Social hierarchies and social networks in humans

Across species, social hierarchies are often governed by dominance relations. In humans, where there are multiple culturally valued axes of distinction, social hierarchies can take a variety of forms and need not rest on dominance relations. Consequently, humans navigate multiple domains of status, i.e. relative standing. Importantly, while these hierarchies may be constructed from dyadic interactions, they are often more fundamentally guided by subjective peer evaluations and group perceptions. Researchers have typically focused on the distinct elements that shape individuals’ relative standing, with some emphasizing individual-level attributes and others outlining emergent macro-level structural outcomes. Here, we synthesize work across the social sciences to suggest that the dynamic interplay between individual-level and meso-level properties of the social networks in which individuals are embedded are crucial for understanding the diverse processes of status differentiation across groups. More specifically, we observe that humans not only navigate multiple social hierarchies at any given time but also simultaneously operate within multiple, overlapping social networks. There are important dynamic feedbacks between social hierarchies and the characteristics of social networks, as the types of social relationships, their structural properties, and the relative position of individuals within them both influence and are influenced by status differentiation. This article is part of the theme issue ‘The centennial of the pecking order: current state and future prospects for the study of dominance hierarchies’.

RELATIVE STANDING OF ROE AND ROCE IN EFFECTIVE LIQUIDITY MANAGEMENT: EVIDENCE FROM BANGLADESHI COMMERCIAL BANKS

This study has been designed for examining the effectiveness of liquidity management through the relative standing of ROE and ROCE of Nationalized Commercial Banks in Bangladesh for the duration of 2008–2018. Six NCBs are selected purposively as sample. The study relies on a balanced panel data set of 66 observations which are gathered from the annual reports of banks and analyzed by random effects regression model. However, the research only examined a few variables. The empirical results reveal that the selected NCBs have been portraying better standing in case of ROE than ROCE in effective liquidity management. The value of R2 of ROE is 75.25%; it signifies that the explanatory measures could clarify 75.25% of the variations in ROE. Among the liquidity measures, Assets/Shareholders Equity has highly significant negative effect; Tier 1 Capital/Risk Weighted Assets has highly significant positive effect; Deposits/Assets have some significant positive and Bank Size in terms of Deposits has some significant negative effect on ROE of the selected NCBs.

RELATIVE STANDING OF ROE AND ROCE IN EFFECTIVE LIQUIDITY MANAGEMENT: EVIDENCE FROM BANGLADESHI COMMERCIAL BANKS

This study has been designed for examining the effectiveness of liquidity management through the relative standing of ROE and ROCE of Nationalized Commercial Banks in Bangladesh for the duration of 2008–2018. Six NCBs are selected purposively as sample. The study relies on a balanced panel data set of 66 observations which are gathered from the annual reports of banks and analyzed by random effects regression model. However, the research only examined a few variables. The empirical results reveal that the selected NCBs have been portraying better standing in case of ROE than ROCE in effective liquidity management. The value of R2 of ROE is 75.25%; it signifies that the explanatory measures could clarify 75.25% of the variations in ROE. Among the liquidity measures, Assets/Shareholders Equity has highly significant negative effect; Tier 1 Capital/Risk Weighted Assets has highly significant positive effect; Deposits/Assets have some significant positive and Bank Size in terms of Deposits has some significant negative effect on ROE of the selected NCBs.

Factors predicting classroom WTC in English and French as foreign languages among adult learners in Spain

This study aimed to identify associations and predictors of willingness to communicate (WTC) of adult foreign language (FL) learners and whether they are contingent upon the FL being learned. To this end, our research investigated learner variables associated with WTC in adult FL learners of English and of French in an under-researched field of WTC studies in Spain. More specifically, the following variables were studied: gender, age, level of multilingualism, perceived relative standing in the class, language proficiency, teacher’s use of the FL in class, out-of-class foreign language use (OCFLU) and the two emotions of foreign language enjoyment (FLE) and foreign language classroom anxiety (FLCA). Of the 9 independent variables examined, FLCA and language proficiency were found to be predictors of the WTC of both English and French language learners; additionally, enjoyment was found to be a predictor of WTC of learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) and OCFLU, of learners of French as a foreign language (FFL). Our findings indicate that the construct of WTC needs to be further studied as research may produce dissimilar results depending on the instructional setting, population and foreign language. Pedagogical implications for language teaching practices seeking to enhance adult FL learners’ WTC were also drawn from the study results.

