How competition modulates risky decision making? Evidence from event-related oscillations (EROs) and event-related potentials (ERPs)

The current research proposal envisages designing three experiments (the flow chart see Figure 6). While both the experimental approach and the design have their strengths and limitations, they will complement one another. In study 1, I sought to investigate the rewards and losses sensitivity under monetary and social competitive context by using two edited versions of classic experimental paradigms (the doors task and the island getaway task) and manipulating two ambiguity competitive contexts in order to adapt the invisible competitive pressure in the real society (Levinson et al., 2017). In study 2 and study 3, I intend to use the monetary and social BART to measure the risk preference under monetary-drive and social-drive competition. Study 2 will focus primarily on one-on-one competitive context while study 3 will replicate the similar influence in multi-people competition. In these two studies, social reference points will be considered as an important moderator in both monetary and social competition. The distance (far and near) of social reference points will also be included in these two studies.

Competitive gossip: the impact of domain, resource value, resource scarcity and coalitions

Those with better reputations often obtain more resources than those with poorer reputations. Consequently, gossip might be an evolved strategy to compete for valuable and scarce material and social resources. Influenced by models of non-human primate competition, we test the hypotheses that gossip: (i) targets aspects of reputation relevant to the domain in which the competition is occurring, (ii) increases when contested resources are more valuable, and (iii) increases when resources are scarcer. We then test hypotheses derived from informational warfare theory, which proposes that coalitions strategically collect, analyse and disseminate gossip. Specifically, we test whether: (iv) coalitions deter negative gossip, and (v) whether they increase expectations of reputational harm to competitors. Using experimental methods in a Mechanical Turk sample ( n = 600), and survey and ego network analysis methods in a sample of California sorority women ( n = 74), we found that gossip content is specific to the context of the competition; that more valuable and scarcer resources cause gossip, particularly negative gossip, to intensify; and that allies deter negative gossip and increase expectations of reputational harm to an adversary. These results support social competition theories of gossip. This article is part of the theme issue ‘The language of cooperation: reputation and honest signalling’.

Effects of Early Experiences On Behavioral Development: An Experimental Study Based on an "Human-Rat Interaction Paradigm""

Cultivating the next generation of sound emotional, cognitive and socio-behavioral development is fundamental to human civilization, and the impact of early experiences cannot be ignored from the point of view of probabilistic epigenesis. This study aims to investigate the causal relationship between early experiences and later behavioral development based on a novel experimental model termed the “human-rat interaction paradigm” (HRIP).Thirty-six one-month-old male Sprague-Dawley rats were selected as subjects. Based on the HRIP, three groups (Positive early experiences (PEE) / Negative early experiences (NEE) / Control) were intervened for 3 weeks, and the effects of the manipulation of early experiences on behavioral development were tested through a battery of behavioral paradigms. The results showed that: 1) During the emotional behavior tests, compared with the other two groups, the PEE group was more active in the open arm of the O-maze, more active in the center area of the open field, ate faster in the new and familiar environment, and had less hesitation to adapt to and utilize the new learning device. 2) During the learning behavior tests, the PEE group showed most rule-breaking exploratory behavior in the integrated-learning maze; while the majority of the NEE group learned to open the gate during the early stage of procedural learning, the firmness of their long-term memory was the lowest during the new object recognition task; the control group was overall passive during the whole series of learning behavior tests. 3) During the social behavior tests, the PEE group showed the most interests towards the toy rat, while the NEE group showed the most aversion towards the toy rat. At the same time, while all groups preferred a real rat to a toy rat, only the intervention groups (both PEE and NEE) showed clear preference in interacting with a real stranger rat to a real familiar rat. Moreover, during the empathy and pro-social behavioral tests, when there were no food rewards, all three groups of rats generally would open the gate to rescue the entrapped rat, and after multiple trials their latency to rescue became shorter and shorter; however, when there were food rewards to be shared with the entrapped rat, both the PEE and NEE groups were less likely to open the gate, and after multiple trials, their latency to rescue became longer and longer. When the entrapped rat was unable to reach the food reward without the subject’s active sharing, the NEE group showed much more frequent behavior of feeding interruption and vigilant sniffing, possibly for fear of losing the food to the entrapped rat. 4) During the social competition tests, when there were no food rewards in the tube test, the control group had the highest success rate; when there were food rewards to be competed for, the PEE group had the highest success rate. At the same time, the degree of social rank differentiation was smallest in the control group and largest in the PEE group. The NEE group showed clear differentiation between the high-rank individual and the middle/low-ranked individual. The success rate of the NEE group was overall the lowest during the inter-group social competition tests. We arrived at the following conclusions: 1) On the long run, the early experience intervention based on the HRIP will have sustained and stable effects on the behavioral development. 2) Rich early experiences can improve the sensitivity to learning and social rules. Lack of early experiences can passivate learning and social behavior. 3) Positive early experience can promote the individual to have more interests in exploring "objects", produce more rule-breaking exploratory behavior and maintain the stability of goal behavior; in contrast, negative early experience can cause excessive arousal of negative emotions, inhibit exploration and interfere with the maintenance of goal behavior.

