Social Asymmetry Research Articles

Understanding perceived loneliness: a multifaceted approach

Purpose This paper aims to understand loneliness with a special focus on perceived loneliness using a multifaceted approach. Design/methodology/approach To the best of the author’s knowledge, this appears to be the first paper dedicated to investigating the perception of loneliness as its primary topic. Unfortunately, not much work is available on this specific focus. However, various facets and dimensions can be integrated to gain a better understanding. Therefore, the author has carefully selected four sections, each focusing on different aspects of loneliness. These sections can contribute to a better understanding of loneliness, keeping in mind its perception. Findings Section one examines the cognitive processes and self-assessment mechanisms that set lonely individuals apart from their non-lonely counterparts. These include heightened awareness, negative social cue interpretation and increased sensitivity to social threats. Section two examines the predictors of loneliness and associated emotional responses. This includes factors such as emotional responses, attributions, duration and situational variables. Section three challenges conventional definitions of loneliness by introducing social asymmetry. Within this framework, personality traits such as extraversion emerge as resilient against loneliness, even in social isolation. Section four discusses the significant influence of cultural diversity on perceptions of loneliness. Collectivist cultures rely on familial and community support to combat loneliness, whereas individualistic cultures require interventions that promote independence. Originality/value This comprehensive examination contributes insights for informing targeted interventions, reinforcing support systems and enhancing our understanding of human connectivity in an increasingly isolated world.

Associations Between Generativity and Social Asymmetry Among Older Adults in Japan.

Loneliness and social isolation are major public health concerns among older adults in Japan. Generativity, the concern for and commitment to future generations, may buffer older adults from loneliness. This study examined the cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between generativity and social asymmetry (the discrepancy between social isolation and loneliness) among older adults in Japan. Data were from 2 waves (2008 and 2012) of the Midlife in Japan survey, a nationally representative longitudinal study of 645 adults aged 30-79 residing in the Tokyo metropolitan area. Generativity was measured using the 6-item Loyola Generativity Scale. Social asymmetry was computed as the residual score from regressing loneliness onto social isolation. Higher generativity levels were associated with lower social asymmetry scores (B=-0.21, SE=0.04), but generativity change across waves did not predict social asymmetry 4 years later (B=-0.04, SE=0.06). Generativity may play a protective role in buffering older adults from the adverse effects of social isolation on loneliness. Promoting generativity among older adults may be a potential intervention strategy to reduce loneliness and improve well-being in aging populations in Japan.

LONELINESS, SOCIAL ISOLATION, AND HEALTH WITHIN THE CONTEXT OF A GLOBAL PANDEMIC

Abstract Social connectivity is a crucial human experience. The objective experience of being disconnected (i.e., social isolation) and the subjective feeling of being disconnected (i.e., loneliness) are related but distinct experiences that have unique impacts on physical, mental, and cognitive health. The COVID-19 pandemic forced much of the global population into a prolonged state of isolation, and many older adults found themselves abruptly cut-off from important sources of social interaction. The lasting impacts of the pandemic are still unknown. This symposium brings together several projects addressing key questions about longitudinal processes of loneliness and social isolation among middle aged and older adults, both prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Jackson will present results from a coordinated data analysis (CDA) showing the extent to which loneliness, social isolation, and social asymmetry are related to MCI, dementia, mortality, and life expectancy. Rule will discuss the impact of stroke on trajectories of loneliness in a CDA. Zhang and Fingerman will present findings that show how loneliness and social isolation vary among individuals with functional limitations. Zavala will present results from a CDA that explored daily patterns of loneliness during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Lastly, Beck will discuss a CDA that examined trajectories of social asymmetry prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Antonucci will synthesize and discuss each project within the context of broader implications for empowering older adults. In sum, this symposium presents novel evidence showing that loneliness and social isolation in older adulthood are impactful predictors of health.

