Changes In Collective Behaviour Research Articles

Change in RhoGAP and RhoGEF availability drives transitions in cortical patterning and excitability in Drosophila

Actin cortex patterning and dynamics are critical for cell shape changes. These dynamics undergo transitions during development, often accompanying changes in collective cell behavior. Although mechanisms have been established for individual cells' dynamic behaviors, the mechanisms and specific molecules that result in developmental transitions invivo are still poorly understood. Here, we took advantage of two developmental systems in Drosophila melanogaster to identify conditions that altered cortical patterning and dynamics. We identified a Rho guanine nucleotide exchange factor (RhoGEF) and Rho GTPase activating protein (RhoGAP) pair required for actomyosin waves in egg chambers. Specifically, depletion of the RhoGEF, Ect2, or the RhoGAP, RhoGAP15B, disrupted actomyosin wave induction, and both proteins relocalized from the nucleus to the cortex preceding wave formation. Furthermore, we found that overexpression of a different RhoGEF and RhoGAP pair, RhoGEF2 and Cumberland GAP (C-GAP), resulted in actomyosin waves in the early embryo, during which RhoA activation precedes actomyosin assembly by ∼4 s. We found that C-GAP was recruited to actomyosin waves, and disrupting F-actin polymerization altered the spatial organization of both RhoA signaling and the cytoskeleton in waves. In addition, disrupting F-actin dynamics increased wave period and width, consistent with a possible role for F-actin in promoting delayed negative feedback. Overall, we showed a mechanism involved in inducing actomyosin waves that is essential for oocyte development and is general to other cell types, such as epithelial and syncytial cells.

Corporate Scandals as Punctuating Events That Change Human Resource Roles

Corporate scandals disrupt the landscape for organizational leaders and employees, providing a burning platform that creates new momentum for change. Here, we explore the implications for the human resources (HR) function as organization-level responses to scandals cannot occur without individual-level changes in employee behaviors—the domain of HR. We apply event systems theorizing to uncover the nature of the scandals through notions of strength, space, and time to better understand the range of possible outcomes for HR function roles. Empirical data are presented from in-depth qualitative case studies carried out in five large multinational corporations in the pharmaceutical, chemical, and financial services industries. Subsequently, we uncover how organization-level scandals punctuate the equilibrium of organizational operations, facilitating a recalibration of the balance between the potentially competing institutional logics of moral legitimacy and business priorities. We furthermore challenge universal HR role typology theorizing regarding the direct influence of external stakeholders on the role that HR can adopt inside organizations. Overall, we demonstrate that organizational responses to corporate scandals require individual-level and collective employee behavior change, placing the HR function at the intersection of managing risk, compliance, and legal requirements.

How Do Bystanders Help in Drinking Situations: The Bystanders to Alcohol Risk Scale--Strategies.

Bystander intervention (BI) is a promising approach for promoting collective behavior change that has been applied to several domains, including sexual assault, bullying, and more recently, problematic alcohol use. Accurately measuring the strategies that bystanders use to reduce others' alcohol-related risk is an essential step toward improving bystanders' ability to reduce alcohol-related harm in their communities, but current measures of BI are not easily modifiable and applicable for alcohol-related BI. The current study aimed to develop a valid and reliable measure of the bystander construct most proximal to the reduction of risk: bystander strategies. Young adults (N = 1,011) who reported being around someone who showed signs of alcohol intoxication in the past 3 months were recruited via Qualtrics Panels to participate in an online survey; a subsample (n = 345) completed a 2-week follow-up. Psychometric evaluation included exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, item response theory analyses, convergent validity, and test-retest reliability. An initial set of 52 items was reduced to 17 items, representing two different factors. The first factor, Level 1, reflected strategies used during circumstances of acute risk. The second factor, Level 2, reflected strategies used to reduce risk for more longstanding problems with alcohol. Both factors demonstrated good model fit, strong internal consistency, evidence of convergent validity, and moderate test-retest reliability. This novel measure can contribute to the production of knowledge about the use and efficacy of peer-focused strategies and the value of BI training for alcohol use.

