scholarly journals Social group membership does not modulate automatic imitation in a contrastive multi-agent paradigm

2021 ◽  
pp. 174702182098652
Author(s):  
Laura De Souter ◽  
Senne Braem ◽  
Oliver Genschow ◽  
Marcel Brass ◽  
Emiel Cracco
Keyword(s):  
Social Group ◽  
Group Membership ◽  
Automatic Imitation ◽  
General Hypothesis ◽  
Multi Agent ◽  
Group Members

A key prediction of motivational theories of automatic imitation is that people imitate in-group over out-group members. However, research on this topic has provided mixed results. Here, we investigate the possibility that social group modulations emerge only when people can directly compare in- and out-group. To this end, we conducted three experiments in which we measured automatic imitation of two simultaneously shown hands: one in-group and one out-group hand. Our general hypothesis was that the in-group hand would be imitated more than the out-group hand. However, even though both explicit and implicit manipulation checks showed that we succeeded in manipulating participants’ feelings of group membership, we did not find support for the predicted influence of group membership on automatic imitation. In contrast to motivational theories, this suggests that group membership does not influence who we do or do not imitate, not even in a contrastive multi-agent paradigm.

scholarly journals Social group membership does not modulate automatic imitation in a contrastive multi-agent paradigm

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura De Souter ◽  
Senne Braem ◽  
Oliver Genschow ◽  
Marcel Brass ◽  
Emiel Cracco
Keyword(s):  
Social Group ◽  
Group Membership ◽  
Automatic Imitation ◽  
General Hypothesis ◽  
Multi Agent ◽  
Group Members

A key prediction of motivational theories of automatic imitation is that people imitate in-group over out-group members. However, research on this topic has provided mixed results. Here, we investigate the possibility that social group modulations emerge only when people can directly compare in- and out-group. To this end, we conducted three experiments in which we measured automatic imitation of two simultaneously shown hands: one in-group and one out-group hand. Our general hypothesis was that the in-group hand would be imitated more than the out-group hand. However, even though both explicit and implicit manipulation checks showed that we succeeded in manipulating participants’ feelings of group membership, we did not find support for the predicted influence of group membership on automatic imitation. In contrast to motivational theories, this suggests that group membership does not influence who we do or do not imitate, not even in a contrastive multi-agent paradigm.

scholarly journals Automatic imitation of in- and out-group members

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oliver Genschow ◽  
Mareike Westfal ◽  
Emiel Cracco ◽  
Jan Crusius
Keyword(s):  
Group Membership ◽  
Critical Test ◽  
Automatic Imitation ◽  
Total N ◽  
Empirical Basis ◽  
Current Discussion ◽  
Imitation Inhibition ◽  
Group Members

Individuals have the automatic tendency to imitate each other. A key prediction of motivational theories explaining automatic imitation is that individuals imitate in-group members more strongly than out-group members. However, the empirical basis for this prediction is rather inconclusive. Only few experiments have investigated the influence of group membership using classic automatic imitation paradigms and these experiments led to mixed results. To put the group membership prediction to a critical test, we carried out six high-powered experiments (total N = 1,538) in which we assessed imitation with the imitation-inhibition task and manipulated group membership in different ways. Evidence across all experiments indicates that group- membership does not modulate automatic imitation. These results have important implications for motivational theories explaining automatic imitation and contribute to the current discussion of whether automatic imitation can be socially modulated.

scholarly journals Group membership does not modulate automatic imitation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oliver Genschow ◽  
Mareike Westfal ◽  
Emiel Cracco ◽  
Jan Crusius
Keyword(s):  
Group Membership ◽  
Perceived Similarity ◽  
Critical Test ◽  
Automatic Imitation ◽  
Empirical Basis ◽  
Current Discussion ◽  
Imitation Inhibition ◽  
Group Members

AbstractIndividuals have the automatic tendency to imitate each other. A key prediction of different theories explaining automatic imitation is that individuals imitate in-group members more strongly than out-group members. However, the empirical basis for this prediction is rather inconclusive. Only a few experiments have investigated the influence of group membership using classic automatic imitation paradigms and these experiments led to mixed results. To put the group membership prediction to a critical test, we carried out six high-powered experiments (total N = 1538) in which we assessed imitation with the imitation-inhibition task and manipulated group membership in different ways. Evidence across all experiments indicates that group membership does not modulate automatic imitation. Moreover, we do not find support for the idea that feelings of affiliation or perceived similarity moderate the effect of group membership on automatic imitation. These results have important implications for theories explaining automatic imitation and contribute to the current discussion of whether automatic imitation can be socially modulated.

