The Social Context of Political Change: Durability, Volatility, and Social Influence

This article translates several explanations for contextual effects upon politics into mathematical, dynamic representations. These representations are used to consider several questions. Under what circumstances does the social context lead to durability and volatility in mass political preferences? Do different specifications of contextual influence lead to different conclusions regarding its dynamic consequences? Does the social context have different dynamic implications for individual preference and for the aggregate preferences of the population as a whole? These questions are not addressed by gathering and analyzing data, but rather by examining the deductive consequences of the various explanations for contextual influence.

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Prosocial Influence and Opportunistic Conformity in Adolescents and Young Adults

Psychological Science ◽

10.1177/0956797620957625 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 31 (12) ◽

pp. 1585-1601 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Gabriele Chierchia ◽

Blanca Piera Pi-Sunyer ◽

Sarah-Jayne Blakemore

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Young Adults ◽

Social Context ◽

Social Influence ◽

Social Decision ◽

Charitable Donations ◽

The Social ◽

Social Decision Making ◽

Age Range ◽

Value Of Money

Adolescence is associated with heightened social influence, especially from peers. This can lead to detrimental decision-making in domains such as risky behavior but may also raise opportunities for prosocial behavior. We used an incentivized charitable-donations task to investigate how people revise decisions after learning about the donations of others and how this is affected by age ( N = 220; age range = 11–35 years). Our results showed that the probability of social influence decreased with age within this age range. In addition, whereas previous research has suggested that adults are more likely to conform to the behavior of selfish others than to the behavior of prosocial others, here we observed no evidence of such an asymmetry in midadolescents. We discuss possible interpretations of these findings in relation to the social context of the task, the perceived value of money, and social decision-making across development.

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Networks in Context: The Social Flow of Political Information

American Political Science Review ◽

10.2307/1962585 ◽

1987 ◽

Vol 81 (4) ◽

pp. 1197-1216 ◽

Cited By ~ 279

Author(s):

Robert Huckfeldt ◽

John Sprague

Keyword(s):

Social Context ◽

Data Base ◽

Political Information ◽

Social Transmission ◽

Individual Level ◽

Individual Control ◽

Political Preferences ◽

The Social ◽

Social Flow ◽

Informational Networks

We examine the effects of individual political preferences and the distribution of such preferences on the social transmission of political information. Our data base combines a 1984 election survey of citizens in South Bend, Indiana with a subsequent survey of people with whom these citizens discuss politics. Several findings emerge from the effort. First, individuals do purposefully construct informational networks corresponding to their own political preferences, and they also selectively misperceive socially supplied political information. More important, both of these individual-level processes are shown to be conditioned by constraints imposed due to the distribution of political preferences in the social context. Thus, individual control over socially supplied political information is partial and incomplete. Finally, these information-transmitting processes interact with the social context in a manner that favors partisan majorities while undermining political minorities.

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Algorithmic Logic in Digital Capitalism

10.16997/book55.l ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 203-222

Author(s):

Jernej A. Prodnik

Keyword(s):

Social Context ◽

Social Influence ◽

Social Consequences ◽

Capitalist Society ◽

Analytic Framework ◽

Social Form ◽

Digital Capitalism ◽

Key Characteristics ◽

The Social ◽

Algorithmic Logic

This chapter details the key characteristics of algorithmic systems in their current hegemonic social form, which helps to shed a light on the reasons for their increasing social influence. These characteristics include: opacity/obfuscation, datafication, automation, and instrumental rationalisation. Because technologies are inevitably embedded in – and influenced by – the social context in which they develop, the author’s analysis considers these systems as a part of competitive and inherently unstable capitalist society, or to put it more narrowly, as a part of digital capitalism. This provides a critical analytic framework that points to the fact there is nothing ‘natural’ in these characteristics of algorithmic systems, while making it possible to delineate both the structural reasons for their development and their social consequences. On this basis it is claimed we can denote a specific algorithmic logic in digital capitalism that continuously reinforces itself.

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On the effectiveness of multi-feature evacuation systems: an agent-based exploratory simulation study

PeerJ Computer Science ◽

10.7717/peerj-cs.531 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 7 ◽

pp. e531

Author(s):

Kashif Zia ◽

Umar Farooq ◽

Muhammad Shafi ◽

Alois Ferscha

Keyword(s):

Comparative Analysis ◽

Social Context ◽

Social Influence ◽

Evacuation Modeling ◽

Agent Based ◽

Unified Modeling ◽

Evacuation Strategy ◽

The Social ◽

Simulation Results ◽

Real Challenge

Evacuation modeling and simulation are usually used to explore different possibilities for evacuation, however, it is a real challenge to integrate different categories of characteristics in unified modeling space. In this paper, we propose an agent-based model of an evacuating crowd so that a comparative analysis of a different sets of parameters categorized as individual, social and technological aspects, is made possible. In particular, we focus on the question of rationality vs. emotionalism of individuals in a localized social context. In addition to that, we propose and model the concept of extended social influence, thereby embedding technological influence within the social influence, and analyze its impact on the efficiency of evacuation. NetLogo is used for simulating different variations in environments, evacuation strategies, and agents demographics. Simulation results revealed that there is no substantial advantage of informational overload on people, as this might work only in those situations, where there are fewer chances of herding. In more serious situations, people should be left alone to decide. They, however, could be trained in drills, to avoid panicking in such situations and concentrate on making their decisions solely based on the dynamics of their surroundings. It was also learned that distant connectivity has no apparent advantage and can be ruled out while designing an evacuation strategy based on these recommendations.

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Expressive Law, Social Norms, and Social Groups

Law & Social Inquiry ◽

10.1111/lsi.12279 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 42 (01) ◽

pp. 60-75 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Janice Nadler

Keyword(s):

Social Context ◽

Social Norms ◽

Social Influence ◽

Social Groups ◽

Group Life ◽

The Social ◽

And Behavior ◽

Independent Individual ◽

Instrumental View ◽

The Way

To understand how law works outside of sanctions or direct coercion, we must first appreciate that law does not generally influence individual behavior in a vacuum, devoid of social context. Instead, the way in which people interact with law is usually mediated by group life. In contrast to the instrumental view that assumes law operates on autonomous individuals by providing a set of incentives, the social groups view holds that a person's attitude and behavior regarding any given demand of law are generally products of the interaction of law, social influence, and motivational goals that are shaped by that person's commitments to specific in-groups. Law can work expressively, not so much by shaping independent individual attitudes as by shaping group values and norms, which in turn influence individual attitudes. In short, the way in which people interact with law is mediated by group life.

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