Effects Of Social Context Research Articles

A Life Course Approach to Understanding Neighbourhood Effects

Many theories on so-called neighbourhood effects – effects of the residential context on individual outcomes such as employment, education, and health – implicitly, or explicitly suggest lagged effects, duration effects, or for example, intergenerational effects of neighbourhoods. However, these temporal dimensions of neighbourhood effects receive only limited attention in the empirical literature, largely because of a lack of suitable data. The increasing availability of geo-coded, longitudinal, individual-level data now leads to more research which takes these temporal dimensions and time effects into account. This paper argues that it is time for an overarching framework to better understand the temporal dimension of neighbourhood effects. We propose a conceptual model that uses the life course approach as a framework to integrate the various elements of time in current neighbourhood effects theories. The life course approach emboldens the study of full individual life course biographies over time, taking into consideration multiple parallel life careers (such as education, household, housing, work, and leisure) and their relative importance to individual outcomes. A large advantage of the life course approach to neighbourhood effects is that it does not only allow us to incorporate residential neighbourhoods into individual biographies, but also allows us to study the effects of (and interactions with) other social and spatial contexts on individual outcomes.

Science, society, and flagship species: social and political history as keys to conservation outcomes in the Gulf of California

Socio-political issues are important in environmental policy outcomes but are often overlooked in conservation planning. We analyze the effects of historical social, political, and ecological contexts on conservation policy outcomes as applied to the Upper Gulf of California and Colorado River Delta Biosphere Reserve. A rushed implementation, perhaps necessary for the protection of endangered totoaba (Totoaba macdonaldi) and vaquita (Phocoena sinus), occurred with little community consultation, resulting in enduring disgruntlement among stakeholders that undermined its effectiveness. Overfishing and habitat degradation continue both inside and outside the reserve, and totoaba and vaquita remain Critically Endangered, with the latter's population estimated at approximately 90 individuals. Marine reserves can be useful, but when top-down enforcement is unfeasible, effective environmental policy requires full recognition and integration of political history and social structures and needs, and open discussion on trade-offs when win-win situations are not possible.

Social Context and Dental Pain in Adults of Colombian Ethnic Minority Groups: A Multilevel Cross-Sectional Study.

To estimate the effect of social context on dental pain in adults of Colombian ethnic minority groups (CEGs). Information from 34,843 participants was used. A multilevel model was constructed that had ethnic groups (ie, CEGs and non-CEGs) at level 1 and Colombian states at level 2. Contextual variables included gross domestic product (GDP), Human Development Index (HDI), and Unmet Basic Needs Index (UBNI). Dental pain was observed in 12.3% of 6,440 CEGs. In an unadjusted logistic regression model, dental pain was associated with being a CEG (odds ratio [95% confidence interval], 1.34 [1.22-1.46]; P = .0001). This association remained significant after adjusting for possible confounding variables. An unconditional multilevel analysis showed that the variance in dental pain was statistically significant at the ethnic group level (β = 0.047 ± 0.015; P = .0009) and at the state level (β = 0.038 ± 0.019; P = .02) and that the variation between ethnic groups was higher than the variation between states (55% vs 45%, respectively). In a multivariate model, the variance in dental pain was also statistically significant at the ethnic group level (β = 0.029 ± 0.012; P = .007) and the state level (β = 0.042 ± .019; P = .01), but the variation between states was higher (40% vs 60%). The results of multilevel multivariate analyses showed that dental pain was associated with increasing age (β = 0.009 ± 0.001; P = .0001), lower education level (β = 0.302 ± 0.103; P = .0001), female sex (β = 0.031 ± 0.069; P = .003), GDP (β = 5.136 ± 2.009; P = .002) and HDI (β = 6.862 ± 5.550; P = .004); however, UBNI was not associated with dental pain. The variance in dental pain was higher between states than between ethnic groups in the multivariate multilevel model. Dental pain in CEGs was associated with contextual and individual factors. Considering contextual factors, GDP and HDI may play a major role in dental pain prevalence.

The Social Context Network Model in Psychiatric and Neurological Diseases.