scholarly journals Is a PD game still a dilemma for Japanese rural villagers? A field and laboratory comparison of the impact of social group membership on cooperation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yohei Mitani
Keyword(s):  
Social Group ◽  
Prisoner's Dilemma ◽  
Field Experiments ◽  
Group Membership ◽  
Prisoner’S Dilemma ◽  
Economic Life ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Prisoner’S Dilemma Game ◽  
Prisoner's Dilemma Game ◽  
The Impact

AbstractLocal norms and shared beliefs in cohesive social groups regulate individual behavior in everyday economic life. I use a door-to-door field experiment where a hundred and twenty villagers recruited from twenty-three communities in a Japanese rural mountainous village play a simultaneous prisoner’s dilemma game. To examine whether a set of experiences shared through interactions among community members affect experimental behavior, I compare villagers’ behavior under in-community and out-community random matching protocols. I also report a counterpart laboratory experiment with seventy-two university student subjects to address the external validity of laboratory experiments. The findings are three-fold. First, almost full cooperation is achieved when villagers play a prisoner’s dilemma game with their anonymous community members. Second, cooperation is significantly higher within the in-group compared to the out-group treatment in both the laboratory and field experiments. Third, although a significant treatment effect of social group membership is preserved, a big difference in the average cooperation rates is observed between the laboratory and field.

Copy the In-group: Group Membership Trumps Perceived Reliability, Warmth, and Competence in a Social-Learning Task

2021 ◽  
pp. 095679762110322
Author(s):  
Marcel Montrey ◽  
Thomas R. Shultz
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Learning Strategy ◽  
Group Membership ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Learning Task ◽  
Minimal Group Paradigm ◽  
Learning Game ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Cumulative Cultural Evolution

Surprisingly little is known about how social groups influence social learning. Although several studies have shown that people prefer to copy in-group members, these studies have failed to resolve whether group membership genuinely affects who is copied or whether group membership merely correlates with other known factors, such as similarity and familiarity. Using the minimal-group paradigm, we disentangled these effects in an online social-learning game. In a sample of 540 adults, we found a robust in-group-copying bias that (a) was bolstered by a preference for observing in-group members; (b) overrode perceived reliability, warmth, and competence; (c) grew stronger when social information was scarce; and (d) even caused cultural divergence between intermixed groups. These results suggest that people genuinely employ a copy-the-in-group social-learning strategy, which could help explain how inefficient behaviors spread through social learning and how humans maintain the cultural diversity needed for cumulative cultural evolution.

scholarly journals Speech Genre: A Study of Gossip in Australian English Speaking Context

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 263-271
Author(s):  
Nurhadi Hamka
Keyword(s):  
Social Group ◽  
Group Membership ◽  
Social Situations ◽  
Generic Structure ◽  
The Social ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Speech Genre ◽  
Australian English ◽  
Diverse Context

A gossip as a casual conversation usually occurs in diverse context or a wide range of social situations; has distinct and various topics; and involve an irregular set of participants. The scholars scrutinize that conversation has highly structured activity of which people tacitly realize that there are some basic conventions to follow – such as when to speak or to stay silent and to listen. In this study, I specifically discuss one of the speech genre – a gossip, in Australia English speaking context. The gossip data of the study is taken from the research conducted by Thornburry, Scott, and Slade, Diana (2006). In a discussion, I focus the analysis of the generic structure of the gossip and how it establishes the social function (within) the speech members. Several findings conveyed that: 1) there is a leeway of shifting from one genre to another – e.g. narrative to gossip, within the same participants; 2) conversation can be successful if all the participants aware of and follow the basic conventions – when to talk or to listen, support to judgement or reluctant to the focus of conversation; 3) the genre, e.g. narrative or gossip, could motivate people to leave or to join the conversation which then could establish and reinforce the group membership and maintain the values of the social group.

scholarly journals Preference for hierarchy is associated with reduced empathy and increased counter-empathy towards others, especially out-group targets

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sa-kiera Tiarra Jolynn Hudson ◽  
Mina Cikara ◽  
Jim Sidanius
Keyword(s):  
Social Dominance ◽  
Group Membership ◽  
Social Dominance Orientation ◽  
Group Setting ◽  
Group Boundaries ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Prejudicial Attitudes ◽  
Status Differences

