Social Cognitive Mapping Research Articles

Loneliness in Indonesian adolescents: Associations with quantity and quality of friendship and status within and between peer groups

AbstractLoneliness is a perceived discrepancy between desired and experienced social relationships that may arise from lack of intimate attachment to another person (e.g., friend) or lack of involvement in larger networks (e.g., peer groups). This study assessed how multiple aspects of friendship and peer group involvement were associated with Indonesian adolescents’ self‐reported loneliness. Participants were 754 twelfth‐grade Indonesian students (413 girls, Mage = 16.5 years). Reciprocated friendships were calculated from within‐grade nominations and both dyadic members rated the quality of their friendship. Peer groups were generated from Social Cognitive Mapping (SCM) and within‐group centrality and group visibility were determined using SCM. Group popularity was derived using peer nominations. A Structural Equation Model revealed that multiple aspects of friendship and group involvement, except for friend‐rated friendship quality, were concurrently associated with loneliness. An interaction between within‐group centrality and group popularity was found for boys, suggesting that being central in a group may be more important for boys in low‐status than those in high‐status groups. The results revealed that quantity and quality of friendship as well as position in the peer group and status of the peer group were associated with loneliness. The comparable associations of loneliness with aspects of friendship and group involvement may be a function of Indonesian culture in which both group involvement and friendships are valued.

Distance and grid-like codes support the navigation of abstract social space in the human brain.

People form impressions about others during daily social encounters and infer personality traits from others' behaviors. Such trait inference is thought to rely on two universal dimensions: competence and warmth. These two dimensions can be used to construct a 'social cognitive map' organizing massive information obtained from social encounters efficiently. Originating from spatial cognition, the neural codes supporting the representation and navigation of spatial cognitive maps have been widely studied. Recent studies suggest similar neural mechanism subserves the map-like architecture in social cognition as well. Here we investigated how spatial codes operate beyond the physical environment and support the representation and navigation of social cognitive map. We designed a social value space defined by two dimensions of competence and warmth. Behaviorally, participants were able to navigate to a learned location from random starting locations in this abstract social space. At the neural level, we identified the representation of distance in the precuneus, fusiform gyrus, and middle occipital gyrus. We also found partial evidence of grid-like representation patterns in the medial prefrontal cortex and entorhinal cortex. Moreover, the intensity of grid-like response scaled with the performance of navigating in social space and social avoidance trait scores. Our findings suggest a neurocognitive mechanism by which social information can be organized into a structured representation, namely cognitive map and its relevance to social well-being.

Abstract cognitive maps of social network structure aid adaptive inference.

Social navigation-such as anticipating where gossip may spread, or identifying which acquaintances can help land a job-relies on knowing how people are connected within their larger social communities. Problematically, for most social networks, the space of possible relationships is too vast to observe and memorize. Indeed, people's knowledge of these social relations is well known to be biased and error-prone. Here, we reveal that these biased representations reflect a fundamental computation that abstracts over individual relationships to enable principled inferences about unseen relationships. We propose a theory of network representation that explains how people learn inferential cognitive maps of social relations from direct observation, what kinds of knowledge structures emerge as a consequence, and why it can be beneficial to encode systematic biases into social cognitive maps. Leveraging simulations, laboratory experiments, and "field data" from a real-world network, we find that people abstract observations of direct relations (e.g., friends) into inferences of multistep relations (e.g., friends-of-friends). This multistep abstraction mechanism enables people to discover and represent complex social network structure, affording adaptive inferences across a variety of contexts, including friendship, trust, and advice-giving. Moreover, this multistep abstraction mechanism unifies a variety of otherwise puzzling empirical observations about social behavior. Our proposal generalizes the theory of cognitive maps to the fundamental computational problem of social inference, presenting a powerful framework for understanding the workings of a predictive mind operating within a complex social world.

Unsociability and Psychological and School Adjustment in Chinese Children: The Moderating Effects of Peer Group Cultural Orientations

This study examined the moderating effects of cultural orientations of peer groups on the relations between unsociability and psychological and school adjustment in Chinese children. Participants included 1,092 students (527 boys, M age = 12.21 years) in the sixth grade in elementary schools. Data on individualistic and collectivistic cultural orientations, unsociability, and adjustment were obtained from multiple sources including peer nominations, teacher ratings, self-reports, and school records. Using the Social Cognitive Map method, 193 peer groups were identified. Among the results, unsociability was negatively associated with peer preference and academic achievement in groups low on individualistic orientation but not in groups high on individualistic orientation. Unsociability was also negatively associated with peer preference more strongly in groups with higher scores of collectivistic orientation. The results suggested that, in general, unsociable children performed better in social and academical areas in more individualistically oriented groups and less collectivistically oriented groups. The cultural context of peer groups may play a significant role in shaping social and school adjustment of unsociable children.

