Dimensions Of Social Cognition Research Articles

Interpersonal and individual effects of an app-based Christian and Islamic heart meditation intervention in healthy adults: protocol of a stratified randomised controlled trial

BackgroundThe academic development and widespread adoption of meditation practices for well-being and therapy have predominantly focused on secularised adaptations of Buddhist and Hindu techniques. This study aims to expand the field by investigating Christian and Islamic meditation that emphasize the spiritual significance of the heart through elements of visualisation and recitation. It compares the effects of spiritual heart-centred meditation with mindfulness meditation and a waitlist control, focusing on dimensions of social functioning, psychophysiology, cognition, and mental health.MethodThis study employs a stratified 3-arm randomised controlled method with mixed-method repeated measures across three assessment time points: before intervention (T1), after an 8-week intervention (T2), and at a 3-month follow up (T3). The three conditions include spiritual meditation (either Christian or Islamic), mindfulness meditation (Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction – MBSR), and a waitlist. Participants will be stratified into Christian and Muslim samples and randomly allocated to the spiritual meditation, MBSR, or waitlist control conditions. Importantly, participants assigned to the spiritual meditation condition will be matched to the spiritual meditation program corresponding to their religion. The intervention will be administered through a mobile phone app with daily 20-minute guided meditation sessions for eight weeks. Primary outcomes pertain to the domain of interpersonal functioning, focusing on prosociality, forgiveness, empathy, and perspective taking. Secondary outcomes include physiology: pain tolerance, pain intensity, stress reactivity assessed via heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV), psychophysiological reactivity associated with a forgiveness task as measured through HR and HRV, attention (alerting, orienting, and executive attention networks), and mental health (stress, depression, anxiety, subjective well-being, positive and negative affect).DiscussionThis trial aims to test the effects of an app-based Christian and Islamic meditation, compared to secular mindfulness and a waitlist, using a randomised controlled trial. If the results yield positive outcomes, this study will support the efficacy of these contemplations, offering practitioners a way to enhance their well-being within their religious framework.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov, NCT06136676. Registered on 18 November 2023.https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT06136676.

Effects of mini-basketball training program on social communication impairments and salience network in preschool children with autism spectrum disorder

Objectives This study aims to explore the impact of a 12-week mini-basketball training program (MBTP) on social communication impairments and salience network in preschool children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and to reveal the potential neural mechanisms by which MBTP improves social communication impairments in ASD children. Methods 34 ASD children aged 3–6 were assigned to the experimental group (n = 19) or the control group (n = 15). The experimental group received MBTP for 12 wk, while the control group received routine behavioral rehabilitation interventions from institutions. Social communication impairments in preschool ASD children is measured with the Social Response Scale Second Edition (SRS-2). Functional connectivity of salience network before and after testing is evaluated by resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI). Results This study suggests improvement in the social cognitive dimension of preschool ASD children with the aid of MBTP as well as optimization of the functional connectivity of ASD children’s salience network. The potential neural mechanism of MBTP in improving social cognitive dimension in ASD children involved changes in functional connectivity in the left middle frontal gyrus and left thalamus. Conclusions This study infers that the MBTP may not improve the social communication impairments of the ASD children while it is likely to improve social cognitive aspect of social communication impairments and reduce the maladaptive traits of ASD children. Under this circumstance, the study could provide new evidence to explore the neural mechanisms of physical exercise improving social communication impairments and new targets for developing exercise intervention programs to improve social communication impairments in ASD children.

On the Relationship Between Alexithymia and Social Cognition: A Systematic Review.

This systematic review summarises the studies that have investigated the relationship between dimensions of social cognition (i.e., Theory of Mind - ToM, emotion recognition, and empathy) and alexithymia in the general adult non-clinical population. PubMed, PsycINFO, and Scopus databases were screened, using the following strings: ("alexithymi*") AND ("theory of mind" OR "ToM"); ("alexithymi*") AND ("empath*"); ("alexithymi*") AND ("emotion recognition"); ("alexithymi*") AND ("social cognition"). A total of 117 studies met the inclusion criteria and were included in this review. The total number of participants included in the reviewed studies was 40,231. Mixed results were found for alexithymia and ToM, while the relationship between emotion recognition or empathy and alexithymia was more homogeneous. Alexithymia was found to be significantly associated with both a reduced ability to recognise emotions and empathy. These results support the existence of significant relationships between alexithymia and altered social cognitive abilities. Future research is needed to confirm the present findings and further elucidate the complex relationship between these processes. Suggestions are made on how to overcome some of the theoretical and methodological problems in the literature.

