Networker
Jolanda Jetten, Alexander Haslam & Fiona Kate Barlow
Social Psychological and Personality Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Why are conservatives happier than liberals? Napier and Jost (2008) argue that this is because conservative ideology has a palliative (system-justifying) function that protects conservatives' (but not liberals') happiness. We develop another rationale for this effect and argue that we need to examine how ideology (e.g., conservatism) is embedded in the social system and people's own place within it. In a study (N = 816), we find that conservatives are more satisfied with life than liberals and that conservatism is associated with higher socioeconomic status (SES). Taking SES as a starting point, we find that those with high SES have access to more group memberships and that this is associated with higher life satisfaction. We failed to replicate Napier and Jost's finding that system-justifying ideology mediated the relationship between conservatism and life satisfaction. We conclude that conservatives may be happier than liberals because their high SES gives them access to more group memberships.
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Prosocial norm violations fuel power affordance
Gerben Van Kleef et al.
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
The question of what makes people rise to power has long puzzled social scientists. Here we examined the novel hypothesis that power is afforded to individuals who exhibit prosocial norm violations - i.e., breaking rules for the benefit of others. Three experiments using different methods provide support for this idea. Individuals who deliberately ignored a prohibition to tilt a bus chair (Study 1; scenario) or to close a window (Study 2; film clip) were afforded more power than individuals who obeyed the rules, but only when the norm violation benefited others (i.e., by giving them more leg space or fresh air). Study 2 further showed that this effect was mediated by perceived social engagement, which was highest among prosocial norm violators. In Study 3 (face-to-face), a confederate who stole coffee from the experimenter's desk was afforded more power than a confederate who took coffee upon invitation, but only when he also offered coffee to the participant. We discuss implications for hierarchy formation, morality, and social engagement.
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The Origins of Deference: When Do People Prefer Lower Status?
Cameron Anderson et al.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Although the desire for high status is considered universal, prior research suggests individuals often opt for lower status positions. Why would anyone favor a position of apparent disadvantage? In 5 studies, we found that the broad construct of status striving can be broken up into two conceptions: one based on rank, the other on respect. While individuals might universally desire high levels of respect, we find that they vary widely in the extent to which they strive for high-status rank, with many individuals opting for middle- or low-status rank. The status rank that individuals preferred depended on their self-perceived value to the group: when they believed they provided less value, they preferred lower status rank. Mediation and moderation analyses suggest that beliefs about others' expectations were the primary driver of these effects. Individuals who believed they provided little value to their group inferred that others expected them to occupy a lower status position. Individuals in turn conformed to these perceived expectations, accepting lower status rank in such settings.
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Online social network size is reflected in human brain structure
R. Kanai et al.
Proceedings of the Royal Society: Biological Sciences, 7 April 2012, Pages 1327-1334
Abstract:
The increasing ubiquity of web-based social networking services is a striking feature of modern human society. The degree to which individuals participate in these networks varies substantially for reasons that are unclear. Here, we show a biological basis for such variability by demonstrating that quantitative variation in the number of friends an individual declares on a web-based social networking service reliably predicted grey matter density in the right superior temporal sulcus, left middle temporal gyrus and entorhinal cortex. Such regions have been previously implicated in social perception and associative memory, respectively. We further show that variability in the size of such online friendship networks was significantly correlated with the size of more intimate real-world social groups. However, the brain regions we identified were specifically associated with online social network size, whereas the grey matter density of the amygdala was correlated both with online and real-world social network sizes. Taken together, our findings demonstrate that the size of an individual's online social network is closely linked to focal brain structure implicated in social cognition.
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Lori Beaman
Review of Economic Studies, January 2012, Pages 128-161
Abstract:
This paper examines the dynamic implications of social networks for the labour market outcomes of refugees resettled in the U.S. A theoretical model of job information transmission shows that the relationship between social network size and labour market outcomes is heterogeneous and depends on the vintage of network members: an increase in network size can negatively impact some cohorts in a network while benefiting others. To test this prediction, I use new data on political refugees resettled in the U.S. and exploit the fact that these refugees are distributed across cities by a resettlement agency, precluding individuals from sorting. The results indicate that an increase in the number of social network members resettled in the same year or one year prior to a new arrival leads to a deterioration of outcomes, while a greater number of tenured network members improves the probability of employment and raises the hourly wage.
