Social Interaction Mechanisms Research Articles

Capturing spontaneous interactivity: a multi-measure approach to analyzing the dynamics of interpersonal coordination in dance improvisation

IntroductionInterpersonal coordination is widely acknowledged as critical to relating with, connecting to, and understanding others, but the underlying mechanisms of this phenomenon are poorly understood. Dance—particularly improvised dance—offers a valuable paradigm for investigating the dynamics of interpersonal coordination due to its inherent ability to connect us. However, conventional approaches to studying coordination often fail to capture the co-creative spontaneity that is intrinsic to such interactions.MethodsThis study combined multiple measures of interpersonal coordination to detect moments of high coordination between two freely improvising dancers. We applied maximum correlation vectors, normalized Symbolic Transfer Entropy (NSTE), and surveys to analyze the time-varying dynamics of similarity in movement speeds, directed influence, and subjective perception of dancers engaged in an improvisation task.ResultsThis multi-measure approach offers a means of capturing the interplay between different dimensions of interpersonal coordination.DiscussionThis approach may be used to understand the underlying mechanisms of co-creative social interactions in improvised dance and other forms of spontaneous interactivity.

Synchrony Across Brains.

Second-person neuroscience focuses on studying the behavioral and neuronal mechanisms of real-time social interactions within single and across interacting brains. In this review article, we describe the developments that have been undertaken to study socially interactive phenomena and have helped to focus on behavioral and neurobiological processes that extend across interaction partners. More specifically, we focus on the role that synchrony across brains plays in enabling and facilitating social interaction and communication and in shaping social coordination and learning, and we consider how reduced synchrony across brains may constitute a core feature of psychopathology.

Research on Online Games and Social Interaction

This paper delves into the central position of online games in contemporary society and their close relationship with social interaction. With the popularity of the Internet, online games have become one of the most important ways of leisure and social communication. The study outlines the development of MMOs, from their origins to their diverse classifications, and in particular how their unique social characteristics facilitate interactions between players. Through theoretical analysis combined with social exchange theory and symbolic interaction theory, this paper reveals the mechanisms of social interactions in MMOs, including inter-player exchanges, cooperation and competition, and explores how these interactions profoundly affect players' gaming experience and behavioural decisions. Further, this paper analyses the trend of convergence between online games and social networks, and how this convergence enhances the social attributes and player engagement of games. At the same time, the paper also focuses on the social problems that online games may bring, such as Internet addiction and social disorders, cyberbullying, etc., and looks forward to the impact of technological advances on future social interaction patterns. Finally, the paper summarises the potential and challenges faced by online games in promoting healthy social interactions, and puts forward suggestions for future research with a view to promoting the healthy development of the field of online games and social interactions.

PUBLIC PARTICIPATION MECHANISM IN LOW-CARBON TRANSPORTATION FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF CARBON NEUTRALITY

Under the goal of carbon neutrality, public participation in green travel is the fundamental premise of low-carbon transportation development. Based on the multiple mediation effect model, this paper explores the mechanism of social interaction on public participation in low-carbon transportation, and the hierarchical regression method is used to test the moderating effect of social network intensity and information network intensity. The results show that: (1) Both network media and social relations have a prominent positive effect on public participation, but the effect of network media is better than that of social relations. (2) Network media and social relations affect residents’ low-carbon travel behavior through three mediating variables, namely, traffic information, environmental protection knowledge and social norms. (3) The moderating effect of social network intensity on the relationship between network media and low-carbon travel behavior is prominently negative, while the moderating effect of information network intensity is significantly positive. Therefore, it is necessary to stimulate more public participation in low-carbon transport through real-time pushing of traffic information and strengthening the closeness of social relations.

Neural Encoding of Bodies for Primate Social Perception.