Social and moral psychology of COVID-19 across 69 countries

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected all domains of human life, including the economic and social fabric of societies. One of the central strategies for managing public health throughout the pandemic has been through persuasive messaging and collective behaviour change. To help scholars better understand the social and moral psychology behind public health behaviour, we present a dataset comprising of 51,404 individuals from 69 countries. This dataset was collected for the International Collaboration on Social & Moral Psychology of COVID-19 project (ICSMP COVID-19). This social science survey invited participants around the world to complete a series of moral and psychological measures and public health attitudes about COVID-19 during an early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic (between April and June 2020). The survey included seven broad categories of questions: COVID-19 beliefs and compliance behaviours; identity and social attitudes; ideology; health and well-being; moral beliefs and motivation; personality traits; and demographic variables. We report both raw and cleaned data, along with all survey materials, data visualisations, and psychometric evaluations of key variables.

The Role of Posterior Neural Plate-Derived Presomitic Mesoderm (PSM) in Trunk and Tail Muscle Formation and Axis Elongation.

Elongation of the posterior body axis is distinct from that of the anterior trunk and head. Early drivers of posterior elongation are the neural plate/tube and notochord, later followed by the presomitic mesoderm (PSM), together with the neural tube and notochord. In axolotl, posterior neural plate-derived PSM is pushed posteriorly by convergence and extension of the neural plate. The PSM does not go through the blastopore but turns anteriorly to join the gastrulated paraxial mesoderm. To gain a deeper understanding of the process of axial elongation, a detailed characterization of PSM morphogenesis, which precedes somite formation, and of other tissues (such as the epidermis, lateral plate mesoderm and endoderm) is needed. We investigated these issues with specific tissue labelling techniques (DiI injections and GFP+ tissue grafting) in combination with optical tissue clearing and 3D reconstructions. We defined a spatiotemporal order of PSM morphogenesis that is characterized by changes in collective cell behaviour. The PSM forms a cohesive tissue strand and largely retains this cohesiveness even after epidermis removal. We show that during embryogenesis, the PSM, as well as the lateral plate and endoderm move anteriorly, while the net movement of the axis is posterior.

Behavioral Science and Education for Sustainable Development: Towards Metacognitive Competency

Behavioral science is increasingly considered foundational for addressing various sustainable development challenges. Behavioral change and action competence have also become important goals in Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), complementing and interacting with other educational goals such as the development of sustainability-relevant knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes. We argue that these interconnected learning goals of ESD can be advanced by integrating interdisciplinary behavioral science concepts, methods, and insights into the design of curricula, learning environments, and processes for participatory whole-school approaches. Specifically, we highlight the role of metacognitive competency in self-directed individual and collective behavior change and we present our educational design concept for teaching human behavior as an interdisciplinary theme in ESD.

A spectrum of complexity uncovers Dunbar’s number and other leaps in social structure

How do societies become more complex? Are there specific scales at which they are reorganized into emergent entities? Social dynamics are shaped by each person’s actions, as well as by collective trends that emerge when individuals are brought together. Features like population size, polarization, cohesion, or hierarchy add nuance and complexity to social structure, and might be present, or not, for societies of different sizes. Here we show that, while societal complexity increases monotonically with population, there are specific scales at which complexity builds up faster – one of them is close to Dunbar’s number (an estimation of the number of meaningful relationships that individuals can sustain). We have observed this by measuring, as a probe across populations of varied sizes, the sociolinguistic process that has unfolded over decades within the Spanish region of Galicia. For this, we have developed a methodological tool (social complexity spectrum), inspired by theoretical considerations about dynamics on complex networks, that could be applied in further study cases.Teaser: Changes in collective human behavior triggered by a critical population size found through sociolinguistic analysis

Size-selective mortality fosters ontogenetic changes in collective risk-taking behaviour in zebrafish, Danio rerio

