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 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 Social prevalence information is rationally integrated in belief updating

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evan Orticio ◽  
Louis Martí ◽  
Celeste Kidd
Keyword(s):  
Real World ◽  
Information Sources ◽  
Direct Evidence ◽  
Belief Change ◽  
Social Information ◽  
Social World ◽  
Belief Updating ◽  
The Social ◽  
Other Information

People rely heavily on information from the social world to inform their real-world beliefs. We ask whether the perceived prevalence of a belief, divorced from any direct evidence, serves as an independent cue in belief updating. Using real-world pseudoscientific and conspiratorial claims, our experiment (N = 403 American adults) shows that increases in people’s estimates of the prevalence of a belief led to increases in their endorsement of said belief. Belief change was most dramatic when initial beliefs were most uncertain and when novel prevalence information was most convincing, suggesting that people weigh social information rationally with other information sources. We discuss the implications of our results in the context of online misinformation.

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 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.

Individual and Societal Well-Being

2018 ◽  
pp. 698-722
Author(s):  
Shigehiro Oishi ◽  
Samantha J. Heintzleman
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Life Outcomes ◽  
Cultural Meanings ◽  
Research Topics ◽  
Psychological Science ◽  
The Social ◽  
Genetic Origins

This chapter highlights the contributions that have been made by personality and social psychology, respectively and together, to the science of well-being. Since its humble beginning in the 1930s, the science of well-being has grown to become one of the most vibrant research topics in psychological science today. The personality tradition of well-being research has shown that it is possible to measure well-being reliably, that self-reported well-being predicts important life outcomes, and that well-being has nontrivial genetic origins. The social psychology tradition has illuminated that there are various cultural meanings of well-being, that responses to well-being questions involve multiple cognitive processes, that happiness is experienced often in relationship contexts, and that it is possible to improve one’s well-being. Finally, there are recent methodological integrations of the personality and social psychology perspectives that delineate person–situation interactions.

scholarly journals To sext or not to sext. The role of social-cognitive processes in the decision to engage in sexting

2021 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 1410-1429
Author(s):  
Claire Wilson ◽  
Tommy van Steen ◽  
Christabel Akinyode ◽  
Zara P. Brodie ◽  
Graham G. Scott
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Social Cognitive ◽  
Cognitive Factors ◽  
Relationship Status ◽  
Injunctive Norm ◽  
The Social ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Insight Into

Technology has given rise to online behaviors such as sexting. It is important that we examine predictors of such behavior in order to understand who is more likely to sext and thus inform intervention aimed at sexting awareness. We used the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to examine sexting beliefs and behavior. Participants (n = 418; 70.3% women) completed questionnaires assessing attitudes (instrumental and affective), subjective norms (injunctive and descriptive), control perceptions (self-efficacy and controllability) and intentions toward sexting. Specific sexting beliefs (fun/carefree beliefs, perceived risks and relational expectations) were also measured and sexting behavior reported. Relationship status, instrumental attitude, injunctive norm, descriptive norm and self-efficacy were associated with sexting intentions. Relationship status, intentions and self-efficacy related to sexting behavior. Results provide insight into the social-cognitive factors related to individuals’ sexting behavior and bring us closer to understanding what beliefs predict the behavior.

scholarly journals Social intelligence, human intelligence and niche construction

2007 ◽  
Vol 362 (1480) ◽  
pp. 719-730 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kim Sterelny
Keyword(s):  
Social Intelligence ◽  
Niche Construction ◽  
Ecological Environment ◽  
Social Environments ◽  
Foraging Mode ◽  
Social Intelligence Hypothesis ◽  
Hominin Evolution ◽  
The Social ◽  
Ecological Complexity ◽  
Intelligence Models

This paper is about the evolution of hominin intelligence. I agree with defenders of the social intelligence hypothesis in thinking that externalist models of hominin intelligence are not plausible: such models cannot explain the unique cognition and cooperation explosion in our lineage, for changes in the external environment (e.g. increasing environmental unpredictability) affect many lineages. Both the social intelligence hypothesis and the social intelligence–ecological complexity hybrid I outline here are niche construction models. Hominin evolution is hominin response to selective environments that earlier hominins have made. In contrast to social intelligence models, I argue that hominins have both created and responded to a unique foraging mode; a mode that is both social in itself and which has further effects on hominin social environments. In contrast to some social intelligence models, on this view, hominin encounters with their ecological environments continue to have profound selective effects. However, though the ecological environment selects, it does not select on its own. Accidents and their consequences, differential success and failure, result from the combination of the ecological environment an agent faces and the social features that enhance some opportunities and suppress others and that exacerbate some dangers and lessen others. Individuals do not face the ecological filters on their environment alone, but with others, and with the technology, information and misinformation that their social world provides.

Two Social Environments in a Working Day: Occupation and Spatial Segregation in Metropolitan Tel Aviv

10.1068/a3452 ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 33 (10) ◽  
pp. 1765-1784 ◽  
Author(s):  
Orna Blumen ◽  
Iris Zamir
Keyword(s):  
Social Environment ◽  
Spatial Segregation ◽  
Social Environments ◽  
Social Significance ◽  
Tel Aviv ◽  
Blue Collar Workers ◽  
The Social ◽  
White Collar Workers ◽  
Working Day ◽  
And Gender

The concepts of segregation and social distance have long been used to explain the social environment of stratified residential space. However, the social significance of occupation, though acknowledged, has rarely been applied spatially. In this study, we employed these three concepts to examine the social environment of the entire metropolitan employment space as defined by job location. Smallest space analysis was used to identify and compare the sociospatial segregation produced by workers' occupational distribution in employment and residential spheres. This empirical study focused on metropolitan Tel Aviv, Israel's largest urban area, using the latest available national census. Our findings show that the social milieu of employment differed from that of residence: blue-collar workers were segregated from white-collar workers; managers, clerks, and salespersons formed the core group; and gender and ethnic divisions characterised the sociospatial realm of employment. Overall, most employees changed their social environment when they went to work. The study indicates that spatial segregation, within each sphere and between the two spheres, is intrinsic to the capitalist – patriarchal order.

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