scholarly journals Curiosity is Contagious: A Social Influence Intervention to Induce Curiosity

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachit Dubey ◽  
Hermish Mehta ◽  
Tania Lombrozo
Keyword(s):  
Social Influence ◽  
Social Environment ◽  
Social Information ◽  
Social Cues ◽  
Dramatic Effect ◽  
Social Cue ◽  
The Social ◽  
On Line ◽  
Subsequent Behavior ◽  
Scientific Questions

Our actions and decisions are regularly influenced by the social environment around us. Can social cues be leveraged to induce curiosity and affect subsequent behavior? Across two experiments, we show that curiosity is contagious: the social environment can influence people's curiosity about the answers to scientific questions. Participants were presented with everyday questions about science from a popular on-line forum, and these were shown with a high or low number of up-votes as a social cue to popularity. Participants indicated their curiosity about the answers, and they were given an opportunity to reveal a subset of those answers. Participants reported greater curiosity about the answers to questions when the questions were presented with a high (vs. low) number of up-votes, and they were also more likely to choose to reveal the answers to questions with a high (vs. low) number of up-votes. These effects were partially mediated by surprise and by the inferred usefulness of knowledge, with a more dramatic effect of low up-votes in reducing curiosity than of high up-votes in boosting curiosity. Taken together, these results highlight the important role social information plays in shaping our curiosity.

scholarly journals No differences between autistic and non-autistic adults in social influence on risky decision-making

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lydia Hickman ◽  
Connor Keating ◽  
Jennifer Cook ◽  
Elliot Andrew Ludvig
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Influence ◽  
Social Information ◽  
Risky Choice ◽  
Social Cues ◽  
Risky Decision Making ◽  
Risky Decision ◽  
The Social ◽  
Comparable Performance ◽  
Autistic Adults

Everyday risky decisions are susceptible to influence from a variety of sources, including the social context in which decisions take place. In the general population, people update their risk preferences based on knowledge of choices made by previous participants. In this study, we examined the influence of social information on the risky decision-making of autistic adults, a group in which differences in social processing have been observed. Autistic and non-autistic adults completed a risky decision-making task in the presence of both social and non-social information, either choosing for themselves or someone else on each trial. Notably, the social information comprised tokens that represented preferences of previous participants and was thus devoid of overt social cues such as faces or gestures. The non-social condition comprised a previously validated method where tokens represented “preferences” generated by weighted roulette wheels. Participants significantly shifted their choices when the influence (social or non-social) suggested a less risky choice. There were no group differences in risky decision-making when deciding for oneself compared to others. Interestingly, no differences in the effects of social and non-social influence were found between autistic and non-autistic adults. Considering previous evidence of social influence differences when using overtly social cues, we suggest that the removal of social cues in our paradigm led to comparable performance between the autistic and non-autistic groups. The current study paves the way for future studies investigating a confounding effect of social cues, which will lead to important insight for theories of social influence in autism.

scholarly journals Social transmission of egg rejection in a cuckoo host

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Canchao Yang ◽  
William E Feeney
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Brood Parasitism ◽  
Social Information ◽  
Social Cues ◽  
Egg Rejection ◽  
Dynamic Nature ◽  
Brood Parasites ◽  
The Social ◽  
Rapid Dissemination ◽  
Barn Swallows

AbstractSocial learning can enable the rapid dissemination of behaviors throughout a population. Rejection of foreign eggs is a key defense in hosts of avian brood parasites; however, whether social cues can inform whether a host rejects an egg remains unknown. Here, we aimed to determine whether access to social information can influence egg rejection behavior in semi-colonial barn swallows (Hirundo rustica). By manipulating the social information available from a neighboring nest, we found that swallows that had access to social information (i.e. neighbor recently rejected an egg) were more likely to reject a foreign egg compared to those that did not have access to social information (i.e. neighbor did not reject an egg). This result provides the first empirical evidence that egg rejection behavior can solely be informed by social information, and in doing so highlights the dynamic nature of defenses that hosts can deploy against brood parasitism.