The silicon service spectrum: warmth and competence explain people's preferences for AI assistants

IntroductionThe past year has seen the rise of many variants of large language model chatbots that all attempt to carry out verbal tasks requested by users. These chatbots perform various collaborative tasks, such as brainstorming, question and answering, summarization, and holding other forms of conversations, embedding them within our daily society. As these AI assistants become increasingly integrated into societal structures, understanding people's perceptions toward them offers insights into how to better facilitate that integration, and how different our current understanding of human-human interactions parallels human-AI interactions. This project explores people's preferences toward responses generated by various chatbots.MethodsLeveraging a comprehensive dataset composed of thousands of pairwise comparisons of responses from 17 popular chatbots, we applied multidimensional scaling (MDS) and property fitting (PROFIT) methodologies to uncover the dimensionality of why some models are similarly or dissimilarly preferred on average by people.ResultsIn line with previous research on universal dimensions of social cognition, interactions with chatbots are predominantly perceived along two dimensions: warmth and competence. Also similar to social cognition applied to humans, the dimensions displayed a curvilinear trend where the highest levels of default warmth are found in models with moderate levels of competence. Models at extremely high and extremely low levels of competence tended to have lower levels of default warmth.DiscussionThis research advances our understanding of the interface between technology and social psychology. As chatbots and AI become increasingly prevalent within societal interactions, we see that many of the same principles found in perceptions between humans can also apply to AI.

Association between suicidal ideation, negative symptoms and theory of mind in first episode psychosis.

Suicidal thoughts are common among patients with first episode psychosis (FEP). The impact of symptoms' severity and social cognition on suicidal risk should be a focus of attention. This study aimed at assessment of the severity of suicidal ideation in patients with FEP and its potential association with the theory of mind (ToM) impairment and symptoms' severity. Ninety-six participants were recruited consecutively and subdivided into three equal groups: FEP, schizophrenia, and healthy controls (HC). The symptoms' severity was assessed using Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). Suicidal ideation was evaluated using Beck Scale for Suicidal Ideation (BSSI). Reading the Mind in the Eyes revised version (RMET) was used to assess ToM. Suicidal ideation was significantly higher only in FEP compared to HC (p = 0.001). Both FEP and schizophrenia had substantially lower performance than HC on RMET (p < 0.001). Higher depression (β = 0.452, p = 0.007) and negative symptoms (β = 0.433, p = 0.027) appeared to be significantly associated with increased suicidal ideation severity in FEP while RMET did not. Patients with FEP and chronic schizophrenia have comparable deficits in theory of mind dimension of social cognition. The severity of negative and depressive symptoms potentially contributes to the increased risk of suicide in FEP.

Kritik Sosial Dalam Lirik Lagu (Analisis Wacana Lagu Maju Dari .Feast)

Feast is a band that expresses social criticism through songs. Idealism in music, the use of words that contain figures of speech, and the themes presented make the author use the lyrics of the song "Maju" by the band .Feast as a study in this research. The method used in this research is qualitative method. The aim of this research is to find out the meaning of social criticism in the song "Maju" using Teun A. Van Dijk's approach. Critical discourse analysis using Teun A. van Dijk's approach model includes text dimensions, social cognition dimensions, and social context dimensions. The text dimension will analyze macro structure, superstructure and micro structure, then discuss it in the social cognition dimension and social context dimension to find the meaning of social criticism in the lyrics of the song "Maju". Analysis of song lyric data was carried out to describe the meaning of social criticism in the lyrics of the song "Maju" by .Feast. The results of this research show that there is social criticism in the lyrics of the song "Maju" sung by . survive and fight to the last drop of blood to defend the sovereignty of the Republic of Indonesia. Courage is something that must be instilled in every human being and defending the rights that belong to us is a must.

Sexual objectification versus empowerment: Examining the effects of sexualized women’s facial expression on viewers’ evaluations of social cognition and self-objectification

Objectification scholarship highlights how traditional media portrayals oftentimes direct attention toward women’s bodies and away from their faces which communicate important social information. This study sought to investigate how thin-ideal, white women’s facial expression potentially attenuates the negative effects of appearing in a sexually objectifying manner using validated imagery. In a 2 × 3 between-subjects experiment (N = 1001 U.S. adult women; Mage = 42.56, SDage = 12.72), portraits of women varied in their sexualization (non-sexualized vs. sexualized) and facial expression (neutral expression, low-intensity smiling, high-intensity smiling) to better understand how these factors influence dimensions of social cognition (competence, warmth, authenticity), self-promotional attributions, and viewers’ own self-objectification. Results revealed that viewers rated sexualized (vs. non-sexualized) women lower in competence and authenticity, as well ascribed more self-promotional explanations for their behavior. Moreover, exposure to sexualized women heightened viewers’ self-objectification, regardless of facial expression. Results also indicated that smiling intensity positively influenced viewers’ ratings of social cognition. However, there is little evidence that smiling intensity overrides the negative effects of sexualization. Implications for the sexual objectification of women are discussed.