Primates, as social beings, have evolved complex brain mechanisms to navigate intricate social environments. This review explores the neural bases of body perception in both human and nonhuman primates, emphasizing the processing of social signals conveyed by body postures, movements, and interactions. Early studies identified selective neural responses to body stimuli in macaques, particularly within and ventral to the superior temporal sulcus (STS). These regions, known as body patches, represent visual features that are present in bodies but do not appear to be semantic body detectors. They provide information about posture and viewpoint of the body. Recent research using dynamic stimuli has expanded the understanding of the body-selective network, highlighting its complexity and the interplay between static and dynamic processing. In humans, body-selective areas such as the extrastriate body area (EBA) and fusiform body area (FBA) have been implicated in the perception of bodies and their interactions. Moreover, studies on social interactions reveal that regions in the human STS are also tuned to the perception of dyadic interactions, suggesting a specialized social lateral pathway. Computational work developed models of body recognition and social interaction, providing insights into the underlying neural mechanisms. Despite advances, significant gaps remain in understanding the neural mechanisms of body perception and social interaction. Overall, this review underscores the importance of integrating findings across species to comprehensively understand the neural foundations of body perception and the interaction between computational modeling and neural recording.

Research on Online Games and Social Interaction

This paper delves into the central position of online games in contemporary society and their close relationship with social interaction. With the popularity of the Internet, online games have become one of the most important ways of leisure and social communication. The study outlines the development of MMOs, from their origins to their diverse classifications, and in particular how their unique social characteristics facilitate interactions between players. Through theoretical analysis combined with social exchange theory and symbolic interaction theory, this paper reveals the mechanisms of social interactions in MMOs, including inter-player exchanges, cooperation and competition, and explores how these interactions profoundly affect players' gaming experience and behavioural decisions. Further, this paper analyses the trend of convergence between online games and social networks, and how this convergence enhances the social attributes and player engagement of games. At the same time, the paper also focuses on the social problems that online games may bring, such as Internet addiction and social disorders, cyberbullying, etc., and looks forward to the impact of technological advances on future social interaction patterns. Finally, the paper summarises the potential and challenges faced by online games in promoting healthy social interactions, and puts forward suggestions for future research with a view to promoting the healthy development of the field of online games and social interactions.

Decision-Making with Predictions of Others' Likely and Unlikely Choices in the Human Brain.

For better decisions in social interactions, humans often must understand the thinking of others and predict their actions. Since such predictions are uncertain, multiple predictions may be necessary for better decision-making. However, the neural processes and computations underlying such social decision-making remain unclear. We investigated this issue by developing a behavioral paradigm and performing functional magnetic resonance imaging and computational modeling. In our task, female and male participants were required to predict others' choices in order to make their own value-based decisions, as the outcome depended on others' choices. Results showed, to make choices, the participants mostly relied on a value difference (primary) generated from the case where others would make a likely choice, but sometimes they additionally used another value difference (secondary) from the opposite case where others make an unlikely choice. We found that the activations in the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) correlated with the primary difference while the activations in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (rdlPFC) correlated with the secondary difference. Analysis of neural coupling and temporal dynamics suggested a three-step processing network, beginning with the left amygdala signals for predictions of others' choices. Modulated by these signals, the PCC and rdlPFC reflect the respective value differences for self-decisions. Finally, the medial prefrontal cortex integrated these decision signals for a final decision. Our findings elucidate the neural process of constructing value-based decisions by predicting others and illuminate their key variables with social modulations, providing insight into the differential functional roles of these brain regions in this process.

MODERN MECHANISMS OF NON-STATE ACTORSIN THE SOCIAL PROTECTION SYSTEM PARTICIPATION

The article is devoted to the current topic of development of the social protection system. Statistics show that the number of citizens demanding support from the state is growing: society is aging, there is an increase in the number of people with disabilities, and the number of inpatient social service organizations is growing. The total number of disabled people is more than 11 million people, the number of lonely elderly people is more than 7 million people, which requires the development of modern mechanisms for social protection of the population. The theoretical analysis made it possible to highlight the features of understanding and propose an expanded description of the category “social protection” from the perspective of the individual and the state, including social security, guarantees, assistance, support¸ compensation, insurance, generally characterized by the consumption of all types of social services within the framework of the state social policy . The proposed theoretical three-level model of providing social protection takes into account factorial and dynamic elements and can be the basis for building an effective social security system with the involvement of socially oriented non-profit organizations. The analysis of statistical data revealed an increase in the number of volunteers in the implementation of civil initiatives of socially oriented non-profit organizations, which requires systematic development and implementation in state social support programs to increase the efficiency of social protection processes. A study of the target audience's awareness of the work of socially oriented non-profit organizations confirmed the need to popularize ongoing social projects to expand the scope of social services. The proposed generalized model of the mechanism of social interaction when including the resources of socially oriented non-profit organizations based on forecasting social processes will make it possible to effectively manage the formation of social support programs for the population to increase the efficiency of social protection processes.