Social Comparison Information Influences Intentions to Reduce Single-Use Plastic Water Bottle Consumption

Single-use plastic consumption is at an all-time high and threatens environmental and human health. College campuses in particular serve as a hub for single-use plastics due to their convenience for students on the go. The present research tests whether social comparison information can influence self-perceptions of single-use plastic consumption and motivate behavior change within the college campus environment. In a controlled experiment, we measured college students' existing plastic water bottle usage and gave them false feedback about their behaviors and relative standing to their classmates: participants in comparison conditions learned they were either above or below average in their plastic water bottle sustainability behaviors. Results indicated that (relative to a no-comparison control), being above average at water bottle sustainability led students to be more satisfied with their sustainability efforts. However, either kind of comparison information (i.e., being above or below average) led to greater behavioral intentions to reduce single-use plastic water bottle consumption in the future. This study highlights how comparison information can be used to motivate sustainable behavior change with regards to single-use plastics.

Preferences and beliefs in intergroup conflict

Participation in intergroup conflict is often framed as a matter of ‘in-group love’ or ‘out-group hate’. Indeed, theoretical accounts including social identity theory and parochial altruism suggest that such group-based preferences are inextricably linked. According to this view, individuals engage in intergroup conflict, including harmful behaviour towards out-group members, in order to improve the relative standing of their in-group. However, individuals may also engage in intergroup conflict to reciprocate beneficial behaviour from their in-group members or harmful behaviour from out-group members. We elicited both preferences towards in-group and out- group members and beliefs about in-group and out-group members’ behaviours prior to playing an experimental conflict game with natural groups (N = 973). In this game, individuals could engage in costly behaviour to either benefit their in-group (without consequences to the out-group) or to both benefit their in-group and harm the out-group. In this setting, both preferences and beliefs contributed to explaining in-group beneficial and out-group harming behaviour. However, beliefs played an overall stronger role than preferences in explaining behaviour. This suggests that participation in intergroup conflict is better explained by positive and negative reciprocity than purely by group-based preferences.

Social Hierarchy and Social Networks in Humans

Across species, social hierarchies are often governed by dominance relations. In humans, where there are multiple culturally-valued axes of distinction, social hierarchies can take a variety of forms and need not rest on dominance relations. Consequently, humans navigate multiple domains of status, i.e., relative standing. Importantly, while these hierarchies may be constructed from dyadic interactions, they are often more fundamentally guided by subjective peer evaluations and group perceptions. Researchers have typically focused on the distinct elements that shape individuals’ relative standing, with some emphasising individual-level attributes and others outlining emergent macro-level structural outcomes. Here, we synthesise work across the social sciences to suggest that the dynamic interplay between individual-level and meso-level properties of the social networks in which individuals are embedded are crucial for understanding the diverse processes of status differentiation across groups. More specifically, we observe that humans not only navigate multiple social hierarchies at any given time, but also simultaneously operate within multiple, overlapping social networks. There are important dynamic feedbacks between social hierarchies and the characteristics of social networks, as the types of social relationships, their structural properties, and the relative position of individuals within them both influence and are influenced by status differentiation.

Unravelling into war: trust and social preferences in Hobbes’s state of nature

According to Hobbes, individuals care about their relative standing in a way that shapes their social interactions. To model this aspect of Hobbesian psychology, this paper supposes that agents have social preferences, that is, preferences about their comparative resource holdings. Introducing uncertainty regarding the social preferences of others unleashes a process of trust-unravelling, ultimately leading to Hobbes’s ‘state of war’. This Trust-unravelling Model incorporates important features of Hobbes’s argument that past models ignore.

Integrated remote sensing and GIS techniques to delineate groundwater potential area of Chamchamal basin, Sulaymaniyah, NE Iraq

Groundwater management in the semi-arid areas is a crucial issue and requires more scientific study and techniques. Groundwater potential areas for part of the Chamchamal basin are determined using two techniques, the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and a geographic information system (GIS). Several Input factors were used to produce a thematic map, including geology, structure, drainage density, land-use/landcover, slope steepness, lineament density, and hydrogeology. Based on the relative importance, the layers are ranked which control the groundwater potential areas. The factor classified into several zones builds upon the hydrogeological characteristics and the classes weighted based on the relative standing to the potential area of groundwater. The output of the analysis showed that there are four zones of groundwater potential, good, moderate, poor, and very poor. The zones cover 10.4, 38.7, 43.93, and 6.96% of the area, respectively. Furthermore, the results showed that the southwest part of the area is the most favorable area for groundwater existence. While the center and some parts of the northeast characterized by low groundwater potential zones. To verify the final potential zones, the yield rates of 38 wells are used. The verification process verified that the categories of groundwater potential areas are closed to the results obtained from (AHP) and (GIS).