The role of contextual modulations has been extensively studied in basic sensory and cognitive processes. However, little is known about their impact on social cognition, let alone their disruption in disorders compromising such a domain. In this chapter, we flesh out the social context network model (SCNM), a neuroscientific proposal devised to address the issue. In SCNM terms, social context effects rely on a fronto-temporo-insular network in charge of (a) updating context cues to make predictions, (b) consolidating context-target associative learning, and (c) coordinating internal and external milieus. First, we characterize various social cognition domains as context-dependent phenomena. Then, we review behavioral and neural evidence of social context impairments in behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD), highlighting their relation with key SCNM hubs. Next, we show that other psychiatric and neurological conditions involve context-processing impairments following damage to the brain regions included in the model. Finally, we call for an ecological approach to social cognition assessment, moving beyond widespread abstract and decontextualized methods.

Intragroup Heterogeneity and Blackness: Effects of Racial Classification, Immigrant Origins, Social Class, and Social Context on the Racial Identity of Elite College Students

While the black population of the USA has grown more diverse with regard to ethnicity and class status, most research on racial identity relies on dichotomous proxies of racial group identification created during the civil rights era. Using a subset of the Multidimensional Inventory of Black Identity included in the National Longitudinal Survey of Freshmen, a representative sample of black students at twenty-eight selective American colleges and universities, we test how black student racial identity is related to students’ ethnic, nativity, socioeconomic, and contextual experiences in childhood. Our more nuanced measure of black racial identity shows that being Black/African American is central to the new generation of black elites’ self-identity and that, contrary to prior evidence and theorization that blacks are either assimilationist or nationalist, that black students express strong support for both assimilationist and nationalist ideological beliefs at the same time. In addition, students express strong tendencies toward group membership as well as individualism; race has less of an impact on how they feel about themselves and their social relationships. Further analyses reveal substantial variation in black identity between monoracial and mixed-race blacks, and between immigrant (both first and second generation) and native blacks, but few social class differences. Notably, childhood experiences of racial segregation and social disorganization are also strongly associated with black identity and racial ideologies.

The Effects of Social Context and Acute Stress on Decision Making Under Uncertainty

Uncertainty preferences are typically studied in neutral, nonsocial contexts. This approach, however, fails to capture the dynamic factors that influence choices under uncertainty in the real world. Our goal was twofold: to test whether uncertainty valuation is similar across social and nonsocial contexts, and to investigate the effects of acute stress on uncertainty preferences. Subjects completed matched gambling and trust games following either a control or a stress manipulation. Those who were not under stress exhibited no differences between the amount of money gambled and the amount of money entrusted to partners. In comparison, stressed subjects gambled more money but entrusted less money to partners. We further found that irrespective of stress, subjects were highly attuned to irrelevant feedback in the nonsocial, gambling context, believing that every loss led to a greater chance of winning (the gamblers’ fallacy). However, when deciding to trust a stranger, control subjects behaved rationally, treating each new interaction as independent. Stress compromised this adaptive behavior, increasing sensitivity to irrelevant social feedback.

Who is respectful? Effects of social context and individual empathic ability on ambiguity resolution during utterance comprehension

Verbal communication is often ambiguous. By employing the event-related potential (ERP) technique, this study investigated how a comprehender resolves referential ambiguity by using information concerning the social status of communicators. Participants read a conversational scenario which included a minimal conversational context describing a speaker and two other persons of the same or different social status and a directly quoted utterance. A singular, second-person pronoun in the respectful form (nin/nin-de in Chinese) in the utterance could be ambiguous with respect to which of the two persons was the addressee (the “Ambiguous condition”). Alternatively, the pronoun was not ambiguous either because one of the two persons was of higher social status and hence should be the addressee according to social convention (the “Status condition”) or because a word referring to the status of a person was additionally inserted before the pronoun to help indicate the referent of the pronoun (the “Referent condition”). Results showed that the perceived ambiguity decreased over the Ambiguous, Status, and Referent conditions. Electrophysiologically, the pronoun elicited an increased N400 in the Referent than in the Status and the Ambiguous conditions, reflecting an increased integration demand due to the necessity of linking the pronoun to both its antecedent and the status word. Relative to the Referent condition, a late, sustained positivity was elicited for the Status condition starting from 600 ms, while a more delayed, anterior negativity was elicited for the Ambiguous condition. Moreover, the N400 effect was modulated by individuals' sensitivity to the social status information, while the late positivity effect was modulated by individuals' empathic ability. These findings highlight the neurocognitive flexibility of contextual bias in referential processing during utterance comprehension.

