scholarly journals From Social Information to Social Norms: Evidence from Two Experiments on Donation Behaviour

Games ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timo Goeschl ◽  
Sara Kettner ◽  
Johannes Lohse ◽  
Christiane Schwieren
Keyword(s):  
Social Norm ◽  
Social Information ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Dictator Game ◽  
Additional Treatment ◽  
Causal Mechanism ◽  
Student Sample ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Anchoring Effects ◽  
The Individual

While preferences for conformity are commonly seen as an important driver of pro-social behaviour, only a small set of previous studies has explicitly tested the behavioural mechanisms underlying this proposition. In this paper, we report on two interconnected experimental studies that jointly provide a more thorough and robust understanding of a causal mechanism that links social information (i.e., information about the generosity of others) to donations via changing the perception of a descriptive social norm. In a modified dictator game, Experiment 1 re-investigates this mechanism adding further robustness to prior results by eliciting choices from a non-student sample and by implementing an additional treatment that controls for potential anchoring effects implied by the methods used in previous investigations. Experiment 2 adds further robustness by investigating the link between social information, (descriptive) norm perception and giving at the individual, rather than the group average, level. We find that an exogenous variation of social information influences beliefs about others’ contributions (descriptive social norm) and, through this channel, actual giving. An exploratory analysis indicates that this causal relationship is differently pronounced among the two sexes. We rule out anchoring effects as a plausible confound in previous investigations. The key findings carry over to the individual level.

scholarly journals Machine Learning in Neuroimaging: A New Approach to Understand Acupuncture for Neuroplasticity

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Tao Yin ◽  
Peihong Ma ◽  
Zilei Tian ◽  
Kunnan Xie ◽  
Zhaoxuan He ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Neural Plasticity ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Future Research ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Acupuncture Research ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Neuroimaging Techniques

The effects of acupuncture facilitating neural plasticity for treating diseases have been identified by clinical and experimental studies. In the last two decades, the application of neuroimaging techniques in acupuncture research provided visualized evidence for acupuncture promoting neuroplasticity. Recently, the integration of machine learning (ML) and neuroimaging techniques becomes a focus in neuroscience and brings a new and promising approach to understand the facilitation of acupuncture on neuroplasticity at the individual level. This review is aimed at providing an overview of this rapidly growing field by introducing the commonly used ML algorithms in neuroimaging studies briefly and analyzing the characteristics of the acupuncture studies based on ML and neuroimaging, so as to provide references for future research.

scholarly journals Collective communication and behaviour in response to uncertain ‘Danger’ in network experiments

2020 ◽  
Vol 476 (2237) ◽  
pp. 20190685
Author(s):  
Hirokazu Shirado ◽  
Forrest W. Crawford ◽  
Nicholas A. Christakis
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Interpersonal Communication ◽  
Communication Networks ◽  
Social Information ◽  
Collective Communication ◽  
Group Topology ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Social Coordination ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Actual Accuracy

In emergencies, social coordination is especially challenging. People connected with each other may respond better or worse to an uncertain danger than isolated individuals. We performed experiments involving a novel scenario simulating an unpredictable situation faced by a group in which 2480 subjects in 108 groups had to both communicate information and decide whether to ‘evacuate’. We manipulated the permissible sorts of interpersonal communication and varied group topology and size. Compared to groups of isolated individuals, we find that communication networks suppress necessary evacuations because of the spontaneous and diffuse emergence of false reassurance; yet, communication networks also restrain unnecessary evacuations in situations without disasters. At the individual level, subjects have thresholds for responding to social information that are sensitive to the negativity, but not the actual accuracy, of the signals being transmitted. Social networks can function poorly as pathways for inconvenient truths that people would rather ignore.

scholarly journals Collective decision-making by rational agents with differing preferences

2020 ◽  
Vol 117 (19) ◽  
pp. 10388-10396 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard P. Mann
Keyword(s):  
Private Information ◽  
Social Information ◽  
Social Feedback ◽  
Uncertain Environments ◽  
Individual Agent ◽  
Rational Agents ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Behavioral Rules ◽  
The World ◽  
The Individual

Collective decisions can emerge from individual-level interactions between members of a group. These interactions are often seen as social feedback rules, whereby individuals copy the decisions they observe others making, creating a coherent group decision. The benefit of these behavioral rules to the individual agent can be understood as a transfer of information, whereby a focal individual learns about the world by gaining access to the information possessed by others. Previous studies have analyzed this exchange of information by assuming that all agents share common goals. While differences in information and differences in preferences have often been conflated, little is known about how differences between agents’ underlying preferences affect the use and efficacy of social information. In this paper, I develop a model of social information use by rational agents with differing preferences, and demonstrate that the resulting collective behavior is strongly dependent on the structure of preference sharing within the group, as well as the quality of information in the environment. In particular, I show that strong social responses are expected by individuals that are habituated to noisy, uncertain environments where private information about the world is relatively weak. Furthermore, by investigating heterogeneous group structures, I demonstrate a potential influence of cryptic minority subgroups that may illuminate the empirical link between personality and leadership.

scholarly journals Support for female honor norms as ideological mate guarding tactic: Sexual jealousy and reproductive strategy shape support for female honor norms

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pelin Gul ◽  
Tom Kupfer
Keyword(s):  
Reproductive Behavior ◽  
Reproductive Strategy ◽  
Reproductive Strategies ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Mate Guarding ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Sexual Jealousy ◽  
Psychological Mechanisms ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Female Infidelity

In many cultures, women are expected to cultivate a reputation for pure and chaste behavior such as wearing modest clothes and maintaining virginity before marriage. The dominant explanation for people’s support for female honor norms is that female infidelity and promiscuity threatens her male partner’s reputation and masculinity. Beyond this, the literature affords little understanding of the individual-level psychological mechanisms which produce support for female honor norms. We propose that beyond masculine reputation concerns, reproductive strategy also contribute to support for female honor norms, and that people, motivated by sexual jealousy, support female honor norms as an indirect ideological mate guarding tactic. Two correlational and three experimental studies revealed that reproductive strategies (monogamous vs. promiscuous mating orientation) predict support for female honor norms, beyond masculine honor norms, religiosity, political conservativism, and age. Support for female honor norms positively related to tendency to experience sexual jealousy (i.e., dispositional jealousy), and inducing a state of sexual jealousy increased support for female honor norms. These results applied both to men and women (albeit more strongly to men). These findings enhance understanding of the origins and maintenance of female honor norms and other ideologies that enable the control of women’s reproductive behavior.