Inter-subject gamma oscillation synchronization as a biomarker of abnormal processing of social interaction in ADHD

Children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have difficulties in social interactions. Studying brain activity during social interactions is difficult with conventional artificial stimuli. This pioneering study examined the neural correlates of social perception in children with ADHD and matched controls using naturalistic stimuli. We presented 20 children with ADHD and 20 age-and-sex-matched controls with tailored movies featuring high- or low-level social interactions while recording electroencephalographic signals. Both groups exhibited synchronized gamma-band oscillations, but controls demonstrated greater inter-subject correlations. Additionally, the difference in inter-subject correlations between high- and low-interaction movies was significantly larger in controls compared to ADHD patients. Between 55 and 75 Hz comparing viewing high interaction movies with low interaction moves, controls had a significantly larger weighting in the right parietal lobe, while ADHD patients had a significantly smaller weighting in the left occipital lobe. These findings reveal distinct spatiotemporal neural signatures in social interaction processing among children with ADHD and controls using naturalistic stimuli. These neural markers offer potential for group differentiation and assessing intervention efficacy, advancing our understanding ADHD-related social interaction mechanisms.

Do Social Interaction Mechanisms Affect University Reputation? Evidence from the UK Higher Education Sector

We investigate the influence of skilful utilization of social interaction dynamics on creating reputations for UK Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) during public funding cuts and scrutiny. The paper employs a content analysis method and follows an empirical design with a unique sample of 148 UK HEIs. To gauge reputation, we rely on participatory data from the Guardian newspaper's 2014–15 environmental and ethical performance ratings for the People & Planet University League. Multiple regression analysis is applied to address the research hypotheses. The results indicate that open, accountable, and transparent sensemaking in sustainable development (SD) practices over the years is the predominant dynamic for enhancing HEIs’ reputation. This paper underscores the need to consider the institutional logics perspective as a theoretical foundation for a comprehensive understanding of the link between sustainability disclosure and an institution's reputation, image, and public goodwill within the higher education (HE) context. HEIs’ leadership should invest in SD and its associated disclosure practices. Policy‐makers and accounting regulators should establish consistent and comparable reporting requirements for sustainable performance within the HE sector. This paper is the first to empirically examine the direct impacts of HEIs’ compliance with sustainability duties on organizational performance.

Dual routes of chunking social interaction: Insights from grouping two agent actions in working memory.

Humans have evolved the sophisticated ability to extract social relations embedded in interactive entities. One typical demonstration is a social chunking phenomenon wherein the cognitive system chunks individual actions into a unified episode basing on perceived interactive actions. However, the mechanisms underlying social chunking remain to be elucidated. Most studies have adopted static images and manipulated interactions through agents' facingness (face-to-face vs. back-to-back). Connecting agents via directed contingent actions is crucial in forming real-life social interaction. Hence, we employed dynamic actions as stimuli, separated physical- and communicative-contingency interactive actions, and predicted that domain-general physical regularities and domain-specific social relationships are crucial in social interactions, respectively. We tested this prediction by using an involuntary chunking effect in working memory, wherein two individual actions are involuntarily chunked when containing task-irrelevant interactive information. We found that involuntary chunking occurred for both types of upright interactive actions (Experiments 1, 3, 5, and 6). Inverting actions erased the chunking of communicative- but not physical-contingency actions (Experiments 2, 4, and 5). The facingness of dyads did not participate in chunking physical-contingency actions but was a prerequisite for chunking communicative-contingency actions (Experiments 3 and 6). These results reveal the dual routes of chunking interactive actions. Moreover, they suggest that the chunking mechanisms of dynamic social interaction are distinct from those of static images, highlighting the importance of using dynamic stimuli to explore the mechanisms of social interaction in emerging people-watching interdisciplinarity. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Covid-19 and LGBT+ youth: social isolation and use of dating apps