Coopetition at Society Level: A Scale Validation

The researchers study coopetition in various levels such as individual, intraorganizational or interorganizational. However, there is a gap in coopetition studies at the society level, at the meta-level. We consider Social Coopetition as the capacity of the society's stakeholders to work together, oriented to create social value to generate solutions to economic, social and environmental problems, providing local development based on cooperation and social commitment. This research has twofold objectives, i) to define Social Coopetition and propose its dimensions, ii) to validate a scale to measure coopetition at society level. An expert's panel analyzed 101 variables extracted by the literature review, and they selected 75 variables grouped in 7 dimensions as a qualitative pre-validation. In the sequence, we performed an exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis to validate the scale. Our findings indicated 12 dimensions could express the social coopetition level: social asymmetry, perceptions of individual and collective benefits, socio-political characteristics, communication, competition, social competence, social commitment, previous experience, social governance, interdependence, technological and innovation level and cultural similarity. The findings provide a scale to monitor the social coopetition through 48 variables. Our results bring a novel in the coopetition field and have theoretical and practical implications. The findings explore a new coopetition level. Also, it provides a tool for municipal management to improve the coopetition strategies performance toward the generation of social value.

Digital technologies of social control: prospects and social consequences of their implementation

Introduction of digital technologies in all spheres of life is a factor that radically change the social interactions and mechanisms of social control. This rising trend, that turn the various digital technologies into main form of realization of “the social” is complex and contradictory. We are confronted more and more with multiplicity of social control with simultaneous unification of its procedures, determined by digital technologies. The functions of social control are transferred from human actors to machines and algorithms. The social control is automated. Under the cover of objectivity and neutrality such automatization contains political, economical and ideological imperatives. The machine has human core, yet difficult to discern. Implementation of algorithmic forms of governance, based on Big Data, significantly increases the scope of population monitoring and shifts the “power logic” to control and construction of opinions, creation of the demands, mobilizing action in accordance with the prescribed standards of conduct. COVID-19 Pandemic enhanced the activities of national States to take advantage of digital control over the population. In fact, during few months of quarantine measures in most countries unprecedented in its global reach and universal in their technical solutions instruments of control over the population have been deployed. In doing so the digital social control generates very specific forms of social asymmetry. There remains an open question: who has access to information, generated by the machines of control. For the development of modern smart cities and digitalization of social practices relevant and correct data are needed. Сompromise between citizens’ rights to privacy and rapid development of new smart technologies is inevitable. Personal data collected not only by the State but also by private corporations, especially by owners of digital platforms. Rights to obtain and use data need to be regulated and rules set for their commercial application. COVID-19 Pandemic, accelerating implementation of digital social control, reduced “public sensitivity” to violation of private borders for the sake of security. The need for a rapid response to COVID-19 changes the rules of the game as to how сitizens, organizations and authorities in different countries deal with personal data and actualizes the question, where the balance lies between confidentiality of personal data and public health and/or security.

Social norms and information asymmetry: the effect of religion on informed trading

ABSTRACT This study investigates whether social norms impede informed trading. We use intraday data from Boursa Kuwait for January 2015 to December 2018, which clearly identifies institutions' religious identity. Consistent with our hypothesis, we find that the Islamic values of equality and trust lead to lower information asymmetry. Specifically, stocks of Islamic institutions experience lower informed trading in comparison to the stocks of non-Islamic institutions.

What is algorithmic governance?

AbstractThis article contributes a coherent framework to the rich literature emerging in the field of algorithmic governance while also resolving conflicting understandings. Tracing the history of algorithmic governance to the broad architecture of the universal Turing Machine, the article identifies a common thread of critical concern in the literature on algorithmic governance: the growing institutional capabilities to move contestable issues to a space of reduced negotiability, raising questions of social asymmetry, inequity, and inequality. Within the social context of algorithmic governance, the article highlights three general areas of concern where the social negotiability of processes is threatened: the problem of power (surveillance), discrimination (social bias), and identification (system identity).