Understanding Voice Shopping Value Co-Creation: A Sem-Fsqca Method

ABSTRACT Despite a large number of retailers have embraced the voice shopping channels, the factors that determine consumers' voice shopping value co-creation intentions are still unclear. This study explores the impacts of two social cognition dimensions (competence and warmth) on voice shopping value co-creation intention from the perspectives of confidence in consumers themselves and in AI. Based on the social exchange theory and stimulus—organism—response, a research model was developed and empirically examined by data collected from 363 students at a university in China. The results of structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis indicate that perceived competence and perceived warmth positively affect confidence in consumers themselves and in AI and consequently determine voice shopping value co-creation intention. In addition, the impacts of confidence in consumers themselves and in AI on voice shopping value co-creation intention varies. The results of the fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) method further validate these findings.

The role of Theory of Mind in the transition towards suicidal attempts in youth NSSI: an exploratory pilot study.

Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) can both precede and co-occur with suicidal attempts (SA). Underlying mechanisms/factors leading to the transition to SA in NSSI youths have been proposed (including the role of social cognition), despite they should be yet confirmed. Therefore, the study aims at exploring the role of the Theory of Mind in the differentiation of a sample of NSSI youngsters (aged 15-24) according to the presence of SA. We divided the sample into 4 groups using the Deliberate Self Harm Inventory (DSHI) and Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS): control group (notNSSInotSA), NSSI without SA (NSSInotSA), NSSI with SA (NSSIplusSA), and SA without NSSI (SAonly). NSSIplusSA patients displayed higher Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET) scores (indicative of ToM abilities) than both the NSSInotSA (p=0.0016) and SAonly groups (p=0.0198), while SAonly patients showed lower RMET scores compared to the control group (p=0.0214). Multiple regression models used to differentiate NSSInotSA and NSSIplusSA found a significant association between RMET and LOSCS-CSC (Level Of Self-Criticism Scale-Comparative Self-Criticism) (pC=0.0802, pD=0.0016, pG=0.0053). Our findings supported the hypothesis that a hypertrophic affective ToM may possibly be associated with the occurrence of SA in youth NSSI. Further larger and longitudinal studies should confirm these preliminary findings, by exploring all social cognition dimensions.

Discrepancy of social cognition between bipolar disorders and major depressive disorders.

The research landscape examining social cognition (SC) impairment in patients with major depressive disorders (MDD) and bipolar disorders (BD) is notably scarce. Presently, assessments predominantly rely on static stimuli and self-reported measures, which may not capture the dynamic dimensions of social cognition. This study aimed to validate the Chinese version of Movie Assessment of Social Cognition (MASC-CH) and to investigate whether MDD and BD exhibit distinct patterns of SC impairments, shedding light on potential differences between these two mood disorders. The study encompassed 197 participants, aged 18-65, distributed as follows: 21 BD, 20 MDD, and 156 healthy controls (HC). We focused on examining "cognitive" and "emotional" SC scores and "undermentalizing" and "overmentalizing" error patterns, with nonsocial inference as a control. Additional assessments included the Reading Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET) and the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT). We also explored the association between depression severity (measured by the Hamilton Depressive Rating Scale, HDRS) and distinct SC dimensions between MDD and BD. The MASC-CH exhibited strong validity and reliability for SC assessment. In group comparisons, BD participants scored significantly lower on MASC-CH, while the MDD group scores were not significantly different from HC. Specifically, BD individuals had notably lower cognitive SC scores and made more undermentalizing and absence of mentalizing errors than MDD and HC. Additionally, a negative correlation between HDRS score and overmentalizing was observed in BD, not in the MDD. The findings indicate that depression severity scores in BD were inversely related to MASC-CH scores. In contrast, this relationship was not observed in the MDD group. These results underscore the importance of SC impairments as distinguishing characteristics of both BD and MDD. It provides valuable insights into the distinct social-cognitive profiles of both mood disorders.

