Impact Of Social Learning Research Articles

The Impact of Social Learning and Social Bonds on Juvenile Delinquency: An Empirical Study of Secondary School Students in Saint Lucia

ABSTRACT There is a dearth of information regarding the phenomenon of juvenile delinquency among adolescents in Saint Lucia. Using 268 secondary school students as a sample, the researcher investigated the criminogenic risk factors for juvenile delinquent behavior among adolescents from Saint Lucia. The adolescent patterns of delinquent behavior (violent and nonviolent delinquency) were analyzed in conjunction with conventional criminological theories (i.e. social learning and social bonds). The results showed that there was markedly higher delinquency among male adolescents in comparison to female adolescents. In addition, multiple regression and structural equation modeling demonstrate that the social learning and social bond variables analyzed in this study were found to be significantly correlated with violent and nonviolent delinquency. The findings offer implications for addressing the risk factors associated with criminogenic behavior in adolescents and preventing them from engaging in violent or nonviolent delinquent behavior.

Agent-based models of the cultural evolution of occupational gender roles.

The causes of sex differences in human behaviour are contested, with 'evolutionary' and 'social' explanations often being pitted against each other in the literature. Recent work showing positive correlations between indices of gender equality and the size of sex differences in behaviour has been argued to show support for 'evolutionary' over 'social' approaches. This argument, however, neglects the potential for social learning to generate arbitrary gender segregation. In the current paper we simulate, using agent-based models, a population where agents exist as one of two 'types' and can use social information about which types of agents are performing which 'roles' within their environment. We find that agents self-segregate into different roles even where real differences in performance do not exist, if there is a common belief (modelled as priors) that group differences may exist in 'innate' competence. Facilitating role changes such that agents should move without cost to the predicted highest-rewards for their skills (i.e. fluidity of the labour market) reduced segregation, while forcing extended exploration of different roles eradicated gender segregation. These models are interpreted in terms of bio-cultural evolution, and the impact of social learning on the expression of gender roles.

Impact of Social Learning on Consumer Subsidies and Supplier Capacity for Green Technology Adoption

Impact of Social Learning on Consumer Subsidies and Supplier Capacity for Green Technology Adoption

Unfolding social learning parameters behind the selection of information sources against cyclones: A perspective of information seeking behavior research

The impact of social learning on disaster management has been widely studied. However, few studies have investigated the key attributes of social learning that impact the selection of preferred information sources about coastal cyclones. A mixed-methods approach was adopted to collect data by conducting 35 in-person interviews and a survey of 323 participants of Sundarban, a coastal region of West Bengal, India. Descriptive statistics helped to identify preferred information sources, whereas, structural equation modelling revealed four social learning attributes, namely Quality, Scale, Attachment with Place and Learning Process, having an impact on participants' information source preferences during a disaster. In-depth analysis of interview data suggested four indicators, i.e., Credibility, Availability, Accuracy and Frequency, that an individual considered when prioritizing within selected sources. The findings offer guidelines to officials for using the most useful sources and information dissemination approaches to inform vulnerable populations in the event of a disaster.

Ambiguity preference, social learning and adoption of soil testing and formula fertilization technology

This paper explores the impact of ambiguity preference and social learning on farmers' new technology adoption. The results show that (1) Ambiguity preference has a significant impact on farmers adoption of soil testing and formula fertilization technology, and the influence of ambiguity preference on soil testing technology adoption is more significant than on formula fertilization technology. (2) The impacts of social learning on farmers' adoption of soil testing technology and formula fertilization technology are significantly positive. (3) The adoption possibility of soil testing and formula fertilization technology demonstrates heterogeneity in different levels of farmers' cognitive abilities and ages, which indicates that ambiguity preference and social learning could positively promote farmers' soil testing and formula fertilization technology adoption, and the impact of social learning in elder farmers are more obvious. Overall, this research provides a micro foundation and policy recommendations for household soil testing and formula fertilization technology promotion in rural China and sheds light upon how the government can formulate relevant policies to promote green environmental development.

Selling New Products with Social Learning: The Role of Online Product Reviews

This paper studies the impact of consumers' social learning from the reviews of early adopters of a new product. We consider a two-period setting with an introduction (penetration) period followed by the product maturing period. Early buyers make purchase decisions in the introduction period under significant product valuation uncertainty and future price uncertainty and would like post reviews online to share their experiences about the product. The online product reviews posted by early adopters play an important role in shaping following consumers' product valuations and further influence their purchasing decisions. While the majority of research on social learning focuses on the impact of social learning on the consumer decisions and firm pricing in the maturing period, we find an indirect impact of electronic word-of-mouth (EWOM) on the strategic early buyers' purchase decisions and firm pricing in the introduction period. When early buyers make purchase decisions, they need to forecast the future second period price, estimate the expected utility from waiting, and compare it with the expected utility from buying early. We find that social learning increases the uncertainty in future price, which depends on reviews and therefore unknown, for early buyers in the introduction period. This price-uncertainty-increasing effect may balk early buyers from adopting in the introduction period and thus impact a firm's profit. Driven by this effect, we find that under social learning negative reviews may benefit a firm while positive reviews can also hurt a firm.

