Social information use and social information waste

Social information is immensely valuable. Yet we waste it. The information we get from observing other humans and from communicating with them is a cheap and reliable informational resource. It is considered the backbone of human cultural evolution. Theories and models focused on the evolution of social learning show the great adaptive benefits of evolving cognitive tools to process it. In spite of this, human adults in the experimental literature use social information quite inefficiently: they do not take it sufficiently into account. A comprehensive review of the literature on five experimental tasks documented 45 studies showing social information waste, and four studies showing social information being over-used. These studies cover ‘egocentric discounting’ phenomena as studied by social psychology, but also include experimental social learning studies. Social information waste means that human adults fail to give social information its optimal weight. Both proximal explanations and accounts derived from evolutionary theory leave crucial aspects of the phenomenon unaccounted for: egocentric discounting is a pervasive effect that no single unifying explanation fully captures. Cultural evolutionary theory's insistence on the power and benefits of social influence is to be balanced against this phenomenon. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Foundations of cultural evolution’.

THE COLLECTION OF THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR PARTICIPANTS' PERSONAL DOCUMENTS IN SOGASPI AS A SCIENTIFIC AND INFORMATIONAL RESOURCE

The article describes the biographies of the Great Patriotic War participants, analyzes the collection of their documents in the Samara regional state archive of socio-political history, determines its historical and informational potential for specific historical research on the history of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.

Coal as a collection object and a source of knowledge

At the current stage, museum collections on natural history play an important role in the fundamental and applied research activity and are an essential part of popularizing Earth sciences. This article focuses on natural-scientific collections of the Institute of Coal (which is a structural unit of the Federal Research Center for Coal and Petrochemistry of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences), documenting interdisciplinary scientific knowledge about coal. Through methods of petrochemical, petrographic and geological research, as well as museological approach systematizing natural samples, the systematic, thematic and educational collections have been formed. They include coals of the Kuzbass and other coal basins, rock formations and paleonthological objects. Being a specific form of preservation of certain natural history processes of regional and global significance, a systematized collection is a tangible and informational resource of scientific explorations. Realization of its scientific-informational potential promotes popularization of the scientific knowledge and search for answers to solve environmental problems.

SPECIFICS OF THE INFORMATIONAL ENVIRONMENT OF SUBCULTURES AND ITS ROLE IN THE ESTABLISHMENT OF LEGAL CONSCIOUSNESS OF MEMBERS OF TERRORIST AND EXTREMIST GROUPS

The phenomenon of the informational environment of subcultures is reviewed as the aggregate of a specific set of knowledge, evaluations of the outside environment, terminology and slang that may be formed in its potential carriers, including artificially, which is important to raise efficiency of prevention of the involvement of citizens in extremist and terrorist organizations. It is noted that the minimum required set of attributes is more often formed artificially for gradual involvement of citizens in this or that subculture. The threshold of resistance to the involvement in a subculture is significantly lowered following gradual habituation to the use of a specific set of attributes by their imposing or inducement for voluntary use. This phenomenon is successfully tested by political strategists in many countries of the world including on the example of color revolutions. Mass media and telecommunications often act as a guiding force for such actions. The mechanism of manipulation of historical and other events, distortion of actual events is used to reinforce the required suggestions and raise the impact of attributes. The authors justify the need for timely identification of attributes of extremism and terrorism subcultures in the informational environment including mass media. As one of practical measures, it is suggested to increase the liability of mass media and other public informational resource owners for reliability of distributed data, disallowing intentional distortion of historical facts, events, phenomena of public life and their unproven and especially intentionally distorted interpretations.

Social information use and social information waste

Social information is immensely valuable. Yet we waste it. The information we get from observing other humans and from communicating with them is a cheap and reliable informational resource. It is considered the backbone of human cultural evolution. Theories and models focused on the evolution of social learning show the great adaptive benefits of evolving cognitive tools to process it. In spite of this, human adults in the experimental literature use social information quite inefficiently: they do not take it sufficiently into account. A comprehensive review of the literature on five experimental tasks documented 45 studies showing social information waste, and 4 studies showing social information being over-used. These studies cover “egocentric discounting” phenomena as studied by social psychology, but also include experimental social learning studies. Social information waste means that human adults fail to give social information its optimal weight. Both proximal explanations and accounts derived from evolutionary theory leave crucial aspects of the phenomenon unaccounted for: egocentric discounting is a pervasive effect that no single unifying explanation fully captures. Cultural evolutionary theory’s insistence on the power and benefits of social influence is to be balanced against this phenomenon.

The adversarial defence lawyer: Myths, disclosure and efficiency—A contemporary analysis of the role in the era of the Criminal Procedure Rules

This article contends that piecemeal changes to the adversarial process since the dawn of the new millennium have transformed the CJS. The advent of (near) compulsory disclosure means the defendant has to reveal many elements of his defence. This dilutes the adversarial battle and leaves a process which is managerialist in nature. The Early Guilty Plea system is a mechanism to increase the efficiency by stemming the amount of cases reaching the trial stage. This has an impact on the defence lawyer’s role and renders him conflicted between advancing the best interest of the client against other pre-trial obligations. This small empirical study suggests that classic adversarial lawyers are seen as a relic of a bygone era. The modern criminal justice system prioritises speed and efficiency. If a case reaches court, the defendant is treated as an ‘informational resource’ of the court reminiscent of his position in the 17th century.

Parent Perceptions of Initial Feeding Experiences of Children Born With Cleft Palate in a Rural Locale

Background and Hypothesis: An early problem frequently present in infants born with cleft lip (CL), cleft lip and palate (CLP), or cleft palate (CP) is difficulty feeding. In many cases, health-care professionals are not familiar with the appropriate feeding techniques and unable to instruct parents correctly. This problem can be particularly significant in rural areas where health-care resources are limited and children with clefts are seen on an infrequent basis. The purpose of the investigation was to study the initial feeding experiences of parents who reside in rural areas and whose children were born with CL, CLP, or CP. Method: A 29-item questionnaire was developed and administered to 26 families. The results were analyzed and summarized descriptively. Results and Conclusion: The majority of parents reported initial difficulties with feeding their infants. They indicated the need to seek information and assistance from various sources. As a result of the findings, an informational resource was developed to inform rural health-care professionals of the early feeding issues of children born with CL, CLP, or CP.

Public Service Broadcasting as a Digital Commons

This chapter argues that despite a communications environment increasingly organized around digital networks, there is a compelling case for extending the BBC's public service remit. There are three reasons for this. Firstly, successive cuts to public expenditure have seen a major contraction in the public information and cultural facilities previously available in local communities. These cuts render the maintenance of public service broadcasting as a comprehensive cultural and informational resource open to all and free at the point of use more essential than ever. Secondly, this is particularly true of households on low incomes. Thirdly, users accessing commercially provided ‘free’ digital facilities now encounter a system where the most popular online, activities are dominated by a handful of mega corporations — Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple — all based outside the UK and generating profits by harvesting and selling users' personal data. According to the former president of the European parliament Martin Schulz, these companies must not be allowed to shape the new world order.