Using fuzzy cognitive maps to promote nature-based solutions for water quality improvement in developing-country communities

An adequate strategy for water quality improvement must consider a range of political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal (PESTEL) concepts. Nature-based solutions have emerged as promising tools to improve water quality while considering these factors. In this context, fuzzy cognitive maps and the PESTEL approach have been merged to i) identify the principal concepts that affect water quality from different perspectives, and ii) theoretically explore the use of artificial floating islands as a measure of nature-based solution combined with different policies, to find strategies to improve water quality given local conditions. For this purpose, three Ecuadorian communities are used as scenarios. The communities are located in different geographical regions, i.e., páramo (an alpine tundra ecosystem), coastal mangrove, and tropical rainforest. From literature-based research, 40 PESTEL concepts are identified, then local experts recognize relevant concepts related to water quality deterioration regarding local conditions, and the communities develop fully democratic social cognitive maps. The cognitive map from the páramo community is constructed with 17 concepts mainly driven by environment (23%) and economy (23%). The major problem identified is natural water pollutants with the highest centrality value (ci = 12.22). The mangrove community uses 19 concepts influenced by policy (48%), and the major issue is human exposure to environmental pollutants (ci = 16.27). The rainforest community uses 15 concepts related to the economy (40%), and the major problem is the violation of environmental legislation (ci = 15.96). Our pioneer work to predict the future of water management shows that in the worst-case scenario, more than 85% of concepts are affected in all communities. However, the implementation of policy strategies in combination with artificial floating islands demonstrates a large potential for improving water quality. With this study, we provide a novel, inclusive, and locally adapted framework to guide future water management and contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goal SDG 6.

The Roles of Clique Status Hierarchy and Aggression Norms in Victimized Adolescents' Aggressive Behavior.

The healthy context paradox indicates that in "healthy" contexts, with lower bullying or victimization norms, victimization experiences would unexpectedly exacerbate adolescents' adjustment difficulties, yet the underlying mechanisms remain unclear, particularly from the clique perspective. The current 2-year longitudinal multilevel study attempts to examine the conditional effects of both clique structure (i.e., status hierarchy) and clique norms (i.e., aggression norms) on the relationship between individual victimization and aggressive behavior. The sample consisted of 691 Chinese junior high school students (Mage = 12.74, SD = 0.43; 55.6% boys), who were identified to belong to 153 cliques with sizes varying from 3 to 12 students (Msize = 5.08, SD = 1.89), according to the social cognitive map. Participants completed peer-nominated measures at two time points, two years apart. The multilevel models revealed that it was in less hierarchical cliques with lower aggression that victimized adolescents would exhibit more relational forms of aggression (rather than overt forms) two years later. More intriguingly, contrary results were found in all-girls cliques and all-boys cliques. Specifically, victimized girls' overt and relational aggression was higher in cliques with less hierarchy and lower aggression, whereas, in cliques with more hierarchy and higher aggression, victimized boys' relational aggression was higher, which conforms to the healthy context paradox and the peer contagion hypothesis, respectively. These findings highlight that egalitarian cliques with low aggression would promote aggressive behavior of victimized adolescents, especially for girls rather than for boys, which in turn has crucial implications for anti-bullying interventions.

Investigating the relationship between spatial and social cognitive maps in humans

The ability to mentally represent where things are around us is generally referred to as a cognitive map. Cognitive maps are critical for spatial orientation and navigation given that, when formed, they allow individuals to get anywhere from any place within the environment. However, recent speculations and research on cognitive maps suggest that this important cognitive process is not exclusive to physical spaces and may instead include social spaces as well. Here, we explored various social elements that may be associated with spatial orientation abilities to better understand which aspects of social life may help with organizing a social cognitive map (i.e. a mental representation of social information organized in an orderly and hierarchical manner). To this aim, we assessed social capital, social competence, and quality of social support in a large group of healthy individuals, and analyzed their relationship with performance on spatial orientation tasks evaluating the ability to form and make use of spatial cognitive maps. The findings revealed that individuals who had more social competence, social capital, and social support, perceived themselves to be better at spatially navigating within the environment, as documented in a self-reported measure of spatial navigation in daily life. However, their performance on spatial orientation tasks in a virtual environment revealed that they were instead significantly poor at spatially navigating. We discuss the potential implications of these findings in the context of some important factors that contribute to our social lives, and suggest social elements that future studies could account for to better understand the relationship between spatial and social cognitive maps.