Early communication deficits in the Shank1 knockout mouse model for autism spectrum disorder: Developmental aspects and effects of social context.

Alterations in SHANK genes were repeatedly reported in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). ASD is a group of neurodevelopmental disorders diagnosed by persistent deficits in social communication/interaction across multiple contexts, with restricted/repetitive patterns of behavior. To date, diagnostic criteria for ASD are purely behaviorally defined and reliable biomarkers have still not been identified. The validity of mouse models for ASD therefore strongly relies on their behavioral phenotype. Here, we studied communication by means of isolation-induced pup ultrasonic vocalizations (USV) in the Shank1 mouse model for ASD by comparing Shank1(-/-) null mutant, Shank1(+/-) heterozygous, and Shank1(+/+) wildtype littermate controls. The first aim of the present study was to evaluate the effects of Shank1 deletions on developmental aspects of communication in order to see whether ASD-related communication deficits are due to general impairment or delay in development. Second, we focused on social context effects on USV production. We show that Shank1(-/-) pups vocalized less and displayed a delay in the typical inverted U-shaped developmental USV emission pattern with USV rates peaking on postnatal day (PND) 9, resulting in a prominent genotype difference on PND6. Moreover, testing under social conditions revealed even more prominently genotype-dependent deficits regardless of the familiarity of the social context. As communication by definition serves a social function, introducing a social component to the typically nonsocial test environment could therefore help to reveal communication deficits in mouse models for ASD. Together, these results indicate that SHANK1 is involved in acoustic communication across species, with genetic alterations in SHANK1 resulting in social communication/interaction deficits. Autism Res 2016, 9: 696-709. © 2015 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Making the right move. Investigating employers’ recruitment strategies

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to investigate employers’ recruitment strategies to address distinct job-related agency problems before establishing an employment relationship. Insights from agency theory and the social embeddedness perspective are combined to hypothesize whether and why employers adapt their recruitment strategies to the job type (differing in level of discretion) for which they are externally hiring.Design/methodology/approach– The hypotheses are empirically tested using data from a survey of 288 Dutch employers. Questions were asked about the two types of jobs. Multi-level logistic regression analysis is applied to investigate the effect of social context on the choice of recruitment strategy. In addition to that, separate analyses are conducted for the two job types, using logistic regression analysis.Findings– As predicted, employers have the tendency to use informal recruitment channels more often for jobs with high degree of discretion (i.e. managerial, professional, and specialists jobs (MPS)) than for jobs with low degree of discretion (i.e. administrative and supporting jobs). In addition, the type of information transmitted through employers’ social contacts matters for their recruitment strategies. In particular, the reliable and trustworthy information from contacts with friends and family is more important for MPS jobs. This seems to be the way employers deal with the high agency costs characterizing this type of jobs.Originality/value– This study extends prior research as follows. First, while earlier studies more closely looked at why organizations use formal or informal recruitment, this study specifically focusses on the role the job type plays in the hiring process. Second, it provides an extension of agency theory by including job type in the analyses. And, third, the study examines how the networks of employers, rather than employees, affect the hiring process.

Withdraw or affiliate? The role of humiliation during initiation rituals

Initiation rituals can take different forms and empirical evidence is inconsistent as to whether these rituals promote affiliation among novices. We argue that experienced humiliation during initiations leads to less affiliation among novices, in particular when one is initiated as sole group member rather than as part of the group. We examined this hypothesis in three studies, using different paradigms. In Study 1 (N = 123), perceived severity of an initiation in the past was associated with lower affiliation with other novices; this relationship was mediated by experienced humiliation. Study 2 (N = 64) showed that public derogation in the lab led to more humiliation when participants were the only victim than when they were derogated as a group. Study 3 (N = 248), a vignette study, showed that a similar effect of social context was mediated by expected support from other novices. We conclude that severe initiations may, due to experienced humiliation, result in less rather than more affiliation with fellow novices.