Some dysfunctional aspects of social competition in universities

In modern conditions of profound changes in Russian social reality socio-cultural space and social competition became a powerful factor contributing to the mobilization of the activity of individuals, groups, society as a whole. The desire of people to take a more favorable social position, the struggle for various resources construct new models of human behavior, new practices. Social competition is viewed as a form of social ties and the type of social interactions reflecting the ability of achieving goals in conditions of competition with others. It permeates the entire social fabric inherent in various social groups, organizations, including such high-status and complex ones like universities. The article analyzes the sociocultural mechanisms that accompany social competition, such as pragmatization and rationalization of consciousness and behavior, transformation of traditional values. The mechanisms of flexible-contextual rationality, deviations of values from ideal attitudes are analyzed. The practices simulating (imitating) the processes of organizing and implementing various aspects of the educational process at the university are presented. These practices contribute to the successful attainment of the actors’ goal, but are dysfunctional in the instrumental aspects related to how goal attainment occurs in a competitive environment. The influence of competitive conditions on the growth of authoritarian and bureaucratic tendencies is shown; usage of presentation paradigm and point-rating system; McDonaldized practices in which quantity is synonymous to quality. Some problems social-humanitarian cycle lecturers reducing their competitiveness, are demonstrated. The analyzed practices reflect the process of constructing the sociocultural space of universities, institutionalizing a new normative-value reality.

Russia: property and state. The history of post-Soviet law enforcement (Part II)

The subject. The relevance of the article is stipulated by the gap in the study of property and the state as a consistent system. The purpose of the article is to confirm or disprove the hypothesis that each way of organizing property such as private, mixed (corporate) and general (collective) potentially stimulates the existence of a certain state structure. The methodology. The author uses normative structuralism. This methodology is created by the author and is based on the idea that property as the main system-forming goal of the state’s existence predetermines principles of rationing its structure genetically. The main results of the research. Each way of organizing property in a particular social time period can acquire the quality of the main backbone in the organization structure of the state. Each way of organizing property provides proper social function: private way of organizing property provides function of social development; mixed (corporate) way provides function of social compromise (convergence); general (collective) way provides function of social security in the broadest sense. If private way of organizing property genetically programmed for the production and reproduction of social competition, mixed (corporate) and common (collective) ways are determined by the idea of its limitations and leveling. When the private way of organizing property becomes the main system-forming one it begins to fully stimulate the existence of a democratic structure of state organization. In turn, when mixed (corporate) and common (collective) ways of organizing property become the main system-forming ones, they stimulate the existence of a wide structural range of state functioning: from various regimes of democratic orientation to specific non-democratic regimes. Conclusions. The study of property as the main system-forming goal of the state existence through the normative structuralism concept allows us to conclude that that each way of organizing property stimulates the existence of a certain state structure.

L-theanine as a promising agent on brain health-promoting foods – A review

With the aging of the population and the growing pressure of social competition, brain-related neurodegenerative diseases and mental disorders increasingly affect our quality of life and place a huge burden on health systems around world. L-theanine is a unique non-protein amino acid from tea leave, and now commercially available as a safe food ingredient in the market. This review summarizes the studies on the effects of L-theanine on various mental and brain conditions, including mental stress, anxiety, insomnia, depression, poor learning ability and memory, neurodegenerative diseases, and discusses its potential application in functional foods for brain health.

The Dialect of Hasawis and Bedouins in Al-Ahsa (Saudi Arabia): A Comparative Study

Introduction. This paper is a sociolinguistic study that aims to investigate the speech of two groups in Al-Ahsa (Saudi Arabia) for the purpose of making a comparison between their speech. Methods. This study is empirical in its methods in that it is fully dependent on naturalistic speech. All the interviews, which were conducted in Al-Ahsa were conducted using the face-to-face technique for obtaining data with regard to linguistic variation. In this, the focus is on the Hasawi people and the Bedouins. Results. The study indicates that these two groups manipulate their dialect, in particular the key features of their dialects, to emphasize distinctiveness and negotiate identity. The study shows that while the linguistic behavior of the elderly in both groups is similar both within and outside of the group, the young generations show differences in their speech behavior. Additionally, group identity is very important to them. Outside the group, the possibility of interacting with members of the other group occurs, and, within this context, strong correlations appeared between linguistic factors and social factors, in particular the group identity among young males and gender distinctness among young females in both groups. Young males stereotypically tend to use the local linguistic forms, in particular the forms that are considered "the most salient feature which carries the social meaning of locality (Al-Wer, 1991: 75) and symbolizes local identities. The linguistic behavior of young males in both groups exhibits almost the same trends. Both are proud of the identity of the group to which they belong, particularly in gatherings in which other identities are present. Thus, unlike the two other age groups, the use of the /ts/ by the young Bedouin males and the use of the /EL/ by Hasawi young males increase in these settings rather than inside their own groups. This indicates that displaying one’s group identity is of significance to the young males in each group when a possible interaction takes place. While the use of the /EL/ among young Hasawis inside the group is 55.0%, its use was 70.0% in contexts outside the group and in the presence of other identities. The use of the /ts/ variant inside the group is 40%, while it is 60.0% outside the group. It also shows that the linguistic behavior of the Hisawi elderly is almost identical to the linguistic behavior of the elderly in the Bedouin group. In both groups, age (young, middle-aged or elderly) appears to be significant. Conclusion. The study shows that social competition is primarily expressed in the linguistic forms used. The more this social competition increases, the more unlikely the possibility of giving up one's social dialect becomes. People say much more through an accent than through the semantic content of the speech itself. To conclude, the study shows that social competition is frequently expressed in the linguistic forms used.