LGBT+ young people are especially vulnerable to distress. The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between the perception of social isolation due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the use of dating apps by LGBT+ young people. It also aimed to understand the factors related to the use of these platforms and the perception of LGBT+ young people about social isolation. An online survey was carried out in Brazil with 816 LGBT+ young people aged between 18 and 32 years old. A questionnaire proposed by the authors was used to measure the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their lives, the perception of social isolation, and the use of dating apps and other related platforms. LGBT+ young people feel emotionally affected by social isolation, and there is evidence of significant family discomfort regarding their LGBT+ identity. The use of dating apps was not associated with a higher break in social isolation; their use was strongly characterized as a mechanism of social interaction. The study highlighted specificities of social isolation for LGBT+ young people, mainly related to their mental health. Furthermore, dating apps were presented as a tool for coping and social interaction.

Elevating low-effort engagement to cultivate stronger community commitment: A study of social capital within Instagram's brand community

Purpose: This study aimed to analyze the role of social capital in enhancing the engagement of community members, specifically transitioning them from low-effort participation to higher levels of commitment toward the community.Design/methodology: This study presents the results derived from a quantitative analysis of 483 participants across diverse automotive brand communities found on Instagram.Findings: Based on the foundation of social capital theory, this research enquires into the effects of shared relational elements of social capital on the commitment of members to communities. The results indicate that when members perceive an adequate degree of social trust and adhere to a recognized norm of reciprocity, there is a notable influence on the potential for heightened commitment to the community.Research limitations/implications: This study solely focused on a specific type of social media, underscoring the prominent role of visual presentation style as the primary approach in content creation. As a result, this has a notable impact on the mechanism of social interaction among users.Originality/value: In visually oriented settings such as Instagram, the barriers to participating in social interactions are noticeably reduced. Consequently, activities that require only minimal engagement effort have a higher probability of evolving into more profound and intensified forms of social exchange among community members. This, in turn, greatly facilitates the cultivation of social trust and the establishment of a norm of reciprocity.

Inter-brain desynchronization in social interaction: a consequence of subjective involvement?

Hyperscanning approaches to human neuroscience aim to uncover the neural mechanisms of social interaction. They have been largely guided by the expectation that increased levels of engagement between two persons will be supported by higher levels of inter-brain synchrony (IBS). A common approach to measuring IBS is phase synchrony in the context of EEG hyperscanning. Yet the growing number of experimental findings does not yield a straightforward interpretation, which has prompted critical reflections about the field's theoretical and methodological principles. In this perspective piece, we make a conceptual contribution to this debate by considering the role of a possibly overlooked effect of inter-brain desynchronization (IBD), as for example measured by decreased phase synchrony. A principled reason to expect this role comes from the recent proposal of irruption theory, which operationalizes the efficacy of a person's subjective involvement in behavior generation in terms of increased neural entropy. Accordingly, IBD is predicted to increase with one or more participant's socially motivated subjective involvement in interaction, because of the associated increase in their neural entropy. Additionally, the relative prominence of IBD compared to IBS is expected to vary in time, as well as across frequency bands, depending on the extent that subjective involvement is elicited by the task and/or desired by the person. If irruption theory is on the right track, it could thereby help to explain the notable variability of IBS in social interaction in terms of a countertendency from another factor: IBD due to subjective involvement.

The evolution of peace (and war) is driven by an elementary social interaction mechanism.

Here we revise Glowacki's model by proposing a simple and empirically tested mechanism that is applicable to a comprehensive set of social interactions. This parsimonious mechanism accounts for the choice of both cooperative and peaceful alternatives and explains when each choice benefits the interacting parties. It is proposed that this mechanism is key to the evolution of both peace and conflict.