Motivations to Contribute to Public Goods: Beyond rational choice economics

AbstractThe dominant understanding of how motivations to contribute to public goods are generated and sustained is largely shaped by the combined action of rational choice theory and neoclassical economics. This understanding relies on three key assumptions: individualism, instrumentalism and market equilibration. This paper questions the theoretical consistency and empirical relevance of these assumptions and of their associated policy model. I argue that a significant revision of this motivational theory is needed, one that takes into account intrinsic incentives, trust and strong reciprocity, as well as the effect of social and institutional context, monetization and market interactions on the propensity to contribute to public goods. The paper concludes by outlining the implications of this theoretical reconsideration for the organization of scientific research and for more effective policy‐making to sustain public goods provision. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment

Developing the Synergy between University and Industry-based Nursing Courses: Lessons in Engagement

On the surface the process of engagement seems functional, however, if the engagement process does not take into account people dynamics and the effects of the wider social, organisational and cultural context, multiple tensions may occur. This paper shares the story of the tensions related to culture, relationships, communication and the impact of change in bringing a University-Community project to its completion. The scholarship of engagement revealed the nature of this complex process and uncovered the need for a richer understanding of the people involved and their mindset.

At Their Best When No One Is Watching: Decision Context Moderates the Effect of Envy on the Tendency Toward Self-Improvement

Consumer behavior often varies as a function of social context (public vs. private). This occurs in part because decisions that are made in public (vs. private) reflect self-presentational concerns, due to the fact that they have the potential to confer reputational costs and/or benefits. However, no research to date has examined if this widely acknowledged phenomenon might be affected by consumers’ emotions at the time of the decision. The current article addresses this by examining if incidental envy moderates the effect of social context on subsequent, unrelated self-bolstering behaviors. Across three studies, we find that although public (vs. private) social contexts generally promote self-bolstering behaviors (e.g., effort exertion, conspicuous consumption and charitable giving), this effect is attenuated among consumers who experience incidental envy prior to the decision task. We suggest that this pattern of results occurs because the potential reputational costs of self-bolstering behavior are more salient to those experiencing incidental envy, and discuss this process explanation. We conclude with a discussion of the practical and theoretical implications of this work.

Does Social Context Matter? Income Inequality, Racialized Identity, and Health Among Canada's Aboriginal Peoples Using a Multilevel Approach.

Debates surrounding the importance of social context versus individual level processes have a long history in public health. Aboriginal peoples in Canada are very diverse, and the reserve communities in which they reside are complex mixes of various cultural and socioeconomic circumstances. The social forces of these communities are believed to affect health, in addition to individual level determinants, but no large scale work has ever probed their relative effects. One aspect of social context, relative deprivation, as indicated by income inequality, has greatly influenced the social determinants of health landscape. An investigation of relative deprivation in Canada's Aboriginal population has never been conducted. This paper proposes a new model of Aboriginal health, using a multidisciplinary theoretical approach that is multilevel. This study explored the self-rated health of respondents using two levels of determinants, contextual and individual. Data were from the 2001 Aboriginal Peoples Survey. There were 18,890 Registered First Nations (subgroup of Aboriginal peoples) on reserve nested within 134 communities. The model was assessed using a hierarchical generalized linear model. There was no significant variation at the contextual level. Subsequently, a sequential logistic regression analysis was run. With the sole exception culture, demographics, lifestyle factors, formal health services, and social support were significant in explaining self-rated health. The non-significant effect of social context, and by extension relative deprivation, as indicated by income inequality, is noteworthy, and the primary role of individual level processes, including the material conditions, social support, and lifestyle behaviors, on health outcomes is illustrated. It is proposed that social structure is best conceptualized as a dynamic determinant of health inequality and more multilevel theoretical models of Aboriginal health should be developed and tested.

Catecholaminergic contributions to vocal communication signals.