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The role of diversity in the evolution of cooperation
Francisco Santos et al.
Journal of Theoretical Biology, 21 April 2012, Pages 88-96
Abstract:
Understanding the evolutionary mechanisms that promote and maintain cooperative behavior is recognized as a major theoretical problem where the intricacy increases with the complexity of the participating individuals. This is epitomized by the diverse nature of Human interactions, contexts, preferences and social structures. Here we discuss how social diversity, in several of its flavors, catalyzes cooperative behavior. From the diversity in the number of interactions an individual is involved to differences in the choice of role models and contributions, diversity is shown to significantly increase the chances of cooperation. Individual diversity leads to an overall population dynamics in which the underlying dilemma of cooperation is changed, benefiting the society as whole. In addition, we show how diversity in social contexts can arise from the individual capacity for organizing their social ties. As such, Human diversity, on a grand scale, may be instrumental in shaping us as the most sophisticated cooperative entities on this planet.
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Identification of the Social and Cognitive Processes Underlying Human Cumulative Culture
L.G. Dean et al.
Science, 2 March 2012, Pages 1114-1118
Abstract:
The remarkable ecological and demographic success of humanity is largely attributed to our capacity for cumulative culture, with knowledge and technology accumulating over time, yet the social and cognitive capabilities that have enabled cumulative culture remain unclear. In a comparative study of sequential problem solving, we provided groups of capuchin monkeys, chimpanzees, and children with an experimental puzzlebox that could be solved in three stages to retrieve rewards of increasing desirability. The success of the children, but not of the chimpanzees or capuchins, in reaching higher-level solutions was strongly associated with a package of sociocognitive processes - including teaching through verbal instruction, imitation, and prosociality - that were observed only in the children and covaried with performance.
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Learning from private and public observations of others? actions
Manuel Amador & Pierre-Olivier Weill
Journal of Economic Theory, forthcoming
Abstract:
We study the diffusion of dispersed private information in a large economy, where agents learn from the actions of others through two channels: a public channel, such as equilibrium market prices, and a private channel, for example local interactions. We show that, when agents learn only from the public channel, an initial release of public information increases agents? total knowledge at all times and increases welfare. When a private learning channel is present, this result is reversed: more initial public information reduces agents asymptotic knowledge by an amount in order of log(t) units of precision. When agents are sufficiently patient, this reduces welfare.
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Anarchy, groups, and conflict: An experiment on the emergence of protective associations
Adam Smith, David Skarbek & Bart Wilson
Social Choice and Welfare, February 2012, Pages 325-353
Abstract:
In this article, we investigate the implications of the philosophical considerations presented in Nozick's Anarchy, State, and Utopia, by examining group formation in a laboratory setting where subjects engage in both cooperative and conflictual interactions. We endow participants with a commodity used to generate earnings, plunder others, or protect against plunder. In our primary treatment, we allow participants to form groups to pool their resources. We conduct a baseline comparison treatment that does not allow group formation. We find that allowing subjects to organize themselves into groups does not lead to more cooperation and may in fact exacerbate tendencies towards conflict.
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The accumulating effects of shared expectations
Jennifer Willard et al.
European Journal of Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
This research examined whether self-fulfilling prophecies and perceptual confirmation effects accumulated across people. Trios of same-sex participants, each consisting of two interviewers and one target, were randomly assigned to one of three conditions that served to manipulate interviewers' expectations (i.e., non-hostile vs. hostile) and the similarity of their expectations (i.e., similar vs. dissimilar) for targets. Each trio participated in an interaction in which interviewers asked targets questions. Targets' hostility during the interaction and interviewers' impressions of targets' hostility following the interaction served as the primary dependent variables. Results indicated that perceptual confirmation effects accumulated across interviewers. Even though targets' behavior during the interaction did not differ across conditions, interviewers nonetheless judged targets as more hostile when both interviewers expected targets to be hostile than when only one did. The authors discuss these findings in terms of the potential implications for those who have multiple inaccurate and unfavorable expectations held about them.