Victimized adolescents' aggression in cliques with different victimization norms: The healthy context paradox or the peer contagion hypothesis?

Bullying victimization has been linked to an elevated risk of both internalizing and externalizing problems, yet the mechanisms underlying these associations, especially from the perspective of naturally occurring informal cliques, are not well understood. Based on two contrasting hypotheses from the healthy context paradox and the peer contagion hypothesis, the current 2-year longitudinal study (a) investigated the interaction effects of individual victimization (i.e., physical, verbal, and relational forms) and clique victimization norms on their reactive-proactive aggression and (b) examined whether they were distinct to these effects on depressive symptoms. Both self-reported and peer-nominated surveys were administrated to 691 junior high school students (55.6% boys; Mage = 12.74, SD = 0.43 years) who were identified from 153 cliques (Msize = 5.08, SD = 1.89) using a social cognitive map, at two time points 2 years apart. Multilevel modeling indicated that both physical and relational victims (except verbal victims) at baseline committed more reactive forms of aggression (not proactive forms) in cliques with lower victimization norms 2 years later. Similarly, physical victims in lower-victimization cliques reported more depressive symptoms 2 years later. Additionally, these significant results were found in self-reported forms of victimization, but not peer-nominated forms. These findings confirm the healthy context paradox in both individual internalizing and externalizing problems in clique contexts, and elaborate this paradox on different forms of victimization, which provide a more nuanced understanding and have important implications in the field of anti-bullying interventions.

Протестная мобилизация граждан на цифровой платформе TikTok в ходе выборов в Государственную Думу России 2021 г.

The article presents the results of an applied research of the digital platform TikTok as a platform for protest mobilization of users. The research methodology is based on a hybrid strategy that combines social media analysis and cognitive mapping. The study reveals that in the electoral cycle of 2021, TikTok had consolidated a significant segment of the information flow, delegitimizing the process and election results. A massive digital stream aimed at creating attitudes of distrust among citizens was formed using manipulative technologies, the hashtag system of the digital platform, and various formats for presenting materials.

Ценностное камуфлирование в информационных потоках российских политических партий

The article presents the results of an applied political research devoted to the use of value disguise by Russian political parties – a modern technology of interaction with target groups in the digital space. Based on the use of automated social media analysis and cognitive mapping of digital party content, the scale, features and effects of such value masking have been determined. The authors conclude that the left turn in the development of public sentiments and expectations, which has emerged in recent years under the influence of the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, is pushing political parties to change their own agenda, as well as to abandon established political positions in accordance with the current demands of a significant part of voters.

Brain Coding of Social Network Structure.

Humans have large social networks, with hundreds of interacting individuals. How does the brain represent the complex connectivity structure of these networks? Here we used social media (Facebook) data to objectively map participants' real-life social networks. We then used representational similarity analysis (RSA) of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) activity patterns to investigate the neural coding of these social networks as participants reflected on each individual. We found coding of social network distances in the default-mode network (medial prefrontal, medial parietal, and lateral parietal cortices). When using partial correlation RSA to control for other factors that can be correlated to social distance (personal affiliation, personality traits. and visual appearance, as subjectively rated by the participants), we found that social network distance information was uniquely coded in the retrosplenial complex, a region involved in spatial processing. In contrast, information on individuals' personal affiliation to the participants and personality traits was found in the medial parietal and prefrontal cortices, respectively. These findings demonstrate a cortical division between representations of non-self-referenced (allocentric) social network structure, self-referenced (egocentric) social distance, and trait-based social knowledge.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Each of us has a social network composed of hundreds of individuals, with different characteristics and different relations among them. How does our brain represent this complexity? To find out, we mapped participants' social connections using Facebook data and then asked them to think about individuals from their network while undergoing functional MRI scanning. We found that the position of individuals within the social network, as well as their affiliation to the participant, are mapped in the retrosplenial complex, a region involved in spatial processing. Individuals' personality traits were coded in another region, the medial prefrontal cortex. Our findings demonstrate a neural dissociation among different aspects of social knowledge and suggest a link between spatial and social cognitive mapping.