Language as a Social Cue

2021 ◽  
Vol 72 (1) ◽  
pp. 241-264
Author(s):  
Katherine D. Kinzler
Keyword(s):  
Person Perception ◽  
Developmental Psychology ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Social Information ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
Social Significance ◽  
Psychological Essentialism ◽  
Social Cue ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Psychological Research

Social groups are a pervasive feature of human life. One factor that is often understudied in the literature on person perception and social categorization is language. Yet, someone's language (and accent) provides a tremendous amount of social information to a listener. Disciplines across the social and behavioral sciences—ranging from linguistics to anthropology to economics—have exposed the social significance of language. Less social psychological research has historically focused on language as a vehicle for social grouping. Yet, new approaches in psychology are reversing this trend. This article first reviews evidence, primarily from psycholinguistics, documenting how speech provides social information. Next it turns to developmental psychology, showing how young humans begin to see others’ language as conveying social group information. It then explores how the tendency to see language as a social cue has vast implications for people's psychological processes (e.g., psychological essentialism and trust) and also for society, including education and the law.

scholarly journals Male African elephants discriminate and prefer vocalizations of unfamiliar females

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela S. Stoeger ◽  
Anton Baotic
Keyword(s):  
Social Information ◽  
Loxodonta Africana ◽  
Social Cues ◽  
Acoustic Cues ◽  
African Elephants ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
High Association ◽  
The Social ◽  
Mating Opportunities ◽  
Vocal Discrimination

Abstract Gaining information about conspecifics via long-distance vocalizations is crucial for social and spatially flexible species such as the African elephant (Loxodonta africana). Female elephants are known to discriminate individuals and kin based on acoustic cues. Specifically, females approached the loudspeaker exclusively with playbacks of familiar individuals with high association indexes, intentionally fusing with their affiliates. For males, which are less bonded, gathering social information via vocalizations could still have important implications, but little is known about their vocal discrimination skills. We experimentally tested the ability of male African elephants to discriminate the social rumbles of familiar (from the same population) versus unfamiliar females. Male elephants discriminated and preferentially moved towards the rumbles of unfamiliar females, showing longer attentive reactions and significantly more orientating (facing and approaching the speaker) behavior. The increased orientating response of males towards playbacks of unfamiliar females is converse to the reaction of female subjects. Our results provide evidence that male elephants extract social information from vocalizations, yet with a different intention than females. Accordingly, males might use social cues in vocalizations to assess mating opportunities, which may involve selection to identify individuals or kin in order to avoid inbreeding.

scholarly journals EEG alpha and theta signatures of socially and non-socially cued working memory in virtual reality

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samantha Gregory ◽  
Hongfang Wang ◽  
Klaus Kessler
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Social Cues ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Alpha Power ◽  
Theta Power ◽  
Social Cue ◽  
The Social ◽  
Eeg Alpha

In this preregistered study (https://osf.io/s4rm9) we investigated the behavioural and neurological (EEG; alpha and theta) effects of dynamic non-predictive social and non-social cues on working memory. In a virtual environment realistic human-avatars initiated eye contact before dynamically looking to the left or right side of a table. A moving stick served as a non-social control cue. Kitchen items were presented in the valid cued or invalid un-cued location for encoding. Behavioural findings show a similar influence of the social and non-social cues on working memory performance. Alpha power changes were equivalent for the social and non-social cues during cuing and encoding. However, theta power changes revealed different patterns for the two cues. Theta power increased more strongly for the non-social cue compared to the social cue during initial cuing. Further, while for the non-social cue there was a significantly larger increase in theta power for valid compared to invalid conditions during encoding, this was reversed for the social cue, with a significantly larger increase in theta power in posterior electrodes for the invalid compared to valid conditions. Therefore, while social and non-social attention cues impact working memory performance in a similar fashion, the underlying neural mechanisms appear to differ.

scholarly journals Impact of sharing full versus averaged social information on social influence and estimation accuracy