Yawning Is More Contagious in Pregnant Than Nulliparous Women

Contrary to spontaneous yawning, which is widespread in vertebrates and probably evolutionary ancient, contagious yawning—yawning triggered by others’ yawns—is considered an evolutionarily recent phenomenon, found in species characterized by complex sociality. Whether the social asymmetry observed in the occurrence of contagious yawning is related to social and emotional attachment and may therefore reflect emotional contagion is a subject of debate. In this study we assessed whether yawn contagion was enhanced in pregnant women, a cohort of subjects who develop prenatal emotional attachment in preparation for parental care, via hormonal and neurobiological changes. We predicted that if yawn contagion underlies social and emotional attachment, pregnant women would be more likely to contagiously yawn than nonpregnant, nulliparous women of reproductive age. We gathered data in two different settings. In the experimental setting, 49 women were exposed to video stimuli of newborns either yawning or moving their mouth (control) and we video-recorded the women during repeated trials to measure their yawning response. In the naturalistic setting, 131 women were observed in a social environment and their yawning response was recorded. We tested the factors influencing the yawning response, including the reproductive status (pregnant vs. not pregnant). In both settings, yawn contagion occurred significantly more in pregnant than nonpregnant women. By showing that pregnant women were most likely to respond to others’ yawns, our results support the hypothesis that the social variation observed in yawn contagion may be influenced by emotional attachment and that yawning in highly social species might have been coopted for emotional contagion during evolution.

Mortality risk associated with combinations of loneliness and social isolation. Findings from The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA).

BackgroundSocial distancing and similar measures in response to the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic have greatly increased loneliness and social isolation among older adults. Understanding the association between loneliness and mortality is therefore critically important. We examined whether combinations of loneliness and social isolation, using a metric named social asymmetry, was associated with increased mortality risk.MethodsThe sample was derived from participants in The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing, a nationally representative sample of community-dwelling older adults aged ≥50. Survey data were linked to official death registration records. Cox proportional hazards regressions and competing risk survival analyses were used to examine the association between social asymmetry and all-cause and cause-specific mortality.ResultsOf four social asymmetry groups, concordant low lonely (low loneliness, low isolation) included 35.5% of participants; 26.4% were concordant high lonely (high loneliness, high isolation); 19.2% were discordant robust (low loneliness, high isolation) and 18.9% discordant susceptible (high loneliness, low isolation). The concordant high lonely (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.43, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.09–1.87) and discordant robust (HR = 1.37, 95% CI: 1.04–1.81) groups had an increased mortality risk compared to those in the concordant low lonely group. The concordant high lonely group had an increased risk of mortality due to diseases of the circulatory system (sub-distribution hazard ratio = 1.52, 95% CI: 1.03–2.25).ConclusionWe found that social asymmetry predicted mortality over a 7-year follow-up period. Our results confirm that a mismatch between subjective loneliness and objective social isolation, as well as the combination of loneliness and social isolation, were associated with an increased all-cause mortality risk.

To the question of the specifics of the socio-political modernization of the countries in South Asia

The article examines the main guidelines for understanding the conjugation of traditional values with the Western understanding of modernity and social progress for the South Asian subcontinent. The general crisis of the reformist movement, which failed to develop a balanced modernization approach, which could harmoniously combine Western political, economic and cultural values with national spiritual foundations, is stated; the crisis clearly manifested itself at the end of the 20th century. The article also focuses on the most significant aspects of socio-political modernization in the countries of South Asia (social asymmetry, pendulum-like nature of power legitimation, radicalization of forms of political change, etc.). Separately, it is emphasized that the political development of modern states of the South Asian subcontinent demonstrates a pronounced tendency to strengthen national identity with an active appeal to religious self-identification, on the one hand, and a negative assessment of the colonial past, on the other.

How to Get the Biggest Slice of the Cake. A Comparative View of Social Behaviour and Resource Access in Human Children and Nonhuman Primates.