Cancel Culture” in Political Discourse: Multiple Forms and Research Opportunities

The article discusses the so-called “cancel culture” as a factor in the new social reality, influencing the configuration of constantly changing social relations. At the same time, it is shown that the interpretations of “cancel culture” in sociopolitical and sociocultural discourse are very extensive. An attempt has been made to analyse “cancel culture” in the context of the variety of forms of its manifestation, and the main features and characteristics of this phenomenon are described. As a result of the analysis, it was concluded that “cancel culture” is one of the forms of interaction between subjects of social relations. It is shown that “cancel culture” can be considered both as a form of political relations and as a technology currently used in various spheres of public life to achieve certain political or business goals. At the same time, attention should be paid to the fact that “cancel culture” is becoming widespread in connection with the transition to the widespread use of information and communication technologies and the emergence of a network society. And the process of digitalisation, including social relations, largely contributes to its expansion in modern society.
 The transition to a new type of society - information, network society - entailed a transition to new forms and mechanisms of social interactions. The work notes that the acceleration of social development has a significant impact on all aspects of social life, including the system of social interactions and relationships. It is suggested that technologies and mechanisms for the implementation of social interactions, alternative to existing ones, are emerging in the 21st century. From these positions, it is argued that “cancel culture” is one of the types of social interactions, primarily in network projection. It is concluded that the range of interpretation of the concept of “cancel culture” is quite wide, research approaches are diverse and make it possible to study it from the point of view of forms and technologies of social interaction, as well as one of the varieties of communication models.
 The phenomenon of “cancel culture” is considered in the context of the digital transformation of modern society. Based on the analysis of digitalisation processes (from the perspective of the considered issue of the relationship between digitalisation and “cancel culture”), the special significance of the political, legal and ethical aspects of the implementation of “cancel culture” in social practices is noted.

Personal stories as a result of creative activity and a tool for overcoming the fragmentation of everyday life: cultural and philosophical analysis

The object of this research is the fragmented everyday life of social life practices. The subject of the research is personal stories realized in storytelling and considered as the result of the creative activity of the subject and a way to overcome the fragmentation of everyday life of modern culture. The authors consider the fragmentation of everyday life as a factor in the desocialization of the subject and the leveling of unified mechanisms of social interaction. Storytelling is defined as a way for a person to consistently present various storylines and broadcast the principles of their personal existence, creating an effect of belonging among recipients and awakening their imagination. The research substantiates that storytelling resources allow a subject to broadcast personal values, creatively express their individuality through virtual self-presentation and respond to current public demands, thereby overcoming the fragmentation of everyday life. As the conclusions of the research, the authors state that public order and social interaction are conditioned by the influence of the narratives of each subject on the foundation of their own being and the formation of a vector of development of all participants in intersubjective relations through the dissemination of the principles of personal existence in the storytelling system. The authors emphasize the creative nature of personal stories, the creation and telling of which is a prerequisite for the formation of unified principles of social existence due to the transmitted ideas about socially acceptable rules and stable patterns of behavior that become a set of rituals. The authors conclude that personal stories allow the subject to overcome fragmented everyday life, move to a qualitatively new level of normative determination, develop a strategy of self-identity and move from a separate way of being to a holistic existence in the context of intersubjective interactions.

Distinct ACC Neural Mechanisms Underlie Authentic and Transmitted Anxiety Induced by Maternal Separation in Mice.