Supply disruption management under consumer panic buying and social learning effects

This study investigates the impact of consumers’ social learning (SL) behavior on their purchase decisions under supply disruption risk, and accordingly, how retailers should take this into account and optimize their inventory ordering strategy. We develop a model with two batches of consumers. The first batch of consumers evaluates the potential supply disruption risk and decides whether to stockpile extra units for future consumption (i.e., panic buying). Their purchase decisions influence the second batch of consumers via social learning. We derive the optimal inventory ordering policy for the retailer and evaluate the retailer’s loss of profit if the impact of SL is not taken into consideration. We show that when the portion of panic buying consumers among the first batch (which we define as the initial panic intensity) is at a moderate level, consumer panic buying and SL behaviors can be beneficial for the retailer and the social welfare. In contrast, if the initial panic intensity is very low or very high, SL can hurt the retailer’s profit and the total social welfare.

The Effects of Social Learning and Internet Ethics of College Students Engaging in Cyberbullying Behavior in Taiwan

Cyberbullying is a major problem among our school-age population. The growing number of studies suggests that cyberbullying can often cause serious academic, emotional, social, and safety issues for its peer victims. The purpose of current study is to examine the nature of respondents' experience of cyberbullying and determine independently the impact of social learning and internet ethics on cyberbullying behavior among college students in Taiwan. The preliminary analysis is of a survey data collected from 359 undergraduate students in south of Taiwan through convenient sampling. The results of this study provide support for the hypotheses and explore the effect of social learning and perception of internet ethics on cyberbullying behavior among college students. Finding suggests that college students with lower level of social learning and with higher level of internet ethics will have less cyberbullying behavior than those with higher social learning and lower internet ethics.

Pricing Strategy and Carbon Emission Abatement under Cap-and-Trade Regulation Considering Social Learning

In an uncertainty market, social learning plays a significant role in obtaining information to make better decisions. Under cap-and-trade regulation, this paper aims to investigate firms’ pricing and carbon emission abatement issues considering the impact of social learning. This paper establishes a two-period model in a market consisting of a manufacturer and heterogeneous consumers. The manufacturer produces two alternatives (ordinary product and low-carbon product) and makes decisions on sales prices and carbon emission abatement levels. Consumers make decisions on whether and which product to buy. Consumers are not sure about their valuations of products and have the opportunity to discover their true valuation by social learning. The results show that the emission abatement level on ordinary product is affected by the pricing strategy for both types of products. However, the emission abatement level on low-carbon product is only affected by its own pricing strategy. It also shows that social learning lowers the emission abatement level on ordinary product, whereas it improves the emission abatement level on low-carbon product when charging a high price for low-carbon product. Moreover, the price of ordinary product in period 1 is no less than that in period 2. In contrast, the price of low-carbon product in period 2 is higher than that in period 1.

Impact of social learning on entrepreneurial behavior: case of entrepreneurship education at state sector universities in Sri Lanka

The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of social learning in entrepreneurship education conducted by the universities on the development of entrepreneurial behaviors of the course participants. Primary data are collected from 185 students of extension courses on entrepreneurship offered by three Sri Lankan universities namely, University of Colombo, University of Sri Jayewardenepura and University of Moratuwa. According to the factor analysis result, social learning process comprised four factors, namely attention, retention, motoric reproduction and motivation. The results show that social learning exists in entrepreneurship education and it positively impacts the development of entrepreneurial behaviors namely planning activities, establishing legitimacy and market behavior. Specially, motoric reproduction was found to be significant predictor of all three entrepreneurial behaviors. Further, entrepreneurs shall engage in social learning in entrepreneurship education to develop their entrepreneurial learning. The research provides important insights to the higher education sector in framing the delivery of its entrepreneurship courses to ensure effectiveness in entrepreneurship education. Nevertheless, this study affirms the existing arguments on the association between social learning and entrepreneurship development through a quantitative analysis.

Social Learning in Networks of Friends versus Strangers

Networks and the embedded relationships are critical determinants of how people communicate and form beliefs. The explosion of social media has significantly increased the scope and impact of social learning among consumers. This paper studies observational learning in networks of friends versus strangers. A consumer decides whether to adopt a product after receiving a private signal about product quality and observing the actions of others. The preference for the product has greater heterogeneity in the stranger-network than in the friend-network. We show that when the network is small, observing friends’ actions helps the consumer make more accurate inferences about quality. As the network grows, however, the stranger-network becomes more effective. Underlying these results are two competing effects of network heterogeneity on social learning. These are the individual preference effect, which allows one to make a better quality judgment when the preference element of past actions is more certain, and the social conforming effect, wherein private signals are underused in quality judgment as people follow others’ actions. We find cascading is more likely to occur in the friend-network than in the stranger-network. For a high-quality firm, the stranger-network generates greater sales than the friend-network when the network size is sufficiently large or the private signal is sufficiently accurate. We also examine the existence of experts and firms using advertising to influence consumers. Finally, we show how networks that are highly homogeneous or heterogeneous could impede observational learning.

Family interactions on primetime television: A descriptive analysis of assertive power interactions

Decision making, problem solving, and conflict resolution in the family environment have been closely linked to the family power process identified by Olson and Cromwell (1975). According to these authors, assertiveness is one of the specific concepts that characterize the process of power in the family. This term essentially defines the frequency of attempts and the type of strategies that an individual employs to influence the behavior of other family members. Working from social learning theory, this investigation seeks to establish the range and frequency of assertive power as it is portrayed across family roles in primetime television. The results of this study will serve as an important first step in assessing the potential impact of social learning as it relates to decision making, problem solving, and conflict resolution in the family environment.