Social complexity results from engaging in different classes of social behaviour. The presence of different classes of social behaviour is reflected in multidimensional concepts of social asymmetry, found in both human and nonhuman primates. Based on an overview of such concepts, we propose that three classes of social behaviour are involved in having access to scarce and desired resources: next to aggressive and affiliative behaviour, also action indicating behaviour (i.e., inspire another individual to follow one’s example or intentions) may lead to resource access. Studies with nonhuman primate and human children show that the contribution of aggression and affiliation to resource access has been widely documented and that there is initial support for action indicating behaviour. In addition, the studies show similarities and differences in conceptualization and approach that may inspire future research. Future research should address the (in)dependency of the behavioural dimensions, their relative importance, individual differences in combined expression and the type of resources accessed. Only a multi-dimensional view on behaviour leading to resource access will highlight the benefits of social complexity.

Auditory Contagious Yawning Is Highest Between Friends and Family Members: Support to the Emotional Bias Hypothesis.

Contagious yawning differs from spontaneous yawning because it occurs when an individual yawns in response to someone else’s yawn. In Homo sapiens and some non-human primates contagious yawning is higher between strongly than weakly bonded individuals. Up to date, it is still unclear whether this social asymmetry underlies emotional contagion (a basic form of empathy preferentially involving familiar individuals) as predicted by the Emotional Bias Hypothesis (EBH) or is linked to a top-down, selective visual attention bias (with selective attention being preferentially directed toward familiar faces) as predicted by the Attentional Bias Hypothesis (ABH). To verify whether the visual attentional bias explained the yawn contagion bias or not, in this study, we considered only yawns that could be heard but not seen by potential responders (auditory yawns). Around 294 of auditory yawning occurrences were extrapolated from over 2000 yawning bouts collected in free ranging humans for over nine years. Via GLMM, we tested the effect of intrinsic features (i.e., gender and age) and social bond (from strangers to family members) on yawn. The individual identity of the subjects (trigger and potential responder) was included as random factor. The social bond significantly predicted the occurrence of auditory yawn contagion, which was highest between friends and family members. A gender bias was also observed, with women responding most frequently to others’ yawns and men being responded to most frequently by others. These results confirm that social bond is per se one of the main drivers of the differences in yawn contagion rates between individuals in support of the EBH of yawn contagion.

An Autonomous Alarm System for Personal Safety Assurance of Intimate Partner Violence Survivors Based on Passive Continuous Monitoring through Biosensors

Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) dramatically compromises the free and complete development of many women around the world, therefore leading to social asymmetry regarding the right to personal safety. In many cases, a woman who has reported her partner to police for gender-based violence needs to ensure her protection (either before the trial of the aggressor or after their freedom). Thus, it would be ideal if autonomous alarm systems could be developed in order to call the police if necessary. Up to now, many proposals have been presented in this regard, including solutions based on Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) but, unfortunately, these approaches usually rely on the active participation of the victims (survivors), who have to turn the system on by themselves if needed. Therefore, in order to overcome such limitations, in this work, a passive continuous monitoring system is proposed which uses biosensors attached to the survivor as well as machine learning techniques to infer if an abnormal situation related to gender-based violence is taking place, activating in this case an alarm. The monitoring structure of the system supervises a great deal of bio-signals according to the current status of technology of wearables and biomedical devices. The presented biosensors-based surveillance solution can also be manually disconnected for 30/60/90 min (on demand) in order to avoid false positives when a woman is, for example, practicing sports or carrying out other inoffensive activities that could incorrectly activate the alarm.