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Lea Ellwardt, Giuseppe Labianca & Rafael Wittek
Social Networks, May 2012, Pages 193-205
Abstract:
Gossip is informal talking about colleagues. Taking a social network perspective, we argue that group boundaries and social status in the informal workplace network determine who the objects of positive and negative gossip are. Gossip networks were collected among 36 employees in a public child care organization, and analyzed using exponential random graph modeling (ERGM). As hypothesized, both positive and negative gossip focuses on colleagues from the own gossiper's work group. Negative gossip is relatively targeted, with the objects being specific individuals, particularly those low in informal status. Positive gossip, in contrast, is spread more evenly throughout the network.
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Similarity in peer college preferences: New evidence from Texas
Jason Fletcher
Social Science Research, March 2012, Pages 321-330
Abstract:
In this paper, I use survey data from high school students in Texas to examine the magnitude of peer correlation in college preferences and choices. In this survey, respondents (and their classmates) recorded their preferences for attending specific colleges, and a follow up survey recorded their college enrollment decisions. This paper uses this information to present the first empirical examination of whether individuals who report preferences for "popular" colleges are more likely to attend their preferred college. The rich data set allows the use of often unavailable information such as distance to college, and the construction of the "popularity" variable allows the use of school-level fixed effects. Results indicate that individuals with 10 percentage points more classmates with matching college preferences are 3 percentage points more likely to enroll in their preferred college.
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iPhones for friends, refrigerators for family: How products prime social networks
Lalin Anik & Michael Norton
Social Influence, forthcoming
Abstract:
We show that priming consumers with products associated with specific social networks increases the salience of those networks, influencing both word-of-mouth intentions and consumption. Consumers were exposed to friend- or family-related products (e.g., game consoles or refrigerators); when asked to list the first people they knew who came to mind, they were more likely to list members of primed networks (Study 1). Product priming also increases the speed with which product-relevant individuals come to mind (Study 2). In Study 3 consumers felt subjectively closer to networks primed by specific products, and this felt closeness predicted subsequent word-of-mouth intentions. Finally, Study 4 shows that priming relevant networks (e.g., family or friends) makes products associated with those networks more attractive.
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The hoolifan: Positive fan attitudes to football 'hooliganism'
Joel Rookwood & Geoff Pearson
International Review for the Sociology of Sport, April 2012, Pages 149-164
Abstract:
Popular accounts of 'football hooliganism' have identified the phenomenon as being harmful and damaging for both the sport of football and the interests of spectators who attend matches. As a result, it has been generally assumed that 'non-hooligan' supporters disapprove of their hooligan counterparts and their activities. However, this one-sided account does not recognize the views of a significant proportion of match-going fans who consistently express positive attitudes towards the 'hooligans' who follow their team. Based on a series of ethnographic studies of football fans from 1995 to 2010, this article casts light on the positive role that hooligans are perceived to perform by many fans who attend home and away matches with their club. The research demonstrated that hooligans were believed to play vital roles in distraction, protection and reputation for many non-hooligan fans and even when fans did express disapproval of 'hooligan' activity, this was often for practical rather than moral reasons. Furthermore, fans who express positive attitudes to hooliganism - or 'hoolifans' - have to be acknowledged and understood if the problem of football crowd disorder is to be controlled.
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Lijun Song
Social Networks, May 2012, Pages 241-252
Abstract:
Does raising non-adult children facilitate or restrict access to social capital as network resources? Using data from a national sample of adults in the United States, I do not find evidence for the direct effect of parenthood on the three dimensions of social capital (diversity, extensity, and quality), but instead I find evidence for its interaction effects on the quality of social capital. There is marginal evidence that parenthood status is associated with the quality of social capital positively for men but negatively for women. There is evidence that parenthood status is associated with the quality of social capital positively for the married but negatively for the unmarried. Also parenthood status is associated with the quality of social capital negatively for unmarried women but positively for the other three gender-marital groups, in particular unmarried men. These findings suggest the structural interplay of parenthood status with gender and marital status, and indicate the motherhood penalty, the fatherhood premium, the single-parenthood penalty, the married-parenthood premium, and the single-motherhood penalty in reaching higher-quality, rather than more diverse and extensive, social capital.
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Noona Kiuru et al.