Size-selective mortality is common in fish populations and can operate either in a positive size-selective fashion by harvesting larger-than-average fish or be negatively size-selective by harvesting smaller-than-average fish. Through various mechanisms (like genetic correlations among behaviour and life-history traits or direct selection on behaviour co-varying with growth rate or size-at-maturation), size-selection can result in evolutionary changes in behavioural traits. Theory suggests that both positive and negative size-selection without additional selection on behaviour favours boldness, while evolution of shyness is possible if the largest fish are harvested. Here we examined the impact of size-selective mortality on collective boldness across ontogeny using three experimental lines of zebrafish (Daniorerio) generated through positive (large-harvested), negative (small-harvested) and random (control line) size-selective mortality for five generations and then relaxed selection for 10 generations to examine evolutionarily fixed outcomes. We measured collective risk-taking during feeding (boldness) under simulated aerial predation threat, and across four contexts in presence/absence of a cichlid. Boldness decreased across ontogeny under aerial predation threat, and the small-harvested line was consistently bolder than controls. The large and small-harvested lines showed higher behavioural plasticity as larvae and developed personality earlier compared to the controls. The large-harvested line showed increased variability and plasticity in boldness throughout ontogeny. In the presence of a live predator, fish did not differ in boldness in three contexts compared to the controls, but the large-harvested line showed reduced behavioural plasticity across contexts than controls. Our results confirmed theory by demonstrating that size-selective harvesting evolutionarily alters collective boldness and its variability and plasticity.

Delay discounting and under-valuing of recent information predict poorer adherence to social distancing measures during the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about unprecedented global changes in individual and collective behaviour. To reduce the spread of the virus, public health bodies have promoted social distancing measures while attempting to mitigate their mental health consequences. The current study aimed to identify cognitive predictors of social distancing adherence and mental health symptoms, using computational models derived from delay discounting (the preference for smaller, immediate rewards over larger, delayed rewards) and patch foraging (the ability to trade-off between exploiting a known resource and exploring an unknown one). In a representative sample of the UK population (N = 442), we find that steeper delay discounting predicted poorer adherence to social distancing measures and greater sensitivity to reward magnitude during delay discounting predicted higher levels of anxiety symptoms. Furthermore, under-valuing recently sampled information during foraging independently predicted greater violation of lockdown guidance. Our results suggest that those who show greater discounting of delayed rewards struggle to maintain social distancing. Further, those who adapt faster to new information are better equipped to change their behaviour in response to public health measures. These findings can inform interventions that seek to increase compliance with social distancing measures whilst minimising negative repercussions for mental health.

On the Influence of Metamodernity on Institutional Economic Theory

The article analyses the influence of the philosophy of metamodernism on the institutional economic theory. The author considered the philosophy of metamodernism as a complex of ideas that form the “spirit of the times” – ​the “era of metamodernity”, which is an external environment in relation to institutional economic theory. Having analyzed the key characteristics of modernity and postmodernity, the author proved that metamodernity is not only a synthesis of the philosophical ideas of modernity and postmodernity, but also a new worldview that embraces the entire socio-economic reality. The author formulated the features of the era of metamodernity in the context of economics-society-institutions. The author found that under the influence of the ideas of metamodernity, there have been changes in the motivation of economic agents: from the satisfaction of subjective preferences to the search for new emotional reactions. This, in turn, led to changes in collective (social) economic behavior: rejection of traditional values in favor of values of self-expression, rejection of long-term relationships in favor of long-term ones. According to the author, changes in individual and collective economic behavior occur in parallel with institutional changes at the micro, meso and macro levels: hierarchical institutional structures are being replaced by socio-economic and business ecosystems. Exploring the evolution of economic science in the context of evolution from modern philosophy to postmodern and metamodern philosophy, the author revealed the influence of the ideas of metamodernity on modern economic theory in general and institutional economic theory in particular. The author found that under the influence of the ideas of metamodernity, changes occur in the object and subject of economic research, which requires the improvement of the methodology of institutional economic theory based on an interdisciplinary approach.