It is known that humans and rodents are capable of transmitting stress to their naive partners via social interaction. However, a comprehensive understanding of transmitted stress, which may differ from authentic stress, thus revealing unique neural mechanisms of social interaction resulting from transmitted stress and the associated anxiety, is missing. We used, in the present study, maternal separation (MS) as a stress model to investigate whether MS causes abnormal behavior in adolescence. A key concern in the analysis of stress transmission is whether the littermates of MS mice who only witness MS stress ("Partners") exhibit behavioral abnormalities similar to those of MS mice themselves. Of special interest is the establishment of the neural mechanisms underlying transmitted stress and authentic stress. The results show that Partners, similar to MS mice, exhibit anxiety-like behavior and hyperalgesia after witnessing littermates being subjected to early-life repetitive MS. Electrophysiological analysis revealed that mice subjected to MS demonstrate a reduction in both the excitatory and inhibitory synaptic activities of parvalbumin interneurons (PVINs) in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). However, Partners differed from MS mice in showing an increase in the number and excitability of GABAergic PVINs in the ACC and in the ability of chemogenetic PVIN inactivation to eliminate abnormal behavior. Furthermore, the social transfer of anxiety-like behavior required intact olfactory, but not visual, perception. This study suggests a functional involvement of ACC PVINs in mediating the distinct neural basis of transmitted anxiety.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is a critical brain area in physical and social pain and contributes to the exhibition of abnormal behavior. ACC glutamatergic neurons have been shown to encode transmitted stress, but it remains unclear whether inhibitory ACC neurons also play a role. We evaluate, in this study, ACC neuronal, synaptic and network activities and uncover a critical role of parvalbumin interneurons (PVINs) in the expression of transmitted stress in adolescent mice who had witnessed MS of littermates in infancy. Furthermore, inactivation of ACC PVINs blocks transmitted stress. The results suggest that emotional contagion has a severe effect on brain function, and identify a potential target for the treatment of transmitted anxiety.

Bodily-Affective Aspects of Phenomen in Malevich’s Suprematism

The study addresses some aspects of Suprematist theory of perception, allowing to investigate the structure of Suprematist phenomenon in the context of ontology, socio-political and religious-mystical works of K. Malevich. The aim of the paper is to present Malevich’s theory of perception in the framework of enactivism. Namely, the article focuses on the theory of social affordances, which today is widely used in design, game development and other everyday practices. The author refers to Malevich’s theoretical and sociopolitical essays, as well as to the commentary literature. Although Suprematism represents a well-researched tradition in art theory, the author stress the need for a follow-up study of Malevich’s theoretical essays in the contemporary context of philosophy of consciousness. The author also emphasizes the relevance of Suprematist philosophy for today’s way of thinking. For the most authentic presentation of Malevich’s ideas I use the phenomenological and hermeneutical method on a par with elements of the ecological approach in psychology and enactivism in the philosophy of consciousness. Consequently, the theory of affordances an effective and natural unification of all the aspects discussed above. The study shows the affinity of Malevich’s ideas to this theory. The author focused on the thesis of feeling as the goal of the expressive act of art. As one could see, Kazemir Malevich always emphasized the bodily-affective dimension of art, and in this sense he participated in a global cultural-historical shift in our conception of the essence of art. Since then, art has ceased to be elitist, but has instead inherited everyday practices. Thus, Malevich speaks of a new art that suits the man of the new world, the Soviet citizen. In this context, I relate the idea of affordance, which means the creation of a feeling-opportunity for subjective action (agency), to the artistic act whose goal, according to Malevich, is the creation of an emotional body-affective feeling. I defend the theory of social affordances, explaining the mechanism of social interaction, as the most adequate model for explaining Suprematism. As a result, based on the already developed concept of bodily-affective dynamics, I show how visionary and creative Malevich was, and how his ideas contribute to the development of a theory of social, emotional affordances.

Teaching and Learning Computational Thinking Through Game-Based Learning: A Systematic Review

Computational thinking (CT) is considered a fundamental skill that everyone in the 21st century should have. Game-based learning (GBL) may be used to teach CT, and it’s necessary to clarify how to design and implement game-based CT teaching. The literature was systematically searched for empirical studies published between 2011 and 2021. Thirty-nine studies were included in the review and findings suggested that GBL has positive effects on CT, but has non-significant effects on some CT elements (e.g., conditions, triggers, and abstraction) because of limited time to learn these elements and students’ preferences for using CT elements. Game elements, particularly clear goals and rules, progressive challenges, immediate feedback, storyline, avatar, social interaction and various reward mechanisms were used to motivate students to engage in activities to develop CT. Furthermore, single or multiple theoretical foundations, such as constructivist learning theory and experiential learning theory, may guide the design and implementation of game-based activities. Problem-solving, project-based approaches were used to encourage students to use CT to solve problems or complete a project. Finally, guidelines for designing and implementing game-based learning activities for promoting CT were discussed.