested that imposing social costs on dishonest gossipers should increase the honesty of these reputational signals. However, at present, there is little evidence of people's willingness to impose costs on dishonest gossipers; there is also little evidence of their ability to detect gossipers' lies in the first place. This paper aims to shed light on people's abilities to detect dishonest gossip and their treatment of those who share it. To do this, we report the results of two trust game studies using the strategy method (study 1) and repeated interactions in the laboratory (study 2). We show that in an environment where gossipers tell spontaneous lies people are more inclined to believe honest than dishonest gossip. We also show that people are more likely to treat favourably gossipers they believe to be honest, but that this does not always result in more favourable treatment for gossipers who were actually honest. We discuss the implications for the potential utility of social sanctions as a tool for securing honesty. This article is part of the theme issue ‘The language of cooperation: reputation and honest signalling’.

What challenges and opportunities will lead to success?

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 631-634 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jorge Costa ◽  
Mónica Montenegro ◽  
João Gomes
Keyword(s):  
International Economic ◽  
Developing Countries ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Theme Issue ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Income Sources ◽  
Tourist Flows ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Shed Light

Purpose This paper aims to introduce the papers in this issue and explain the pertinence of the strategic question. Design/methodology/approach A brief context for the strategic question is provided, as well as the issue alignment and a content analysis of the papers selected. Findings From the analysis of the papers selected for this theme issue, it becomes clear that tourism has become one of the major players in international economic, social and technological sectors, while representing one of the main income sources for developed and developing countries. Originality/value The papers selected for this issue shed light on an important problem: increasing tourist flows and overtourism at some world top destinations.

scholarly journals Honesty and dishonesty in gossip strategies: a fitness interdependence analysis

2021 ◽  
Vol 376 (1838) ◽  
Author(s):  
Junhui Wu ◽  
Szabolcs Számadó ◽  
Pat Barclay ◽  
Bianca Beersma ◽  
Terence D. Dores Cruz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Foundation ◽  
Perfect Match ◽  
Cost Benefit ◽  
Simple Rule ◽  
Formal Models ◽  
Partial Match ◽  
Theme Issue ◽  
Honest Signalling ◽  
Optimal Decisions ◽  
Conflicting Interests

Gossip, or sharing information about absent others, has been identified as an effective solution to free rider problems in situations with conflicting interests. Yet, the information transmitted via gossip can be biased, because gossipers may send dishonest information about others for personal gains. Such dishonest gossip makes reputation-based cooperation more difficult to evolve. But when are people likely to share honest or dishonest gossip? We build formal models to provide the theoretical foundation for individuals' gossip strategies, taking into account the gossiper's fitness interdependence with the receiver and the target. Our models across four different games suggest a very simple rule: when there is a perfect match (mismatch) between fitness interdependence and the effect of honest gossip, the gossiper should always be honest (dishonest); however, in the case of a partial match, the gossiper should make a choice based on their fitness interdependence with the receiver and the target and the marginal cost/benefit in terms of pay-off differences caused by possible choices of the receiver and the target in the game. Moreover, gossipers can use this simple rule to make optimal decisions even under noise. We discuss empirical examples that support the predictions of our model and potential extensions. This article is part of the theme issue ‘The language of cooperation: reputation and honest signalling’.

scholarly journals Innovation: an emerging focus from cells to societies

2017 ◽  
Vol 372 (1735) ◽  
pp. 20160414 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael E. Hochberg ◽  
Pablo A. Marquet ◽  
Robert Boyd ◽  
Andreas Wagner
Keyword(s):  
Technological Change ◽  
Health Sciences ◽  
Biological Information ◽  
Technological Evolution ◽  
Theme Issue ◽  
Evolutionary Processes ◽  
Ecological Functions ◽  
Environmental Interactions ◽  
Key Terms ◽  
Shed Light

Innovations are generally unexpected, often spectacular changes in phenotypes and ecological functions. The contributions to this theme issue are the latest conceptual, theoretical and experimental developments, addressing how ecology, environment, ontogeny and evolution are central to understanding the complexity of the processes underlying innovations. Here, we set the stage by introducing and defining key terms relating to innovation and discuss their relevance to biological, cultural and technological change. Discovering how the generation and transmission of novel biological information, environmental interactions and selective evolutionary processes contribute to innovation as an ecosystem will shed light on how the dominant features across life come to be, generalize to social, cultural and technological evolution, and have applications in the health sciences and sustainability. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Process and pattern in innovations from cells to societies’.

scholarly journals How does cognition shape social relationships?