Social context affects behavioral displays across a variety of species. For example, social context acutely influences the acoustic and temporal structure of vocal communication signals such as speech and birdsong. Despite the prevalence and importance of such social influences, little is known about the neural mechanisms underlying the social modulation of communication. Catecholamines are implicated in the regulation of social behavior and motor control, but the degree to which catecholamines influence vocal communication signals remains largely unknown. Using a songbird, the Bengalese finch, we examined the extent to which the social context in which song is produced affected immediate early gene expression (EGR-1) in catecholamine-synthesising neurons in the midbrain. Further, we assessed the degree to which administration of amphetamine, which increases catecholamine concentrations in the brain, mimicked the effect of social context on vocal signals. We found that significantly more catecholaminergic neurons in the ventral tegmental area and substantia nigra (but not the central grey, locus coeruleus or subcoeruleus) expressed EGR-1 in birds that were exposed to females and produced courtship song than in birds that produced non-courtship song in isolation. Furthermore, we found that amphetamine administration mimicked the effects of social context and caused many aspects of non-courtship song to resemble courtship song. Specifically, amphetamine increased the stereotypy of syllable structure and sequencing, the repetition of vocal elements and the degree of sequence completions. Taken together, these data highlight the conserved role of catecholamines in vocal communication across species, including songbirds and humans.

Effect of social odor context on the emission of isolation-induced ultrasonic vocalizations in the BTBR T+tf/J mouse model for autism.

An important diagnostic criterion for social communication deficits in autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are difficulties in adjusting behavior to suit different social contexts. While the BTBR T+tf/J (BTBR) inbred strain of mice is one of the most commonly used mouse models for ASD, little is known about whether BTBR mice display deficits in detecting changes in social context and their ability to adjust to them. Here, it was tested therefore whether the emission of isolation-induced ultrasonic vocalizations (USV) in BTBR mouse pups is affected by the social odor context, in comparison to the standard control strain with high sociability, C57BL/6J (B6). It is known that the presence of odors from mothers and littermates leads to a calming of the isolated mouse pup, and hence to a reduction in isolation-induced USV emission. In accordance with their behavioral phenotypes with relevance to all diagnostic core symptoms of ASD, it was predicted that BTBR mouse pups would not display a calming response when tested under soiled bedding conditions with home cage bedding material containing maternal odors, and that similar isolation-induced USV emission rates would be seen in BTBR mice tested under clean and soiled bedding conditions. Unexpectedly, however, the present findings show that BTBR mouse pups display such a calming response and emit fewer isolation-induced USV when tested under soiled as compared to clean bedding conditions, similar to B6 mouse pups. Yet, in contrast to B6 mouse pups, which emitted isolation-induced USV with shorter call durations and lower levels of frequency modulation under soiled bedding conditions, social odor context had no effect on acoustic call features in BTBR mouse pups. This indicates that the BTBR mouse model for ASD does not display deficits in detecting changes in social context, but has a limited ability and/or reduced motivation to adjust to them.

Substantive editing as a form of plagiarism among postgraduate students in Australia

In university plagiarism policies, and in the research into plagiarism, one form of collusion remains virtually unacknowledged: substantive editing performed by editors. While almost all Australian universities allow postgraduate students to have their thesis professionally edited, substantive editing is prohibited. This article discusses the problems inherent in this arrangement, given that most students and supervisors, and some editors, are not clear on where the line is between the two. Moreover, it is evident that there are a myriad of social and economic pressures that lead to substantive editing being performed even when all three parties are aware that it is occurring. Substantive editing is a particularly insidious form of plagiarism since it has received so little attention by universities, it is seen as less serious than other forms of plagiarism, it requires high levels of vigilance to detect and there are no deterrents in place. This article argues that there are significant numbers of students engaging in this form of plagiarism. This study aims to shed light on this issue by examining the nature, motivations behind and prevalence of substantive editing, while recognising the social context and negative effects of the issue.