Parasitism and behavioral responses of Acromyrmex coronatus (Fabricius, 1804) and Acromyrmex crassispinus (Forel, 1909) (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) to Myrmosicarius catharinensis Borgmeier, 1928 (Diptera: Phoridae) in Londrina, PR

Leaf-cutting ants of the genus Acromyrmex cause serious damage to cultivated forest areas. Some flies of the family Phoridae are known to parasitize them, and the result of this interaction can provide a promising basis for the management of these ants. This study was developed to record the parasitism and behavioral responses of Acromyrmex spp. leaf-cutting ants to parasitoid phorids in the municipality of Londrina-PR, Brazil. Visual examinations and collections of leaf-cutting ants and associated phorids were carried out between October/2019 and April/2020 in selected anthills and their trails, located on the campus of the State University of Londrina (UEL) and at the Botanical Garden of Londrina. The collected insects were preserved in 70% alcohol, for later identification of the species. The behavioral response of the ants to the parasitoids was recorded individually and collectively, following protocols cited in the literature. The frequencies of the different response behaviors exhibited by the attacked ants were compared using analysis of variance. The leaf-cutting ant species Acromyrmex coronatus and Acromyrmex crassispinus were found at the two evaluated sites. Myrmosicarius catharinensis was the only species of parasitoid phorid found, which attacked both ant species. Although the occurrence of M. catharinensis has been reported in other Brazilian states and its association with A. crassispinus recorded in Buenos Aires, Argentina, this is the first report of the occurrence of the phorid in the state of Paraná with a new association for the species A. coronatus. Under foraging action by the parasitoid, 63.5% of the ants exhibited only one behavioral response, while 36.5% showed two. Accelerated walking, attempting to “bite” the parasitoid, and adopting a ‘C’ posture were the most frequent behavioral responses to avoid parasitism. Ants crowding together around a worker and the presence of “hitchhiker” workers on the transported leaf fragments were the observed changes in collective behavior, the latter being the most frequent. These changes occurred in all observed ant nests and, in two of them, the constancy of alteration in collective behavior was 53%. These results demonstrate the interference caused in nests of Acromyrmex spp. by the occurrence of M. catharinensis, a potential control agent for this pest.

Seed density in monospecific and mixed patches affects individual and collective foraging in ants

Granivore ant foraging should respond to seed density through changes in individual and collective behaviour. Overall seed availability and the presence of multiple types of seeds in a patch may affect these behaviours. We presented ants with three species of seeds in different mixtures and in two seasons contrasting in seed availability to assess differences in probabilities of seed collection. Removal rates were recorded every 2 h. We fitted a model that uses data on seed removal to disentangle the individual (probability that an ant removes a seed of species i, pi) and collective (number of active ants h) components of foraging. We found that removal increased with seed density due to increased pi values and recruitment of new ants. This suggests that ants evaluated resource density, collecting seeds only from dense patches. This was confirmed by observations. The presence of additional seeds of other species in the seed mixture elicited recruitment but had nearly no effect on pi. This may be observed if different ants prefer a seed species and ignore the rest. In the low seed-availability season, h increased, ants travelled longer distances, and foraging was directed to the most profitable seed-patches. This selectivity for some seed-patches during times of scarcity may appear surprising. It is true that, by abandoning low-density patches, individuals may reduce their seed acquisition rates, but also increase collective gains by forming trails only to dense patches. This may compensate for the large collective investments in the form of more scouts that explore longer distances.

Information can explain the dynamics of group order in animal collective behaviour

Animal groups vary in their collective order (or state), forming disordered swarms to highly polarized groups. One explanation for this variation is that individuals face differential benefits or costs depending on the group’s order, but empirical evidence for this is lacking. Here we show that in three-spined sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus), fish that are first to respond to an ephemeral food source do so faster when shoals are in a disordered, swarm-like state. This is because individuals’ visual fields collectively cover more of their environment, meaning private information is more readily available in disordered groups. Once social information becomes available, however, the arrival times of subsequent group members to the food are faster in more ordered, polarized groups. Our data further suggest that first responding individuals (those that benefit from group disorder) maintain larger differences in heading angle to their nearest neighbours when shoaling, thereby explaining how conflict over whether private or social information is favoured can drive dynamic changes in collective behaviour.

