Social Explanations Research Articles

Influence Reasoning Capabilities of Large Language Models in Social Environments

We ask whether state-of-the-art large language models can provide a viable alternative to human annotators for detecting and explaining behavioural influence online. Working with a large corpus of online interactions retrieved from the social media platform Mastodon, we cross-examine a dataset containing 11,000 LLM influence labels and explanations across nine state-of-the-art large language models from 312 scenarios. We use a range of resolution categories and four stages of shot prompting to further measure the importance of context to language model performance. We also consider the impact of model architecture, and how social media content and features from the explanation impact model labelling accuracy. Our experiment shows that whilst most large language models struggle to identify the correct framing of influence from an interaction, at lower label resolutions, models like Flan and GPT-4 Turbo perform with an accuracy of 70%-80%, demonstrating encouraging potential for future social influence identification and explanation, and contributing to our understanding of the general social reasoning capabilities of large language models.

The Social Psychological Explanations for the Effects of Social Media Marketing and Traditional Media on Voting Intentions

ABSTRACT Politicians use social media to drive voting intentions. The authors draw on self-enhancement and uncertainty reduction elements of social identity theory to present a framework that merges media data and social media sentiment toward the candidate to predict voting intentions. The authors estimate econometric models to data collected during the Brazilian presidential elections. The results support the influence of posts’ sentiment toward the candidate, owned social media, earned social media, and the candidate’s number of followers. They unveil social psychological pathways in driving intentions: a self-enhancement, an uncertainty reduction path, and an interaction between candidate’s number of followers and traditional earned media.

Unity in Diversity of Religions in Bumi Flobamora, Indonesia: From Traditional to Modern Pluralism

The religiously diverse society of NTT (Bumi Flobamora) has received national title as the most tolerant province in Indonesia. However, reality shows that there are religious conflicts, such as the rejection of the establishment of Islamic places of worship and the emergence of various forms of violence with religious nuances. This study attempts to provide a new contemporary social philosophy explanation for the development of religious social conditions. With the help of philosophical methods, the results show that the ideology of pluralism has long lived in Bumi Flobamora. However, this model of "traditional pluralism,” which is based on local wisdom and supported by the government's policy of harmony, is currently no longer in line with demands for universal human rights, because "traditional pluralism" shows the unequal treatment of people of different religions. Therefore, contemporary social philosophy develops a "modern pluralism,” which is built on the principle of equality. To strengthen this new model of pluralism, efforts are needed to overcome the weaknesses of communitarianism. The main weakness of communitarianism is that it opens up a space for religious appreciation that only emphasizes the togetherness and unity of a spiritual community and views those outside the community as other people who may or should even be excluded. The study concludes that the unity of religions in Bumi Flobamora will only survive if traditional pluralism is replaced with modern pluralism, which is in line with the Political Ethics of the Indonesian nation, Bhinneka Tunggal Ika, and the basic philosophy of Pancasila.

Chanting and Enchantment: A Philosophical Communicology of Idolic Submission and Emotional Intoxication Part I: Foundation

In this first of two articles on chanting and enchantment we introduce the problem of mass synchronisation via collective communicative action that works to eliminate or lessen independent and critical assessment. Chanting forges a singular ‘collective’ identity with little to no structure that would allow for logical tests such as falsifiability. We argue that this problem can be a fundamental threat to democratic polity, and we offer the Neo-Kantian theory of dimensional accrual and dissociation as an explanation. In Part 2, we will continue with examples and a discussion of the confluence of philosophical examination and social scientific explanations.

Normative, expressive, and personal factors associated with cooperation with police: Findings from a longitudinal cohort study

PurposeWhile there has been extensive research on the normative, instrumental, and social explanations for cooperation with police, fewer studies have examined how personal, social-cognitive characteristics might influence willingness to cooperate. This paper integrates models of cooperation with the social information processing framework to understand when individuals are more willing to cooperate with the police. MethodsWe use two waves of data from the Zurich Project on Social Development from Childhood to Adulthood, an ongoing longitudinal study of an ethnically diverse sample of young people from Zurich, Switzerland. ResultsThe results show that, aside from perceptions of police legitimacy, moral neutralization and empathy were directly associated with willingness to cooperate. Police legitimacy moderated the relationship between moral neutralization and cooperation, however this effect was not robust across models. In addition, we found that those who have engaged in serious criminal behavior were less likely to cooperate. ConclusionsWe argue that our findings demonstrate the need for cooperation with police research to adopt a decision-making framework in explaining the decision to indirectly intervene and cooperate. Namely, individuals must first recognize and acknowledge the harm or illegal behavior done when deciding to take action to cooperate with the police.