2018 ◽  
Vol 373 (1756) ◽  
pp. 20170293 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudia A. F. Wascher ◽  
Ipek G. Kulahci ◽  
Ellis J. G. Langley ◽  
Rachael C. Shaw
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Social Relationships ◽  
Individual Variation ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Theme Issue ◽  
The Social ◽  
Evolutionary Consequences

The requirements of living in social groups, and forming and maintaining social relationships are hypothesized to be one of the major drivers behind the evolution of cognitive abilities. Most empirical studies investigating the relationships between sociality and cognition compare cognitive performance between species living in systems that differ in social complexity. In this review, we ask whether and how individuals benefit from cognitive skills in their social interactions. Cognitive abilities, such as perception, attention, learning, memory, and inhibitory control, aid in forming and maintaining social relationships. We investigate whether there is evidence that individual variation in these abilities influences individual variation in social relationships. We then consider the evolutionary consequences of the interaction between sociality and cognitive ability to address whether bi-directional relationships exist between the two, such that cognition can both shape and be shaped by social interactions and the social environment. In doing so, we suggest that social network analysis is emerging as a powerful tool that can be used to test for directional causal relationships between sociality and cognition. Overall, our review highlights the importance of investigating individual variation in cognition to understand how it shapes the patterns of social relationships. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Causes and consequences of individual differences in cognitive abilities’.

scholarly journals Stable distribution of reciprocity motives in a population

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeroen M. van Baar ◽  
Felix H. Klaassen ◽  
Filippo Ricci ◽  
Luke J. Chang ◽  
Alan G. Sanfey
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Stable Distribution ◽  
Subjective Experience ◽  
Social Preference ◽  
Game Studies ◽  
Trust Game ◽  
Social Motives ◽  
Psychological Mechanisms ◽  
Modeling Analysis ◽  
Relative Prevalence

Abstract Evolutionary models show that human cooperation can arise through direct reciprocity relationships. However, it remains unclear which psychological mechanisms proximally motivate individuals to reciprocate. Recent evidence suggests that the psychological motives for choosing to reciprocate trust differ between individuals, which raises the question whether these differences have a stable distribution in a population or are rather an artifact of the experimental task. Here, we combine data from three independent trust game studies to find that the relative prevalence of different reciprocity motives is highly stable across participant samples. Furthermore, the distribution of motives is relatively unaffected by changes to the salient features of the experimental paradigm. Finally, the motive classification assigned by our computational modeling analysis corresponds to the participants’ own subjective experience of their psychological decision process, and no existing models of social preference can account for the observed individual differences in reciprocity motives. These findings support the view that reciprocal decision-making is not just regulated by individual differences in 'pro-social’ versus ‘pro-self’ tendencies, but also by trait-like differences across several alternative pro-social motives, whose distribution in a population is stable.

scholarly journals Investigation of a bone lesion in a gorgonopsian (Synapsida) from the Permian of Zambia and periosteal reactions in fossil non-mammalian tetrapods

2020 ◽  
Vol 375 (1793) ◽  
pp. 20190144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kyle M. Kato ◽  
Elizabeth A. Rega ◽  
Christian A. Sidor ◽  
Adam K. Huttenlocker
Keyword(s):  
Bone Lesion ◽  
Late Permian ◽  
Theme Issue ◽  
Bone Apposition ◽  
Bone Response ◽  
Disease Entities ◽  
Functional Biology ◽  
Bone Deposition ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Bone Physiology

While only distantly related to mammals, the anatomy of Permian gorgonopsians has shed light on the functional biology of non-mammalian synapsids and on the origins of iconic ‘mammal-like’ anatomical traits. However, little is known of gorgonopsian behaviour or physiology, which would aid in reconstructing the paleobiological context in which familiar mammalian features arose. Using multi-modal imaging, we report a discrete osseous lesion in the forelimb of a late Permian-aged gorgonopsian synapsid, recording reactive periosteal bone deposition and providing insights into the origins and diversity of skeletal healing responses in premammalian synapsids. We suggest that the localized lesion on the anterolateral (preaxial) shaft of the left radius represents acute periostitis and, conservatively, most likely developed as a subperiosteal haematoma with subsequent bone deposition and limited internal remodelling. The site records an inner zone of reactive cortical bone forming irregular to radial bony spicules and an outer, denser zone of slowed subperiosteal bone apposition, all of which likely occurred within a single growing season. In surveys of modern reptiles—crocodylians, varanids—such haematomas are rare compared to other documented osteopathologies. The extent and rapidity of the healing response is reminiscent of mammalian and dinosaurian bone pathologies, and may indicate differing behaviour or bone physiology compared to non-dinosaurian reptiles. This report adds to a growing list of putative disease entities recognized in early synapsids and broadens comparative baselines for pathologies and the evolution of bone response to disease in mammalian forebears. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Vertebrate palaeophysiology’.