Variation in the use of sentence final particles in Macau Cantonese

2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 277-296 ◽  
Author(s):  
Werner Botha ◽  
Lawrie A. Barnes
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
Network Theory ◽  
Social Information ◽  
Social Network Theory ◽  
Final Particle ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Social Meanings ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Affective Relations ◽  
Final Particles

This paper considers how meaningful social information is conveyed with the use of sentence final particles in Macau Cantonese. The purpose in this research is to provide a general sociolinguistic account of sentence final particles in Macau Cantonese, and specifically to illustrate that social meanings of SFPs are variable, and do not constitute rigid or fixed meanings and interpretations. These social meanings, this paper argues, are a potential for indicating speaker identity at the individual level, and constitute a rich resource for communicating speaker identity in Macau Cantonese. This study uses an eclectic sociolinguistic approach, and combines elements of distributionist analyses, social network theory and constructionist approaches with a view to accounting for the dynamics underlying sentence final particle variation. Finally, this research considers constraints such as conversation topic, the affective relations between interlocutors, and gender as impinging on the distribution and use of SFPs in Macau Cantonese.

scholarly journals Collective decision making by rational agents with differing preferences

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard P. Mann
Keyword(s):  
Private Information ◽  
Social Information ◽  
Social Feedback ◽  
Uncertain Environments ◽  
Individual Agent ◽  
Rational Agents ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The World ◽  
Common Goals ◽  
The Individual

Collective decisions can emerge from individual-level interactions between members of a group. These interactions are often seen as social feedback rules, whereby individuals copy the decisions they observe others making, creating a coherent group decision. The benefit of these behavioural rules to the individual agent can be understood as a transfer of information, whereby a focal individual learns about the world by gaining access to the information possessed by others. Previous studies have analysed this exchange of information by assuming that all agents share common goals. While differences in information and differences in preferences have often been conflated, little is known about how differences between agents’ underlying preferences affects the use and efficacy of social information. In this paper I develop a model of social information use by rational agents with differing preferences, and demonstrate that the resulting collective behaviour is strongly dependent on the structure of preference sharing within the group, as well as the quality of information in the environment. In particular, I show that strong social responses are expected by individuals that are habituated to noisy, uncertain environments where private information about the world is relatively weak. Furthermore, by investigating heterogeneous group structures I demonstrate a potential influence of cryptic minority subgroups that may illuminate the empirical link between personality and leadership.

The Political-Economic Correlates of Discursive Engagement in Europe

2021 ◽  
pp. 106591292199845
Author(s):  
Quinton Mayne ◽  
Shane P. Singh
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Ethnic Diversity ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Economic Conditions ◽  
Political Discussion ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Theoretical Reasoning ◽  
Cross Country ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Political Economic

We examine the individual-level characteristics and political and economic conditions associated with political discussion. To build our model of discursive engagement, we draw on existing research on political participation as well as our own theoretical reasoning. Our data cover two million individuals in twenty-eight European countries over forty-five years, and we employ a little-used approach to multilevel analysis that distinguishes variations in engagement attributable to cross-country differences from those stemming from within-country changes. Our primary findings reveal that, within countries, citizens are more likely to talk about politics at election time, when there are more electorally competitive political parties, during periods of recession, when unionization levels are higher, and when racial and ethnic diversity is greater. Across countries, political discussion is more likely where elections are ongoing and in countries with lower levels of income inequality and corruption. We also find that men and the higher-educated are more likely to discuss politics, as are those who are middle aged or employed. Our approach is wide-ranging, but it is also deliberately correlational. Future observational and experimental studies might expand on and identify the causal underpinnings of the associations we establish here.

scholarly journals Cheaters, Liars, or Both? A New Classification of Dishonesty Profiles

2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (9) ◽  
pp. 1097-1106 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Pascual-Ezama ◽  
Drazen Prelec ◽  
Adrián Muñoz ◽  
Beatriz Gil-Gómez de Liaño
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Population Level ◽  
New Classification ◽  
Coin Toss ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Die Roll ◽  
The Individual

Experimental studies of dishonesty usually rely on population-level analyses, which compare the distribution of claimed rewards in an unsupervised, self-administered lottery (e.g., tossing a coin) with the expected lottery statistics (e.g., 50/50 chance of winning). Here, we provide a paradigm that measures dishonesty at the individual level and identifies new dishonesty profiles with specific theoretical interpretations. We found that among dishonest participants, (a) some did not bother implementing the lottery at all, (b) some implemented but lied about the lottery outcome, and (c) some violated instructions by repeating the lottery multiple times until obtaining an outcome they felt was acceptable. These results held both in the lab and with online participants. In Experiment 1 ( N = 178), the lottery was a coin toss, which permitted only a binary honest/dishonest response; Experiment 2 ( N = 172) employed a six-sided-die roll, which permitted gradations in dishonesty. We replicated some previous results and also provide a new, richer classification of dishonest behavior.

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