Vision, identity, and collective behavior change on pathways to sustainable futures

The challenge facing humanity is to live sustainably within both the ecological and physical limits of our planet and the societal boundaries needed for social cohesion and well-being. This is fundamentally a societal issue, rather than primarily an environmental problem amenable to technological optimization. Implementing the global aspirations embodied in the sustainable development goals of the United Nations will require societal transformation largely through collective behavior change at multiple geographic scales and governance levels across the world. Narrative expressions of visions of sustainable futures and narrative expressions of identity provide important, but underutilized insights for understanding affordances and obstacles to collective behavior change. Analyzing affective narrative expressions circulating in various communities seeking to implement aspects of sustainability opens up the opportunity to test whether affectively prioritized agent-based models can lead to novel emergent dynamics of social movements seeking sustainable futures. Certain types of playful games also offer the means to observe collective behaviors, as well as providing boundary objects and learning environments to facilitate dialogs among diverse stakeholders. Games can be designed to stimulate learning throughout the life span, which builds capacity for continuing innovation for the well-being of societies in moving toward sustainable futures.

Influence of Narratives of Vision and Identity on Collective Behavior Change

Profound societal transformations are needed to move society from unsustainability to greater sustainability under continually changing social and environmental conditions. A key challenge is to understand the influences on and the dynamics of collective behavior change toward sustainability. In this paper we describe our approach to (1) understanding how affective narrative expressions influence transitions to more sustainable collective behaviors and (2) how that understanding, as well as the potential for using narrative expressions in modeling of social movements, can become a basis for improving community responses to change in a rapidly changing world. Our focus is on narratives that express visions of desirable futures and narratives that reflect individual and social identities, on the cultures and contexts in which they are embedded, exchanged, and modified, and through which they influence the dynamics of social movements toward sustainability. Using an analytical categorization of narrative expressions of case studies in the Caribbean, Micronesia, and Africa, we describe insights derived from the narratives of vision and social identities in diverse communities. Finally, we suggest that narrative expressions may provide a basis for agent-based modeling to expand thinking about potential development pathways of social movements for sustainable futures.

Does Environmental Pollution Provoke Public Environmental Concern

With four decades of rapid growth, the extensive model of economic growth has led to severe damage to the ecological environment. Ecological environment quality has become a prominent shortcoming on building moderately prosperous society. With the increasingly urgent need for environmental quality, public participation in environmental protection has become an important fulcrum to propel environmental protection into a higher and deeper level. In the face of increasingly severe environmental pollution, how does the public make environmental behavior decisions? Does pollution exposure trigger changes in collective environmental cognition and behavior? Obviously, answering these questions is of great practical significance in promoting positive public environmental actions and forming the joint force of the government, the enterprise and the public in environmental governance. Using CGSS （2013） matched with city level data, this paper investigates the effects of environmental pollution on public environmental concern from three aspects: the attention on environmental problems, environmental actions and evaluation for the environmental work of the government. The study firstly finds that pollution drives the public to care about the environmental problems, take individual environmental actions actively, and induce public dissatisfaction with the government’s environment protection, but pollution has no significant influence on deeper public environment actions. Secondly, the environmental concern of different social groups presents differentiation characteristics. High income groups, men and urban residents have shown higher enthusiasm in taking individual environmental actions, and urban residents are more discontented with the government. Thirdly, the effects of environmental pollution on environmental concern have reflected ladder-like differences between people in different regions, that is, the residents in the mid-west area concern more about environmental problems and like to take active private environmental actions, while the residents in the eastern region like to take deeper public environmental actions. Further research shows that the better the economic situation is, the more the low income group concerns about environmental problems, but the better employment situation can ease the public dissatisfaction with the government. Compared with the existing literature, the marginal contributions of this paper mainly reflect in the following aspects. Firstly, most existing studies focus on the social basis of environmental behavior from the fields of psychology and sociology, while ignoring the impact of macro environment and economic factors on individual environmental behaviors. Our work is helpful for us to understand the overall mechanism and the trend of public environmental decision-making. Secondly, this study compares the impact of environmental pollution on different types of environmental concern, ranging from shallow environmental concern to deep environmental actions. The heterogeneity of environmental concern in different social groups is also examined in our study. These give us more comprehensive interpretation of the relationship between environmental pollution and environmental concern. Thirdly, this paper sorts out the theoretical mechanism of environmental pollution affecting residents’ environmental concern, and puts forward the personal decision-making mechanism from environmental attitudes to environmental actions, which provides a foundation for further theoretical analyses and interpretations. The research of this paper has strong political implications. Environmental pollution causes public concern about the collective rationality of environmental problems, but such collective rationality is hard to form in practical actions. Therefore, the government should guide and support the public to participate in positive environmental protection, refine the market and institute system for public participation in positive environmental protection, reduce the cost of public participation in environmental protection, and improve the acquisition of public participation in environmental protection.