Occupational Engagement and Partisanship in the United States

2020 ◽  
pp. 147892992093212
Author(s):  
Darin DeWitt
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Influence ◽  
Party System ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
The United States ◽  
Power Elite ◽  
Occupational Engagement ◽  
Political Equality ◽  
American Power ◽  
Shed Light

In this article, I present a portrait of the American power elite and their relationship with the party system. I focus on occupational categories as institutional positions and take up three questions: Which occupational categories wield social influence? How politically mobilized is each of these occupational categories? And what partisan tilt is exhibited by each category? My results help clarify the contemporary structure of American electoral competition. Furthermore, they also shed light on which social groups have a voice in American politics and, thus, speak to questions of political equality.

The Autocrat’s Advisors: Opening the Black Box of Ruling Coalitions in Tunisia’s Authoritarian Regime

2017 ◽  
Vol 71 (2) ◽  
pp. 330-346 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matt Buehler ◽  
Mehdi Ayari
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Black Box ◽  
Authoritarian Regime ◽  
Insider Threats ◽  
National Archives ◽  
Dominant Parties ◽  
The Military ◽  
Shed Light

Why do autocrats retain some elites as core, long-term members of their ruling coalitions for years, while others are dismissed in months? How and why might the type of elites retained within coalitions vary across time and different autocrats? Although what constitutes an authoritarian regime’s ruling coalition varies across countries, often including the military and dominant parties, this article focuses on one critical subcomponent of it—an autocrat’s cabinet and his elite advisors within it, his ministers. Because coalitions function opaquely to prevent coups, scholars consider their inner-workings a black box. We shed light through an original, exhaustive dataset from the Middle East of all 212 ministers who advised Tunisian autocrats from independence until regime collapse (1956–2011). Extracting data from Arabic sources in Tunisian national archives, we track variation in minister retention to identify which elites autocrats made core, long-term advisors within ruling coalitions. Whereas Tunisia’s first autocrat retained elites as ministers due to biographical similarities, capacity to represent influential social groups, and competence, its second autocrat did not. He became more likely to dismiss types of elites retained under the first autocrat, purging his coalition of ministers perceived to be potential insider-threats due to their favored status under his predecessor.

scholarly journals Networks of reliable reputations and cooperation: a review

2021 ◽  
Vol 376 (1838) ◽  
Author(s):  
Károly Takács ◽  
Jörg Gross ◽  
Martina Testori ◽  
Srebrenka Letina ◽  
Adam R. Kenny ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Identity Formation ◽  
Information Exchange ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Field Studies ◽  
Theme Issue ◽  
Honest Signalling ◽  
Open Questions ◽  
Shared Information ◽  
Network Topologies

Reputation has been shown to provide an informal solution to the problem of cooperation in human societies. After reviewing models that connect reputations and cooperation, we address how reputation results from information exchange embedded in a social network that changes endogenously itself. Theoretical studies highlight that network topologies have different effects on the extent of cooperation, since they can foster or hinder the flow of reputational information. Subsequently, we review models and empirical studies that intend to grasp the coevolution of reputations, cooperation and social networks. We identify open questions in the literature concerning how networks affect the accuracy of reputations, the honesty of shared information and the spread of reputational information. Certain network topologies may facilitate biased beliefs and intergroup competition or in-group identity formation that could lead to high cooperation within but conflicts between different subgroups of a network. Our review covers theoretical, experimental and field studies across various disciplines that target these questions and could explain how the dynamics of interactions and reputations help or prevent the establishment and sustainability of cooperation in small- and large-scale societies. This article is part of the theme issue ‘The language of cooperation: reputation and honest signalling’.

scholarly journals Gossip and competitive altruism support cooperation in a Public Good game

2021 ◽  
Vol 376 (1838) ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesca Giardini ◽  
Daniele Vilone ◽  
Angel Sánchez ◽  
Alberto Antonioni
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Study ◽  
Partner Choice ◽  
Public Good Game ◽  
Theme Issue ◽  
Honest Signalling ◽  
Public Goods Games ◽  
Group Competition ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
Competitive Altruism

When there is an opportunity to gain a positive reputation, individuals are more willing to sacrifice their immediate self-interest. Partner choice creates opportunities for competitive altruism, i.e. individuals compete to be regarded as more generous and to be chosen for future partnerships. Tests of the competitive altruism hypothesis have focused so far on reputation based on direct observation, whereas the role of gossip has not been theoretically and empirically addressed. Partner choice can create an incentive to cooperate and to send truthful messages, but it can also work in the opposite direction. In order to understand the consequences of partner choice on cooperation and gossip, we designed an experimental study in which participants played a sequence of Public Goods games and gossip rounds. In our two treatments, we observed that cooperation increased when there was an opportunity to be selected, but also that cooperators sent more honest messages than defectors, and that this strategy was prevalent in the treatment in which inter-group competition was implemented. We also found evidence that participants detached themselves from the information more often when lying. Taken together, our study fills a theoretical and empirical gap by showing that partner choice increases both cooperation and honesty of gossip. This article is part of the theme issue ‘The language of cooperation: reputation and honest signalling’.

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