Why do users continue to contribute to darknet Child Sexual Abuse Material forums? Examining social exchange, social capital, and social learning explanations using digital forensic artifacts

BackgroundThe darknet hosts an increasing number of hidden services dedicated to the distribution of child sexual abuse material (CSAM). Given that by contributing CSAM to the forum members subject themselves to criminal prosecution, questions regarding the motivation for members contributing to darknet CSAM forums arise. ObjectiveBuilding on insights gained from research into clearnet communities, here we examine the extent to which social incentives generated by the online CSAM community may explain members' posting behavior on darknet CSAM forums. Participants and settingWe analyze digital forensic artifacts on the online behavior of members of a darknet CSAM forum that was shut down by law enforcement agencies in July 2015. MethodsWe apply group-based trajectory modelling (GBTM), social network analysis, and mixed-effect survival models. ResultsApplying GBTM three posting trajectories can be distinguished. Social network analyses finds the reply network to be more centralized than predicted by chance. Mixed-effect survival models show positive associations between the length of members' first post and the time since members' first registration on the forum and subsequent posting. Contrarily, the number of replies received appears to mitigate subsequent posting. ConclusionsFindings show posting activity on the forum to be concentrated in a minority of forum members who show posting trajectories that are both frequent and persistent. Results further suggest persistence in posting is motivated by social identity and, to a lesser extent, differential association processes.

Privacy Barriers in Health Monitoring: Scoping Review.

Health monitoring technologies help patients and older adults live better and stay longer in their own homes. However, there are many factors influencing their adoption of these technologies. Privacy is one of them. The aim of this study was to provide an overview of the privacy barriers in health monitoring from current research, analyze the factors that influence patients to adopt assisted living technologies, provide a social psychological explanation, and propose suggestions for mitigating these barriers in future research. A scoping review was conducted, and web-based literature databases were searched for published studies to explore the available research on privacy barriers in a health monitoring environment. In total, 65 articles met the inclusion criteria and were selected and analyzed. Contradictory findings and results were found in some of the included articles. We analyzed the contradictory findings and provided possible explanations for current barriers, such as demographic differences, information asymmetry, researchers' conceptual confusion, inducible experiment design and its psychological impacts on participants, researchers' confirmation bias, and a lack of distinction among different user roles. We found that few exploratory studies have been conducted so far to collect privacy-related legal norms in a health monitoring environment. Four research questions related to privacy barriers were raised, and an attempt was made to provide answers. This review highlights the problems of some research, summarizes patients' privacy concerns and legal concerns from the studies conducted, and lists the factors that should be considered when gathering and analyzing people's privacy attitudes.

A qualitative study about explanatory models of alcohol use disorder among patients and relatives in a Ugandan mental hospital

BackgroundAlcohol use disorder (AUD) is a major clinical problem in Uganda. Explanatory models (EMs) of illness are important as they have consequences for treatment. Clinicians´ knowledge about patients´ EMs can improve understanding of the latter´s perspectives and adapting treatments. There is a lack of African studies about EMs of AUD. The aim of this study was to explore EMs for AUD among hospitalized patients and their relatives at the alcohol and drug unit (ADU) at Butabika hospital in Uganda.MethodsAn adapted version of the Explanatory Model Interview Catalogue (EMIC) was used for interviews with ten patients and five relatives to investigate how both hospitalized patients with AUD and their relatives understand the disease. Data were analysed for themes with a qualitative content analysis and support of the software program, OpenCode 4.03.ResultsFive major themes were identified from the patient interviews: “Context promotes AUD”; “Alcohol is part of culture”; “Spiritual causes of AUD in the community”; “Help through Western medicine and religious sources is preferred” and “Social problems and stigmatization”. Six major themes identified from the interviews with relatives were: “Numerous causes of drinking alcohol”; “Devastating consequences of drinking alcohol”; “Exploiting persons with AUD”; “Others’ suffering”; “Relatives struggling for help” and “Suggested solutions”.ConclusionsPatients’ EMs of AUD included social and spiritual explanations. Alcohol is seen as an important part of the Ugandan culture among both patients and their relatives. The results indicate it is important in clinical contexts to investigate the EMs of the patients and relatives to individually tailor treatment interventions.