Physiology modulates social flexibility and collective behaviour in equids and other large ungulates.

Though morphologically very similar, equids across the extant species occupy ecological niches that are surprisingly non-overlapping. Occupancy of these distinct niches appears related to subtle physiological and behavioural adaptations which, in turn, correspond to significant differences in the social behaviours and emergent social systems characterizing the different species. Although instances of intraspecific behavioural variation in equids demonstrate that the same body plan can support a range of social structures, each of these morphologically similar species generally shows robust fidelity to its evolved social system. The pattern suggests a subtle relationship between physiological phenotypes and behavioural flexibility. While environmental conditions can vary widely within relatively short temporal or spatial scales, physiological changes and changes to the behaviours that regulate physiological processes, are constrained to longer cycles of adaptation. Physiology is then the limiting variable in the interaction between ecological variation and behavioural and socio-structural flexibility. Behavioural and socio-structural flexibility, in turn, will generate important feedbacks that will govern physiological function, thus creating a coupled web of interactions that can lead to changes in individual and collective behaviour. Longitudinal studies of equid and other large-bodied ungulate populations under environmental stress, such as those discussed here, may offer the best opportunities for researchers to examine, in real time, the interplay between individual behavioural plasticity, socio-structural flexibility, and the physiological and genetic changes that together produce adaptive change.This article is part of the themed issue 'Physiological determinants of social behaviour in animals'.

Attitudinal change and emotional security: informing maternal health policies in rural Tanzania

Maternal mortality and health are key development concerns, particularly in rural areas of sub-Saharan Africa. Policy interventions aimed at realising Millennium Development Goals and improving maternal health have had mixed results, indicating the need for contextually sensitive policy interventions. This article explores attitudes and behaviours relating to obstetric care in Moshi Rural District, Tanzania, with a focus on the importance of both individual and collective attitudinal and behaviour change in reducing delays in seeking care and accessing health facilities. Ensuring the emotional security and well-being of expectant mothers for improved uptake of services and health outcomes is noted as a priority for future policy interventions.

Inoculating the Public against Misinformation about Climate Change.

Effectively addressing climate change requires significant changes in individual and collective human behavior and decision‐making. Yet, in light of the increasing politicization of (climate) science, and the attempts of vested‐interest groups to undermine the scientific consensus on climate change through organized “disinformation campaigns,” identifying ways to effectively engage with the public about the issue across the political spectrum has proven difficult. A growing body of research suggests that one promising way to counteract the politicization of science is to convey the high level of normative agreement (“consensus”) among experts about the reality of human‐caused climate change. Yet, much prior research examining public opinion dynamics in the context of climate change has done so under conditions with limited external validity. Moreover, no research to date has examined how to protect the public from the spread of influential misinformation about climate change. The current research bridges this divide by exploring how people evaluate and process consensus cues in a polarized information environment. Furthermore, evidence is provided that it is possible to pre‐emptively protect (“inoculate”) public attitudes about climate change against real‐world misinformation.

English-Only Language Policy: The Road to Provincialism?

Abstract In this note, we outline various possible long-run effects of an English-only acquisition policy in the European Union. The point of departure is how individual behaviour adapts to constraints in the environment. This leads to changes in collective behaviour, which becomes part of the environment, again influencing individual behaviour. Possible equilibria of this feedback mechanism are discussed. It is argued that domain loss and diglossia may result. The process is further characterized by external effects. Looking at language knowledge as a merit good, path dependencies and multiple stable equilibria can be explained.