Russian Political Discourse in the Focus of Linguistic Ecology

The article provides an overview of typological mechanisms in the arrangement of communicative practices in modern political discourse and methods of verbal explication of its axiological and symbolic constituents, determining mental universals in individual/collective consciousness. The study provides a systematic characterization of linguistic and social-and-cultural dominants in political interaction. Verbal indicators of social asymmetry are identified. The description of the language of political discourse aspectual data are summarized. A multilevel analysis of the component structure of political interactions is carried out. The genre specifics of legitimate and illegitimate communicative acts is taken into consideration. The combination of the methods applied in discourse analysis, such as linguistic cognitive projection, linguistic-and-cultural interpretation and functional-and-pragmatic examination of text units, enabled the researchers to identify and qualify linguo-semiotic elements of political practices. Hence, an ecolinguistic typology of basic linguistic components of political communication acts characterized by various legitimacy degrees has been carried out. The study revealed a possibility to single out a specific communicative range in Russian political discourse, in the framework of which linguistic and cultural resources of ideologically charged discursive practices would be actualized and the area of possible communication risks would be significantly expanded.

Association between social asymmetry and depression in older adults: A phone Call Detail Records analysis

Analyzing social interactions on a passive and non-invasive way through the use of phone call detail records (CDRs) is now recognized as a promising approach in health monitoring. However, deeper investigations are required to confirm its relevance in social interaction modeling. Particularly, no clear consensus exists in the use of the direction parameter characterizing the directed nature of interactions in CDRs. In the present work, we specifically investigate, in a 26-older-adults population over 12 months, whether and how this parameter could be used in CDRs analysis. We then evaluate its added-value for depression assessment regarding the Geriatric Depression Scale score assessed within our population during the study. The results show the existence of three clusters of phone call activity named (1) proactive, (2) interactive, and (3) reactive. Then, we introduce the notion of asymmetry that synthesizes these activities. We find significant correlations between asymmetry and the depressive state assessed in the older individual. Particularly, (1) reactive users are more depressed than the others, and (2) not depressed older adults tend to be proactive. Taken together, the present findings suggest the phone’s potential to be used as a social sensor containing relevant health-related insights when the direction parameter is considered.

Latin as a tool for social differentiation and epistemic asymmetry

Abstract The paper aims to present the outcome of a research on the persistence of Latin in Medical Language. The analysis has been carried out on written and spoken data: clinical records; doctor-patient interactions; prescriptions; package information leaflets. The study shows that in medical communication Latin is used as a tool for social and epistemic discrimination, to increase the knowledge gap among professionals and lay people. A different way to reaffirm the voice of medicine against the voice of life. Our project is inserted in the series of studies dedicated to languages for specific purposes understood not only as specific vocabularies but mostly as “discursive patterns” that express precise and distinctive professional visions.

The Ecuadorian Rainforest Presented by the Media through the Orientalist Discourse

Purpose: To analyse the media presentations of the Ecuadorian Rainforest that the newspaper El Comercio has been elaborating during the last six decades in its journalistic articles in order to discover features of the orientalist discourse. Design/methodology: The Critical Discourse Analysis is used as a methodological tool since it helps to reveal social inequalities that occur in discourses. Within this line of study, the structural analysis of the text is taken as a methodological tool that allows deconstructing dominant discourses echoed in society through the media. Findings: The analysis found that the population, culture and geography of the region have been represented by categories that show otherness and cause social asymmetry within the country. This inequality, which has been legitimized by the media discourse, can be observed in the backwardness and marginalization that this region has suffered until now. Research limitations/implications: One of the limitations of the study is that the media interest in the Amazon region is directed on events related to the exploitation of resources, which means that the last six decades have not been studied continuously. In view of this situation, we wish to mark a historical milestone for each of the last six decades and take them as references for further research. Originality/value: The Amazon Rainforest has been a historically marginalized territory and its population has been neglected by different governments that have administered the country in spite of being the region that has contributed the most to Ecuador’s economy with its natural wealth. This situation of social injustice has not been studied before in the media discourse, which is the main discourse legitimizing inequalities today. For this reason, the present study was developed.