The mnemic neglect effect in middle school students: a study based on two fundamental dimensions of social cognition

The mnemic neglect effect in middle school students: a study based on two fundamental dimensions of social cognition

The Multidimensional Autonomy Scale: a new integrative tool for clinicians and preliminary results

AbstractBackgroundAutonomy is the ability to perform daily living actions within the environment where we live in (Dos Santos &amp; Makdessi, 2010). It is a multidimensional concept, including 5 dimensions: psychological, functional, professional, digital and social autonomy (Dethoor et al., 2021). However, most studies mainly focused on functional autonomy. In this study we focused on social autonomy (SA) within an integrative approach.MethodsWe built an integrative tool, the Multidimensional Autonomy Scale (MAS), to assess the 5 dimensions of autonomy. The MAS includes 26 questions, divided in 5 sub‐scales for each autonomy dimension, for which we ask frequency and impact on daily life.In this study, we focused on SA and its relation with empathy and theory of mind among young (18‐40 years), intermediate (40‐60 years), and elderly participants (60‐80 years). We assessed empathy and theory of mind with the Social‐SMAF and the Movie for the Assessment of Social Cognition (MASC).ResultsWe found a decrease of theory of mind through aging, but no social autonomy change nor correlation between theory of mind and social autonomy.ConclusionThe decrease of theory of mind might be correlated with other dimensions of social cognition or autonomy. Older participants seem to have less relationships, but not worse, even better sometimes. We encourage clinicians and researcher to assess autonomy within a multidimensional framework and go beyond functional autonomy only.

Threats and opportunities: Independent dimensions of goal relevance shape social cognition and behavior.

People pursue goals. They seek to build friendships, find romantic partners, maintain close relationships, gain social status and resources, and stay healthy and safe. But pursuing goals requires assessing who, among the people around them, will help or hurt their ability to reach those goals-that is, who poses goal-relevant affordances. This article overviews recent advances and new predictions from an affordance management approach to social cognition and behavior. The central tenet of this work is that judgments of who helps or hurts goals are independent (rather than opposite ends of a single judgment): Who helps my goal, and who hurts my goal? For any goal, people judge others in one of four ways: as helping the goal, hurting the goal, both helping and hurting the goal, or as irrelevant to the goal. These perceived affordances change across goals: people who help one goal may hurt, both help and hurt, or be irrelevant to another goal. This simple, novel division of helping and hurting across goals has numerous implications for psychological phenomena. It provides a framework for understanding when and how two forms of devaluation will emerge-being seen to pose a threat and being seen as irrelevant-with implications for prejudice, stigmatization, and discrimination. It also provides a lens for understanding how and when others' appraisals of us may affect our own goal pursuit. The article concludes by discussing necessary next steps and promising new directions for applying this approach to understand social cognition and behavior. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Social Capital in Preventing HIV/AIDS Transmission among Men Who Have Sex with Men [MSM] with HIV in Indonesia

The trend of Human Immonodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immonodeficiency syndrome has become a significant health problem in Indonesia. One of the primary factors contributing to the high transmission of the virus among the HIV-positive population, particularly men who have sex with men (MSM), is their practice of risky behavior. To address this issue, it is crucial to optimize social capital, including both structural and cognitive dimensions, to prevent the transmission of the disease and its progression to the advanced stage (AIDS). Therefore, this study aimed to explain the impact of social capital on in the prevention of HIV transmission among the MSM population with HIV-positive. This qualitative study was conducted in Jember, Indonesia, using a grounded theory approach between April and September 2021. Data were collected using in-depth interviews with 12 HIV-positive MSM obtained using purposive sampling. This study found that social networks were formed through community activities and associations built from participation in social activities, focused on improving the structural dimension of social capital. In the cognitive dimension, trust among HIV-positive peers was related to adherence to ARV treatment, including prevention and transmission. By providing information through both structural and cognitive dimensions, social capital can effectively prevent HIV transmission among MSM HIV-positive and serve as a behavior model in the prevention of the progression to AIDS. Therefore, the education of peers can be developed based on this social capital, providing a basis for effective interventions.

Manipulasi Linguistik sebagai Instrumen Politik dalam Animal Farm: Sebuah Analisis Wacana Kritis

Politics and language are inextricably linked, and the relationship between the two has long been the subject of philosophical and linguistic study. Through critical discourse analysis, the contemporary linguistic practice seeks to examine language as a form of social practice. Thus, political discourse is seen as a discourse oriented towards concealing power for manipulative purposes, legitimizing discourse practices, and imposing ideologies. This study analyzes the use of linguistic manipulation in George Orwell's "Animal Farm" using van Dijk's socio-cognitive approach. The results of the study of the text, context, and social cognition dimensions of "Animal Farm" show that the political elites in this novel successfully use linguistic manipulation as an instrument to influence members of society with lower language skills to realize the elites' goals. Linguistic manipulation is also used as an instrument to exercise and maintain power. As a proponent of socialism, Orwell revealed the use of political manipulation in "Animal Farm" as a satire of the Stalin-led socialists who had perverted the goals of the Russian revolution for personal and group gain.