Массовые политические протесты в Республике Беларусь летом-осенью 2020 года: причины возникновения, социальная база, цифровая инфраструктура

The article presents the results of a study of the causes, social base and digital infrastructures of mass political protest in the Republic of Belarus in the summer-autumn of 2020. When implementing the study, the authors relied on two key methods: automated social and media analysis and cognitive mapping. Internet content was uploaded via the IQBuzz automated social media monitoring service. As a result, a dataset was compiled, including 700 thousand messages from 30 major social media. Within the framework of the study, a social and media analysis was carried out in three areas: the pro-government agenda, the opposition agenda – elections and the opposition agenda. In the case under consideration, the growth of interest and the inclusion of a female audience in information flows on protest topics in social media is recorded. This can be directly linked to the inclusion in the list of triggers of mass protest: victimhood, violence, and women's participation, which elicits an emotional response based on feelings of solidarity and empathy. In addition, the authors note that mass protests in the Republic of Belarus are characterized by an adult social-media and offline audience. The experience of Belarus has demonstrated the transit in the context of protest moderators: from public opinion leaders to social networks that allow not only to broadcast information about the protests, but also to form specific instructions with an action plan for the protesters. Informal opinion leaders become a tool for attracting attention, but the protest is moderated by social networks. All these trends demonstrate a change in approaches to the organization and management of protest actions, which affects their stability and the degree of manageability. Hence, this work allows us to establish a new reality of political and civil protests, which will show why traditional methods of neutralizing protest activity do not work in the current reality, which later becomes one of the reasons for revising the classic tools in leveling protest actions and the effects that they create.

Social Networks in Fifth Grade Classrooms: Who Reports being in a Group and Who Does Not?

The present study examined the behavioral and affiliative differences between 2403 fifth grade students (1307 female, 1096 male) who reported that they belonged to a social group on social cognitive map (SCM) procedures and those who did not even though their peers viewed them as members of a peer group. Students who did not report their affiliations were more often classified as victims of bullying, have lower peer preference, have more peer-assessed internalizing symptoms, and have lower prosocial behavior and social prominence than students who reported their peer affiliates. Females with higher self-reported levels of aggression were more likely to report their peer affiliations. Males with higher self-reported levels of internalizing symptoms were less likely to report their affiliations. Implications and future directions are discussed.

False Positives Using Social Cognitive Mapping to Identify Children’s Peer Groups

Children and adolescents interact in peer groups, which are known to influence a range of psychological and behavioral outcomes. In developmental psychology and related disciplines, social cognitive mapping (SCM), as implemented with the SCM 4.0 software, is the most commonly used method for identifying peer groups from peer report data. However, in a series of four studies, we demonstrate that SCM has an unacceptably high risk of false positives. Specifically, we show that SCM will identify peer groups even when applied to random data. We introduce backbone extraction and community detection as one promising alternative to SCM, and offer several recommendations for researchers seeking to identify peer groups from peer report data.

Structure of Network Communities of social Media in the Information Flow of External Pressure in Crimea

The article discusses modern ideas about the structure of interaction, the role of leaders of public opinion in social networks of digital communications. The object of the study is the social media community that generates information flows and promotes the agenda of the Crimea joining the Russian Federation. Empirical data were obtained as a result of monitoring social media using the methods of social graphs and cognitive mapping. An analysis of the information flows of the Crimean agenda showed that the structure of most of the communities generating them is deprived of leaders of public opinion and is based on the heated topic of the conflict. At the same time, the presence of opinion leaders in user groups contributes to an increase in the number and activity of communities but does not ensure their unity. Social network communities focused on the formation of anti-Russian attitudes of Crimean users have a low density of interaction, which does not allow qualifying as structured and mass movements. In the groups of the pro-Russian segment, larger-scale and stable interconnections in the communities were noted, which shows their higher potential for informational counteraction. Most of the users who make up the community are viewers, consuming thematic content. The presence of intersections of the audiences of the pro-Russian and anti-Russian communities indicates both a weak difference in content and unstable user attitudes.

Affiliation with depressive peer groups and social and school adjustment in Chinese adolescents.

The purpose of the present study was to examine the role of depressive peer group context in individual social and school adjustment in a sample of 1,430 Chinese adolescents (672 boys, mean age = 15.43 years) from middle (n = 430) and high (n = 1000) schools. Peer groups were identified using the Social Cognitive Map technique. One-year longitudinal data on depression and social and school adjustment were obtained from self-reports, peer nominations, teacher ratings, and school records. Multilevel analyses showed that group-level depression positively predicted later individual depression. Moreover, group-level depression negatively predicted later social competence, peer preference, school competence, and academic achievement, and it positively predicted later peer victimization and learning problems. The results suggest that affiliation with more depressive peer groups contributes to more psychological, social, and school adjustment problems in a cascading manner among Chinese adolescents.