Constitutive Features of the Russian Political Discourse in Ecolinguistic Aspect

The article offers a comparative description of typological mechanisms used in political communicative practice and methods of verbal explication of its axiological and symbolic constituents determining universal mental features of individual/collective consciousness. The research position based on a systemic multilevel analysis of the component structure of discourse facilitates the identification and characterization of linguistic and sociocultural dominants of political interaction organized by a certain language system, with semiotic and literary genre specifics of legitimate communicative acts taken into account. The methodological concept, aimed at modeling institutional interactions in the context of ecological compatibility/toxicity of the transmission of ethno-sociocultural components, allowed the authors to characterize the ways and mechanisms of representation and transformation of the sign structure of political communication and determine the algorithms of verbal and discursive behavior. The combination of methods applied in discourse analysis, linguistic and cognitive projection, linguistic and cultural interpretations and functional-pragmatic consideration of text units made it possible to identify and qualify linguistic and semiotic elements of legitimate/illegitimate political practices and to carry out ecolinguistic typology of basic linguistic components of political communication. The results of the study indicate a special communicative range of Russian political discourse, with language diffusion/re-contextualization, persuasive techniques, semiotic consolidation of institutional reversion, various verbal indicators of social asymmetry (from metaphorization, euphemization, nominalization to the tactics of disintegration and manipulation) as key markers. They not only actualize linguistic and cultural resources of ideologically charged discursive practices, but also significantly expand the area of possible communication risks. Modern political logosphere as a part of the ecosystem, synergetically included in all spheres of human communication, forms new contextual concepts, assessment stereotypes, verbal behavior norms (often restricting norms) for all subjects included in it and communicative traditions of the universe as a whole.

Reshaping urban political ecologies: an analysis of policy trajectories to deliver food security

In a context of increasing urbanization, cities have become key sites for rebuilding food systems in order to deliver good food for all. Indeed, municipal governments around the globe are developing food policies to integrate different sectors and actors implicated in delivering food security outcomes. Despite the acknowledgement of the need to develop integrative plans and food governance approaches, sustainable food transitions are conditioned by specific socio-ecological configurations of individual cities. Furthermore, inclusiveness and integration are discursively deployed but challenging to implement on the ground. In order to understand these policy trajectories we mobilised a political ecology framework to explore how the specific configurations of nature and society express themselves in the process and outcomes of urban food policies. We selected two European cities: Cardiff and Cork. These cities represent distinct urban foodscapes and diverse state-civil society relationships. The results of this international comparative study indicate that the specific entry points of each city’s policy trajectory condition the establishment of integral food policies. Our analysis shows how policy opportunities for success are shaped by existing sociocultural dynamics (e.g., social asymmetry, level of engagement from civil society, pre-existing policy environment, and degree of state involvement), as well as particular ecological basis (i.e., availability and access to spaces for growing, share of green spaces, local climate, etc.). Furthermore, the potential of urban food policies to effect change on the city’s foodscape hinges on their capacity to leverage place-based assets, and transform the structural processes that create exclusive and food insecure spaces in the first place.

Dimensões da Psicologia Social Comunitária diante de questões étnico-raciais

A questão étnico-racial aponta novos matizes para a práxis psicológica brasileira. O sofrimento psíquico gerado por relações racistas resultou da dinâmica psicossocial de longa duração. Por outro lado, o comportamento social de populações negras avançou na perpetuação de processos simbólicos significativos durante toda a história colonial e republicana. Demonstramos que a concepção de contingenciamento psíquico pode auxiliar a compreender o processo psicossocial relativo a um período de longa duração. Para tanto, o contingenciamento será explicado por meio das dimensões psicológicas anunciadas por Maritza Montero e pela interface das Ciências Sociais. Concluímos que as dimensões psicológicas evidenciam a constituição de um novo olhar sobre o comportamento social de negros brasileiros, que promoveram vínculos identitários em relações cotidianas, por reconhecimento coletivo e afetivo tendo em vista a assimetria social perpetuada na História Social brasileira.