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (180) ◽  
pp. 20210231
Author(s):  
Bertrand Jayles ◽  
Clément Sire ◽  
Ralf H. J. M. Kurvers
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Influence ◽  
Recommender Systems ◽  
Social Information ◽  
Estimation Accuracy ◽  
Human Ability ◽  
The Social ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Available Information

The recent developments of social networks and recommender systems have dramatically increased the amount of social information shared in human communities, challenging the human ability to process it. As a result, sharing aggregated forms of social information is becoming increasingly popular. However, it is unknown whether sharing aggregated information improves people’s judgments more than sharing the full available information. Here, we compare the performance of groups in estimation tasks when social information is fully shared versus when it is first averaged and then shared. We find that improvements in estimation accuracy are comparable in both cases. However, our results reveal important differences in subjects’ behaviour: (i) subjects follow the social information more when receiving an average than when receiving all estimates, and this effect increases with the number of estimates underlying the average; (ii) subjects follow the social information more when it is higher than their personal estimate than when it is lower. This effect is stronger when receiving all estimates than when receiving an average. We introduce a model that sheds light on these effects, and confirms their importance for explaining improvements in estimation accuracy in all treatments.

Self-Presentation and Social Influence

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
James M. Tyler ◽  
Katherine E. Adams
Keyword(s):  
Social Influence ◽  
Social Environment ◽  
The Self ◽  
Self Presentation ◽  
Cognitive Mechanism ◽  
The Social ◽  
And Behaviors ◽  
Influence Tactic ◽  
Self Presentations

Self-presentation is a social influence tactic in which people engage in communicative efforts to influence the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of others as related to the self-presenter. Despite theoretical arguments that such efforts comprise an automatic component, the majority of research continues to characterize self-presentation as primarily involving controlled and strategic efforts. This focus is theoretically challenging and empirically problematic; it fosters an exclusionary perspective, leading to a scarcity of research concerning automatic self-presentations. With the current chapter, we examine whether self-presentation involves an automatic cognitive mechanism in which such efforts spontaneously emerge, nonconsciously triggered by cues in the social environment.

Symbolic look of the body reflected by arterial hypertension: a bibliographical study

2011 ◽  
Vol 5 (6) ◽  
pp. 1555
Author(s):  
Cláudia Geovana da Silva Pires ◽  
Gilmara Ribeiro Santos Rodrigues ◽  
Mirian Santos Paiva
Keyword(s):  
Blood Pressure ◽  
Arterial Hypertension ◽  
Social Environment ◽  
Active Element ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
On Line ◽  
Nursing Professionals ◽  
Living Process

ABSTRACTObjective: to reflect on the body and its interface with hypertension in the social environment. Method: this is a bibliographical study with a systematic literature review design carried out online in the databases LILACS, SciELO, and MEDLINE. The research was carried out using the following descriptors: body, nursing, hypertension, and blood pressure, in Portuguese, English, and Spanish. The papers selection was performed through the title and abstract of all those found in the database. Results: eight papers were found, but none of them exploring issues concerning the body and its interface with hypertension in the social environment. The body is a focus of interest because it reflects “figuratively” the unsuitable behavior of people with arterial hypertension. Conclusions: the main challenges faced by the nursing professionals are considering the person with arterial hypertension as an active element in her/his living process, leading her/him to understand her/his disease, and establishing a harmonious relationship with herself/himself, her/his body, and the world. Descriptors: health; hypertension; nursing.RESUMOObjetivo: refletir sobre o corpo e sua interface com a hipertensão no meio social. Método: trata-se de um estudo bibliográfico do tipo revisão de literatura sistemática realizado on-line nas bases de dados LILACS, SciELO e MEDLINE.  A pesquisa foi realizada com os seguintes descritores: corpo, enfermagem, hipertensão e pressão arterial, em português, inglês e espanhol. A seleção dos artigos se deu por meio do título e resumo de todos aqueles encontrados na base de dados. Resultados: foram encontrados oito artigos, porém, nenhum deles explorava as questões do corpo e sua interface com a hipertensão no meio social. O corpo é objeto de atenção por “figurativamente” refletir o comportamento inadequado das pessoas com hipertensão arterial. Conclusões: os principais desafios enfrentados pelos profissionais de enfermagem são colocar a pessoa com hipertensão arterial como elemento ativo no seu processo de viver, fazê-la compreender sua doença e estabelecer uma relação harmoniosa com ela mesma, com seu corpo e com o mundo. Descritores: saúde; hipertensão; enfermagem.RESUMENObjetivo: reflejar sobre el cuerpo y su interface con la hipertensión en el medio social. Método: se trata de un estudio bibliográfico, del tipo revisión de literatura sistemática, realizada on line en las bases de datos LILACS, SciELO y MEDLINE.  La investigación se realizó a través de las palabras claves: cuerpo, enfermería, hipertensión y presión arterial, en portugués, inglés y español. La selección de los artículos se dio por medio del título y resumen de todos aquellos encontrados en la base de datos. Resultados: fueron encontrados ocho artículos, pero ninguno de ellos exploraba las cuestiones del cuerpo y su interfase con la hipertensión en el medio social. El cuerpo es objeto de atención por “figurativamente” reflejar el comportamiento inadecuado de las personas con hipertensión arterial. Conclusiones: los principales desafíos que los profesionales de enfermería afrontan son colocar la persona con hipertensión arterial como elemento activo en su proceso de vivir, hacerla comprender su enfermedad y establecer una relación armoniosa con ella misma, con su cuerpo y con el mundo. Descriptores: salud; hipertensión; enfermería.