Independent and interdependent personalities at individual and group levels: Predicting loneliness in Chinese adolescents

The purpose of this study was to examine the contributions of independent and interdependent personalities at both individual and peer-group levels to loneliness in Chinese adolescents. Participants included 651 junior high school students (Mage = 11.48, SDage = 0.62; 263 girls). The participants were administered self-report measures of personality and loneliness and a Social-Cognitive Map assessment of peer groups in Grade 6. Data on loneliness were collected again in Grades 7 and 8. Latent growth model analyses indicated that loneliness increased over time. Multilevel regression analyses indicated that, at an individual level, independent personality factors (i.e., Social Potency and Emotional Stability) and the interdependent factor (Interpersonal Relatedness; IR) negatively predicted the initial level of loneliness and positively predicted the slope of loneliness. At the group level, Social Potency and IR negatively predicted the initial level of loneliness, and IR positively predicted the slope of loneliness. The study provides valuable information about the contributions of independent and interdependent personalities at both individual and group levels to psychological adjustment in the Chinese context. The implications of the findings concerning the associations between personality and loneliness are discussed.

Education outside the classroom and pupils’ social relations? A one-year quasi-experiment

This study is the first to investigate education outside the classroom (EOtC) and pupils’ social relations in a large-sample experimental design. Social Cognitive Mapping was used to collect data on informal peer affiliation groups among pupils, aged 9–13 years, at the start and end of the school year. 332 pupils from 16 classes that were regularly exposed to EOtC, were compared with 158 pupils from 8 comparable classes that were not. Regular exposure to EOtC was positively associated to a gain in new peer affiliations, but not to increases in the total number of relations. In conclusion, regular exposure to EOtC is related to minor positive changes in pupils’ informal peer affiliations in their class networks.

The Hippocampus and Social Impairment in Psychiatric Disorders.

Social deficits, such as poor social skills (i.e., the inability to engage in appropriate and effective social interactions) and social withdrawal, are prevalent across psychiatric disorders and often co-occur with hippocampal structural and functional abnormalities. The centrality of both social and hippocampal dysfunction in psychiatric research prompts the question: Are they linked? The social cognitive map framework provides a clue: The hippocampus tracks social information in the physical environment, maps others along social dimensions, and supports social memory and decision-making. Hippocampal dysfunction might disrupt social map representation and contribute to commonly seen social behavioral symptoms. This review summarizes evidence for the role of the hippocampus in social cognitive mapping, followed by evidence that hippocampal dysfunction and social dysfunction co-occur in psychiatric disorders. We argue that the co-occurrence of hippocampal and social impairment may be related via hippocampal social cognitive mapping.

Drivers of adoption of agroecological practices for winegrowers and influence from policies in the province of Trento, Italy

Many agricultural practices are negatively impacting the environment and threatening the ecological foundations of the global food system. Therefore, agroecological practices are being proposed as viable and desirable alternatives. Biophysical, economic, social, and political factors, matched with farmers’ psychological attributes, may all be governing the choice of agricultural practices. Public policies can play a significant role as they can stimulate the adoption of innovative farming practices. The main objective of this research was the evaluation of farmers’ motivations for the adoption of agroecological practices in the viticulture sector in the province of Trento, Italy. A specific focus was laid on the influences from the European Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) measures. For the evaluation of farmers’ perceptions of their systems of practices, the Cognitive Mapping Approach for Analysing Actors’ Systems Of Practices (CMASOP) was applied. Based on information collected during in-depth interviews, Individual and Social Cognitive Maps were generated, representing the most frequently adopted agroecological practices and the major drivers of adoption of such practices, as mentioned by farmers. Drivers of adoption were categorized according to the self-determination theory of human motivations. Farmers reported that adoption of agroecological practices was mainly driven by existence of site-specific pedoclimatic conditions, followed with decreasing importance by requirements from wineries, availability of material, appreciation for aesthetics, health concerns, influence from irrigation consortia, and legal requirements, among which a local legislation for integrated pest management based on a CAP measure. Overall, results show that farmers reported to adopt agroecological practices mainly because of autonomous choices rather than coercion. Therefore, wineries and local policy-makers might incentivize the adoption of agroecological practices by promoting autonomy-supportive policies that foster farmers’ identified and intrinsic motivations.