Building Cumulative Culture

This chapter begins with a discussion of methodological issues about historical reconstruction and scenario-building. To what extent can a theory of the emergence of human social behaviour be empirically constrained? What is known (and what is not known) of the behaviour of early humans? The chapter then turns to a substantive project: developing an account of the gradual expansion of cultural learning in the hominin lineage, and of the archaeological signatures of a gradual increase in bandwidth and reliability of that learning. The emphasis in this chapter is the importance of cultural learning in making cooperation increasingly profitable.

How does gaze to faces support face-to-face interaction? A review and perspective

Gaze – where one looks, how long, and when – plays an essential part in human social behaviour. While many aspects of social gaze have been reviewed, there is no comprehensive review or theoretical framework that describes how gaze to faces supports face-to-face interaction. In this review, I address the following questions: (1) When does gaze need to be allocated to a particular region of a face in order to provide the relevant information for successful interaction; (2) How do humans look at other people, and faces in particular, regardless of whether gaze needs to be directed at a particular region to acquire the relevant visual information; (3) How does gaze support the regulation of interaction? The work reviewed spans psychophysical research, observational research and eye-tracking research in both lab-based and interactive contexts. Based on the literature overview, I sketch a framework for future research based on dynamic systems theory. The framework holds that gaze should be investigated in relation to sub-states of the interaction, encompassing sub-states of the interactors, the content of the interaction as well as the interactive context. The relevant sub-states for understanding gaze in interaction vary over different timescales from microgenesis to ontogenesis and phylogenesis. The framework has important implications for vision science, psychopathology, developmental science and social robotics.

Hume’s Jurisprudence

This chapter continues the discussion of Hume's theory of justice. Justice addresses the problems arising from the inevitable interdependence of human social behaviour. The sole virtue of justice lies in coordinating this social interaction. Its necessity lies in the disastrous consequences of failure to coordinate it. The special genius of Hume's account of justice lies in his realization of the fact that in this necessity, and the strategic interdependence of social behaviour, also lies the possibility of success. The problem, as Hume sees it, is to explain how general concurrence in a scheme of rules for mutual benefit might arise. Hume's explanation involves giving an account of the strategic situation facing each of the parties in the group and a description of the processes of self-adjustment of belief, intention, and sentiment which result from recognition of this situation. His argument proceeds in two stages: in the first he explains the emergence of a sense of common interest; in the second he explains how this convention is made specific.

Economic trust in young children

Mutually beneficial interactions often require trust that others will reciprocate. Such interpersonal trust is foundational to evolutionarily unique aspects of human social behaviour, such as economic exchange. In adults, interpersonal trust is often assessed using the ‘trust game’, in which a lender invests resources in a trustee who may or may not repay the loan. This game captures two crucial elements of economic exchange: the potential for greater mutual benefits by trusting in others, and the moral hazard that others may betray that trust. While adults across cultures can trust others, little is known about the developmental origins of this crucial cooperative ability. We developed the first version of the trust game for use with young children that addresses these two components of trust. Across three experiments, we demonstrate that 4- and 6-year-olds recognize opportunities to invest in others, sharing more when reciprocation is possible than in a context measuring pure generosity. Yet, children become better with age at investing in trustworthy over untrustworthy partners, indicating that this cooperative skill emerges later in ontogeny. Together, our results indicate that young children can engage in complex economic exchanges involving judgements about interpersonal trust and show increasing sensitivity to appropriate partners over development.

A Kuramoto model of self-other integration across interpersonal synchronization strategies

Human social behaviour is complex, and the biological and neural mechanisms underpinning it remain debated1,2. A particularly interesting social phenomenon is our ability and tendency to fall into synchrony with other humans3,4. Our ability to coordinate actions and goals relies on the ability to distinguish between and integrate self and other, which when impaired can lead to devastating consequences. Interpersonal synchronization has been a widely used framework for studying action coordination and self-other integration, showing that in simple interactions, such as joint finger tapping, complex interpersonal dynamics emerge. Here we propose a computational model of self-other integration via within- and between-person action-perception links, implemented as a simple Kuramoto model with four oscillators. The model abstracts each member of a dyad as a unit consisting of two connected oscillators, representing intrinsic processes of perception and action. By fitting this model to data from two separate experiments we show that interpersonal synchronization strategies rely on the relationship between within- and between-unit coupling. Specifically, mutual adaptation exhibits a higher between-unit coupling than within-unit coupling; leading-following requires that the follower unit has a low within-unit coupling; and leading-leading occurs when two units jointly exhibit a low between-unit coupling. These findings are consistent with the theory of interpersonal synchronization emerging through self-other integration mediated by processes of action-perception coupling4. Hence, our results show that chaotic human behaviour occurring on a millisecond scale can be modelled using coupled oscillators.

The multifarious oxytocin: a review

Oxytocin over centuries has always been regarded as the drug of paramount importance during childbirth. Oxytocin, a peptide hormone facilitates parturition and breastfeeding. These nine amino acid peptides have presently been found to be associated with a wide variety of pathophysiological functions associated with social behaviours. It has been recently recognised as an important modulator of human social behaviour. Its correlation as a common factor important in various neuropsychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, personality disorders and autism, mood and anxiety disorders has been highlighted. Anticipatory role of oxytocin in osteoporosis, diabetes and cancer has been coaxing the researchers for developing new therapeutic modalities. Over a course of past 100 years, oxytocin has come a long way from being an insipid agent used as an aid in labour and delivery to the drug of neuropsychiatric conditions. This review article summarises the varied functions of oxytocin, its apt dosing when used therapeutically and reinforcement of development of new lines of treatment involving the use of oxytocin and antagonists for multiple human disorders.

Weinberger, Ota (1919–2009)

Weinberger is noted as a proponent of ‘institutionalist positivism’ in legal theory. By contrast with earlier forms of so-called ‘institutionalism’ in law, Weinberger advances a theory in which norms are ideal entities linked by logical relations inter se, while being at the same time social realities identifiable in terms of the effect they exercise in guiding human social behaviour. The institutions which make possible this duality of ideal entity and social reality have themselves to be understood as structured by norms. Hence, in contrast with earlier proponents of institutionalism, who denied the foundation of law in norms, Weinberger is normativist in his approach; and for the metaphysical vitalism of precursors, he substitutes a social realism.

Associations between Oxytocin Receptor Gene Polymorphisms, Empathy towards Animals and Implicit Associations towards Animals

Oxytocin has been well researched in association with psychological variables and is widely accepted as a key modulator of human social behaviour. Previous work indicates involvement of oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in human-human empathy, however little is known about associations of OXTR SNPs with empathy and affective reactions of humans towards animals. Five OXTR SNPs previously found to associate with human social behaviour were genotyped in 161 students. Empathy towards animals and implicit associations were evaluated. A General Linear Model was used to investigate the OXTR alleles and allelic combinations along with socio-demographic variables and their influence on empathy towards animals. Empathy towards animals showed a significant association with OXTR SNP rs2254298; homozygous G individuals reported higher levels of empathy towards animals than heterozygous (GA). Our preliminary findings show, for the first time, that between allelic variation in OXTR and animal directed empathy in humans maybe associated, suggesting that OXTRs social behaviour role crosses species boundaries, warranting independent replication.