Research on Influencing Factors and Internal Mechanism of International Entrepreneurship Based on Complex Network Algorithm

Entrepreneurs' social capital consists of relational dimension social capital, cognitive dimension social capital and structural dimension social capital. Relationship dimension social capital and cognitive dimension social capital have positive promotion effect on entrepreneurial survival performance, but have negative feedback effect on entrepreneurial success performance. From the investment stage, the investment intensity of Chinese venture capital institutions in the initial stage is obviously lower than that in other development stages, especially in the growth stage, which accounts for half of the venture capital. Although the entrepreneurial orientation and knowledge innovation ability of entrepreneurial individuals or teams are helpful to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of identifying and utilizing international entrepreneurial opportunities, it is necessary to choose an appropriate internationalization model according to the types of international entrepreneurial opportunities in order to achieve extraordinary international entrepreneurial performance. Based on the complex network algorithm, this paper analyzes the evolution of the concept of international entrepreneurship and its influencing factors, and reveals the internal mechanism of international entrepreneurship.

Would You Like to Listen to My Music, My Friend? An Experiment on AI Musicians

The rapid development of AI-related technologies and the upsurge of Metaverse are driving AI musicians into people’s lives. To clarify the link between anthropomorphism, users’ perceptions, and attitudes, and to explore the impact of listening type (listening to AI-generated music or not) on the relationship between anthropomorphism and users’ perceptions, we conducted a 2 × 2 experiment based on the two basic dimensions of social cognition. A total of 211 valid samples were collected and the partial least squares (PLS) method was used for data analysis to test the research model and hypotheses. The results show that more human-like AI musicians elicit higher users’ competence perceptions, which are crucial facilitators of users’ attitudes towards AI musicians; higher warmth perceptions help users form better attitudes towards AI musicians; listening to AI-generated music or not moderates the impact of anthropomorphism degree on users’ competence perceptions. This study promotes the understanding of the impact of AI musicians’ anthropomorphism and guides the design of AI musicians’ images to some extent.

Protective Role of Self-Regulatory Efficacy: A Moderated Mediation Model on the Influence of Impulsivity on Cyberbullying through Moral Disengagement.

During online interactions, adolescents are often exposed to deviant opportunities. In this context, the capacity to regulate one's behavior is essential to prevent cyberbullying. Among adolescents, this online aggressive behavior is a growing phenomenon, and its deleterious effects on teenagers' mental health are well known. The present work argues the importance of self-regulatory capabilities under deviant peer pressure in preventing cyberbullying. In particular, focusing on two relevant risk factors, i.e., impulsivity and moral disengagement, we examine (1) the mediation role of moral disengagement in the process leading to cyberbullying from impulsivity; (2) the buffering effect of the perceived self-regulatory capability to resist deviant peer pressure in mitigating the effect of these impulsive and social-cognitive dimensions on cyberbullying. Moderated mediation analysis was performed on a sample of 856 adolescents; the results confirm that the perceived self-regulatory capability to resist peer pressure effectively mitigates the indirect effect of impulsivity through moral disengagement on cyberbullying. The practical implications of designing interventions to make adolescents more aware and self-regulated in their online social lives to counter cyberbullying are discussed.

The association between different dimensions of social capital and cognition among older adults in China

The association between different dimensions of social capital and cognition among older adults in China

The forgotten affective route of social cognition in patients with bipolar disorders

Social cognition (SC) research in bipolar disorders (BD) has provided evidence about deficits in different phases of the illness. Most of the studies have focused on two aspects of SC: theory of mind and emotion recognition. However, according to influential models of social neuroscience, two aspects of understanding others need to be distinguished: the cognitive (theory of mind and emotion recognition) and the affective route (empathy and compassion) of SC. We aimed to determine whether individuals with BD significantly differ from healthy controls on measures of the affective route of SC according to the available evidence. We conduct a narrative review of original research based on a social neuroscience model of SC. BD is associated with alterations of the affective route of SC during acute episodes and remission. During mania and subthreshold depression, an increase in empathy (“over-empathizing”) and discomfort (empathy) has been reported, respectively. A pattern of high empathic distress and low compassion appears during remission. This article is the first to review the evidence on the affective route of SC in BD, revealing trait and state alterations. We emphasize the need to consider this affective dimension of SC in future research, to design more specific interventions in BD patients.