The capacity to empathize with others facilitates prosocial behavior. People’s willingness and capacity to empathize, however, is often contingent upon the target’s group membership – people are less empathic towards those they categorize as out-group members. In competitive or threatening intergroup contexts, people may even feel pleasure (counter-empathy) in response to out-group members’ misfortunes. Social dominance orientation (SDO), or the extent to which people prefer and promote group-based inequalities, is an ideological variable that is associated with a competitive view of the world, increased prejudicial attitudes, and decreased empathy. Thus, higher levels of SDO should be associated with reduced empathy and increased counter-empathy in general, but especially towards those whose subjugation maintains group inequalities. Across three studies we show that among White individuals, higher SDO levels are associated with less empathy, and more counter-empathy in response to others’ good and bad fortunes. More importantly, these reductions in empathy and increases in schadenfreude as a function of SDO were significantly stronger for Asian and Black targets than for in-group White targets when group boundaries were made salient prior to the empathy ratings. Finally, in a fourth study we show that this phenomenon is not dependent upon a history of status differences: higher SDO scores were associated with decreased empathy and increased counter-empathy for competitive out-group (relative to in-group) targets in a novel group setting. We discuss implications of these effects for hierarchy maintenance.

scholarly journals Nonverbal leadership emergence in walking groups

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Lombardi ◽  
William H. Warren ◽  
Mario di Bernardo
Keyword(s):  
A Priori ◽  
Team Sports ◽  
Personal Factors ◽  
Multi Agent Systems ◽  
Leadership Emergence ◽  
Emergency Evacuations ◽  
Multi Agent ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Walking Group ◽  
Specific Scenario

Abstract The mechanisms underlying the emergence of leadership in multi-agent systems are under investigation in many areas of research where group coordination is involved. Nonverbal leadership has been mostly investigated in the case of animal groups, and only a few works address the problem in human ensembles, e.g. pedestrian walking, group dance. In this paper we study the emergence of leadership in the specific scenario of a small walking group. Our aim is to propose a rigorous mathematical methodology capable of unveiling the mechanisms of leadership emergence in a human group when leader or follower roles are not designated a priori. Two groups of participants were asked to walk together and turn or change speed at self-selected times. Data were analysed using time-dependent cross correlation to infer leader-follower interactions between each pair of group members. The results indicate that leadership emergence is due both to contextual factors, such as an individual’s position in the group, and to personal factors, such as an individual’s characteristic locomotor behaviour. Our approach can easily be extended to larger groups and other scenarios such as team sports and emergency evacuations.

scholarly journals Watch me, watch you: ritual participation increases in-group displays and out-group monitoring in children

2020 ◽  
Vol 375 (1805) ◽  
pp. 20190437 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole J. Wen ◽  
Aiyana K. Willard ◽  
Michaela Caughy ◽  
Cristine H. Legare
Keyword(s):  
Social Group ◽  
Control Task ◽  
Theme Issue ◽  
Social Functions ◽  
Time Points ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Group Monitoring

Collective rituals serve social functions for the groups that perform them, including identifying group members and signalling group commitment. A novel social group paradigm was used in an afterschool programme ( N = 60 4–11-year-olds) to test the influence of participating in a ritual task on in-group displays and out-group monitoring over repeated exposures to the group. The results demonstrate that ritual participation increases in-group displays (i.e. time spent displaying materials to in-group members) and out-group monitoring (i.e. time spent looking at out-group members) compared with a control task across three time points. This study provides evidence for the processes by which rituals may influence children's behaviours towards in- and out-group members and discusses implications for understanding the development of ritual cognition and behaviour. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Ritual renaissance: new insights into the most human of behaviours’.

The Effects of Speaker Group Membership and Stereotypes on Responses to Accumulated Underaccommodation

2019 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 514-522
Author(s):  
Jessica Gasiorek ◽  
Marko Dragojevic
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Young Adult ◽  
Older Adult ◽  
Social Group ◽  
Group Membership ◽  
Stereotype Content ◽  
Initial Task

This study explored the role of social group membership and stereotypes in evaluating accumulated underaccommodation (i.e., repeated, insufficiently adjusted communication). Participants ( N = 229) engaged in three tasks in which they received underaccommodative instructions from another individual, ostensibly a young adult or an older adult. Consistent with hypotheses, speakers’ social group membership predicted stereotype content (with older adults stereotyped as warmer and more competent); warmth (but not competence) stereotypes, in turn, predicted inferred motive (directly) and perceived accommodation (indirectly) for the initial task, which in turn predicted ratings for subsequent tasks. Group membership also affected overall speaker evaluations.

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