scholarly journals Extraction of social information from gait in schizophrenia

2013 ◽  
Vol 44 (5) ◽  
pp. 987-996 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. S. Peterman ◽  
A. Christensen ◽  
M. A. Giese ◽  
S. Park
Keyword(s):  
Social Functioning ◽  
Gender Discrimination ◽  
Signal Intensity ◽  
Social Information ◽  
Social Cues ◽  
Human Gait ◽  
Emotional Cues ◽  
The Social ◽  
Healthy Control ◽  
And Gender

BackgroundThe human face and body are rich sources of socio-emotional cues. Accurate recognition of these cues is central to adaptive social functioning. Past studies indicate that individuals with schizophrenia (SZ) show deficits in the perception of emotion from facial cues but the contribution of bodily cues to social perception in schizophrenia is undetermined. The present study examined the detection of social cues from human gait patterns presented by computer-generated volumetric walking figures.MethodA total of 22 SZ and 20 age-matched healthy control participants (CO) viewed 1 s movies of a ‘digital’ walker's gait and subsequently made a forced-choice decision on the emotional state (angry or happy) or the gender of the walker presented at three intensity levels. Overall sensitivity to the social cues and bias were computed. For SZ, symptom severity was assessed.ResultsSZ were less sensitive than CO on both emotion and gender discrimination, regardless of intensity. While impaired overall, greater signal intensity did improve performance of SZ. Neither group differed in their response bias in either condition. The discrimination sensitivity of SZ was unrelated to their social functioning or symptoms but a bias toward perceiving gait as happy was associated with better social functioning.ConclusionsThese results suggest that SZ are impaired in extracting social information from gait but SZ benefited from increased signal intensity of social cues. Inaccurate perception of social cues in others may hinder adequate preparation for social interactions.

Roles of Self-Monitoring and Situational Ambiguity in the Social Information-Processing Model

1998 ◽  
Vol 83 (3_suppl) ◽  
pp. 1447-1453 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas C. Head
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Social Information Processing ◽  
Social Information ◽  
Social Cues ◽  
Work Outcomes ◽  
Moderating Effects ◽  
Information Processing Model ◽  
Performance Task ◽  
Self Monitoring ◽  
The Social

A laboratory experiment was designed to assess the moderating effects of self-monitoring and situational ambiguity on the social cues with work outcomes relationships proposed by the Social Information Processing Model. In this 2 × 2 × 2 model, social cues were predicted to influence performance, task perceptions, and job satisfaction for high self-monitors on ambiguous tasks. Data from 130 subjects indicated moderate support for the 3-way model but only on the measure of satisfaction.

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