Journal of Adolescent Health, March 2012, Pages 250-255
Purpose: This study examined the role of two different types of peer socialization (convergence, contagion) in adolescents' depression, adjusting for the effects of peer selection and deselection.
Methods: The sample used in this study comprised 949 Finnish adolescents (56% females; mean age: 16 years at the outset) attending classrooms in eight secondary schools. Participants identified three school peers and reported depressive symptoms twice, 1 year apart. Sociometric and behavioral data were analyzed using dynamic social network analysis.
Results: Adolescents initiated relationships with peers who reported similar levels of depression before initiation of the relationship, and dissolved relationships with peers who became dissimilar in depression from time 1
(T1) to time 2 (T2). The average score of peers' depressive symptoms at T1 predicted changes in adolescent depression at T2 (convergence), but adolescents with peers who reported relatively higher initial levels of depression did not report an increase in depression (contagion).
Conclusions: Over time, adolescents' depressive symptoms increasingly converged toward the average levels of their peers, but this convergence was not primarily because of contagion effects. The findings suggest that socialization processes can lead to both increases and decreases in adolescent depression, depending on peers' average level of depression.
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Non-Monetary Incentives and Opportunistic Behavior: Evidence from a Laboratory Public Good Game
Subhasish Dugar
Economic Inquiry, forthcoming
Abstract:
This study reports data from a laboratory experiment that investigates the incentive effect of three distinct social communication schemes on free-riding behavior. We use performance-based approval and disapproval ratings and a linear public good game to address the above issues. The treatments vary in terms of subjects' opportunities to anonymously assign (1) only the approval ratings to other group members, (2) only the disapproval ratings to other group members, and (3) either the approval or the disapproval ratings to other group members (but not both to the same group member), after they play a standard linear public good game. Despite the Nash prediction of zero individual contribution in all three treatments, the data show that the disapproval points generate significantly higher contribution than the approval points. The treatment in which subjects could communicate either the approval or the disapproval points produces the highest level of contribution. We discuss the implications that these findings may have for efficient design of organizations.
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The take-it-or-leave-it option allows small penalties to overcome social dilemmas
Tatsuya Sasaki et al.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 24 January 2012, Pages 1165-1169
Abstract:
Self-interest frequently causes individuals engaged in joint enterprises to choose actions that are counterproductive. Free-riders can invade a society of cooperators, causing a tragedy of the commons. Such social dilemmas can be overcome by positive or negative incentives. Even though an incentive-providing institution may protect a cooperative society from invasion by free-riders, it cannot always convert a society of free-riders to cooperation. In the latter case, both norms, cooperation and defection, are stable: To avoid a collapse to full defection, cooperators must be sufficiently numerous initially. A society of free-riders is then caught in a social trap, and the institution is unable to provide an escape, except at a high, possibly prohibitive cost. Here, we analyze the interplay of (a) incentives provided by institutions and (b) the effects of voluntary participation. We show that this combination fundamentally improves the efficiency of incentives. In particular, optional participation allows institutions punishing free-riders to overcome the social dilemma at a much lower cost, and to promote a globally stable regime of cooperation. This removes the social trap and implies that whenever a society of cooperators cannot be invaded by free-riders, it will necessarily become established in the long run, through social learning, irrespective of the initial number of cooperators. We also demonstrate that punishing provides a "lighter touch" than rewarding, guaranteeing full cooperation at considerably lower cost.
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Dark matters: Exploitation as cooperation
Partha Dasgupta
Journal of Theoretical Biology, 21 April 2012, Pages 180-187
Abstract:
The empirical literature on human cooperation contains studies of communitarian institutions that govern the provision of public goods and management of common property resources in poor countries. Scholars studying those institutions have frequently used the Prisoners' Dilemma game as their theoretical tool-kit. But neither the provision of local public goods nor the management of local common property resources involves the Prisoners' Dilemma. That has implications for our reading of communitarian institutions. By applying a fundamental result in the theory of repeated games to a model of local common property resources, it is shown that communitarian institutions can harbour exploitation of fellow members, something that would not be possible in societies where cooperation amounts to overcoming the Prisoners' Dilemma. The conclusion we should draw is that exploitation can masquerade as cooperation.