The effect of social context and social scale on the perception of relationships in monk parakeets

Abstract Social relationships formed within a network of interacting group members can have a profound impact on an individual’s behavior and fitness. However, we have little understanding of how individuals perceive their relationships and how this perception relates to our external measures of interactions. We investigated the perception of affiliative and agonistic relationships at both the dyadic and emergent social levels in two captive groups of monk parakeets (Myiopsitta monachus, n = 21 and 19) using social network analysis and playback experiments. At the dyadic social scale, individuals directed less aggression towards their strong affiliative partners and more aggression towards non-partner neighbors.At the emergent social scale, there was no association between relationships in different social contexts and an individual’s dominance rank did not correlate with its popularity rank. Playback response patterns were mainly driven by relationships in affiliative social contexts at the dyadic scale. In both groups, individual responses to playback experiments were significantly affected by strong affiliative relationships at the dyadic social scale, albeit in different directions in the two groups. Response patterns were also affected by affiliative relationships at the emergent social scale, but only in one of the two groups. Within affiliative relationships, those at the dyadic social scale were perceived by individuals in both groups, but those at the emergent social scale only affected responses in one group. These results provide preliminary evidence that relationships in affiliative social contexts may be perceived as more important than agonistic relationships in captive monk parakeet groups. Our approach could be used in a wide range of social species and comparative analyses could provide important insight into how individuals perceive relationships across social contexts and social scales.

Rats prefer mutual rewards in a prosocial choice task.

Pro-sociality, i.e., the preference for outcomes that produce benefits for other individuals, is ubiquitous in humans. Recently, cross-species comparisons of social behavior have offered important new insights into the evolution of pro-sociality. Here, we present a rodent analog of the Pro-social Choice Task that controls strategic components, de-confounds other-regarding choice motives from the animals' natural tendencies to maximize own food access and directly tests the effect of social context on choice allocation. We trained pairs of rats—an actor and a partner rat—in a double T-maze task where actors decided between two alternatives only differing in the reward delivered to the partner. The “own reward” choice yielded a reward only accessible to the actor whereas the “both reward” choice produced an additional reward for a partner (partner condition) or an inanimate toy (toy Condition), located in an adjacent compartment. We found that actors chose “both reward” at levels above chance and more often in the partner than in the toy condition. Moreover, we show that this choice pattern adapts to the current social context and that the observed behavior is stable over time.

Personality, plasticity and predation: linking endocrine and behavioural reaction norms in stickleback fish

SummaryPredation plays a fundamental role in evolutionary processes, driving changes in prey morphology, physiology and behaviour. With organisms being increasingly exposed to rapid environmental changes, there is growing interest in understanding individual phenotypic plasticity in response to changes in predation pressure.Behavioural and physiological responses to predator exposure are of particular interest as differences in predation pressure are often reflected in correlated suites of behavioural and hormonal profiles across populations. Within populations, the association between endocrine profiles and behaviour is less understood and often lacking.Adopting a reaction norm approach and a repeated measures design, we assessed within‐population effects of changes in perceived predation risk on endocrinology and behaviour in three‐spined sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus). We repeatedly exposed subjects to a robotic model predator and assessed their behavioural response. The fish showed consistent behavioural profiles and were less active and shyer when predation risk was higher.Using non‐invasive waterborne hormone analysis, we assessed basal cortisol as well as the cortisol response to changes in predation risk. Individuals showed significantly higher cortisol levels following exposure to the model predator. Individual post‐predator exposure cortisol was repeatable but unrelated to behavioural responses. Accounting for between versus within‐subject effects, we found that basal cortisol and shyness were positively related within individuals, that is individuals overall were shyer on days they had higher cortisol levels. We also tested if basal testosterone predicted risky behaviour and found no evidence for this hypothesis.No individual differences in hormonal or behavioural responses to changes in predation risk were found, suggesting that individuals are not constrained by their personalities in their ability to cope with a potentially harmful threat.Overall, we show that individuals of different personalities are equally ‘flexible’ in their response to changes in predation pressure. Our study offers novel insight into consistent individual differences and plasticity in hormones and behaviour as well as their interplay within populations. Future studies should assess the applicability of these findings to other changes in the environment, as well as the effects of social context on endocrine and behavioural reaction norms.