Hayekian psychological economics: a preliminary look

Abstract Recently, there has been a lively discussion of “Hayekian Behavioral Economics” in Behavioral Public Policy). We aim to contribute to this debate by identifying the main building blocks of a Hayekian psychology. We highlight that the starting point for Hayek was the quest to understand why humans are typically quite successful in navigating the world. In Hayek's framework, the individual mind is conceptualized as a “system within a system”, i.e., the mind is a complex adaptive system that is continuously interacting with the wider socio-cultural system. Three core ideas are central to a Hayekian psychology: subjectivity, learning and adaptation. We argue that these ideas are quite different from the still dominant heuristics-and-biases perspective and lead to different emphases in economic and social science explanations. One, economists should be cautious in their interpretation of experimental findings since subjective meaning is central to agents' behavior. Two, static and isolated models of individuals' biases might underestimate people's capacity to learn with and from others. And three, despite complex processes of adaptation of the mind and the market, a Hayekian framework is consistent with economists' “explanations of the principle” and “pattern predictions.”

SOCIOLOGICAL NEXUS BETWEEN CULTURE AND TERRORISM IN TERMS OF HOFSTEDE’S DIMENSIONS

This study aims to indicate the cultural factors nexus terrorism in terms of Bourdieusian terminology’s conceptual framework, which synthesizes social, economic, and cultural explanations and thus proves useful for studying political and religious radicalization, extremism, and recruitment to terrorism. This analysis can be used to comparatively assess the countries’ cultural tendencies relevant to terrorism. In this study, Hofstede's culture scale, which is regarded as a paradigm and towering figure by most scholars was used. The research endeavors to illustrate the effects of Hofstede's cultural dimensions (widely known model of national culture) on Global Terrorism Index scores via a multiple linear regression model. Terrorists marginalized others and created their discourse to commit rhetoric narrated by fairy tales and protagonists. The findings expressed that whereas the power distance has an increasing effect on terrorism (while increasing terrorism), the long-term orientation has a mitigating effect (reduces terrorism). On the other hand, no significant results were obtained from the dimension of individualism versus collectivism, femininity versus masculinity, avoidance of uncertainty, and indulgence versus restraint. However; we evaluate that social media usage has a centralizing and affiliating effect between collectivism and individualism.

The Intersections among Race, Religion, and Science in Explaining Mental Health Conditions

Racial minority groups in the United States often seek out religious support for mental health struggles. Yet past studies have often overlooked religion as a key explanatory factor shaping racial-ethnic differences in perceptions of mental health conditions such as depression and anxiety. The authors examine whether views of the relationship between religion and science shape agreement with different explanations for mental health conditions. Drawing on a national probability survey collected in 2021 ( n = 3,390), the authors find that individuals who draw boundaries between religion and science had higher odds of rejecting biological and social explanations of mental health conditions, whereas individuals who see religion and science as collaborative had higher odds of affirming biological and social explanations. Belief that we trust science too much (and religion not enough) helped explain Black respondents’ support for religious explanations. The findings underscore the importance of beliefs about religion and science in understanding racial-ethnic differences in views of mental health.

The social science perspective on the Fermi paradox

Abstract The Fermi paradox points to the apparent contradiction between the idea that the emergence of life and civilization on Earth is an objective process following the general rules of Nature and that there are no visible signs of other civilizations beyond Earth. The Fermi paradox is widely discussed in astronomical, biological and other natural sciences but almost totally ignored by social sciences, even though more than half of known explanations deal with intentions and behaviours of extraterrestrial civilizations (ETCs) or social aspects of the evolution of technological civilizations. The article analyses the problem and possible solutions to the Fermi paradox from the perspective of social sciences. In this article I argue that the Fermi paradox is primarily a social science problem, and the most plausible solutions have to contain some form of social science explanations. Three types of explanations are discussed, namely, those related to ETCs’ intentions, capacities and the consequences of their decisions and activities. I argue that attempts to explain the paradox by referring to specific goals and motives of ETCs are the least plausible. Arguments related to the capacities and consequences are more solid but do not convincingly solve the paradox. I conclude that the Fermi paradox is an important problem for social sciences whether ETCs exist or not, and it should attract greater attention from social scientists.

System Justification in the Social Explanation of the Violence against Minoritized Groups

System Justification in the Social Explanation of the Violence against Minoritized Groups

Scene construction and autobiographical memory retrieval in autism spectrum disorder.

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) frequently exhibit difficulties in retrieving autobiographical memories (AMs) of specific events from their life. Such memory deficits are frequently attributed to underlying disruptions in self-referential or social cognition processes. This makes intuitive sense as these are hallmarks of ASD. However, an emerging literature suggests that parallel deficits also exist in ASD individuals' ability to reconstruct the rich spatial contexts in which events occur. This is a capacity known as scene construction, and in typically developing individuals is considered a core process in retrieving AMs. In this review, we discuss evidence of difficulties with scene construction in ASD, drawing upon experiments that involve AM retrieval, other forms of mental time travel, and spatial navigation. We also highlight aspects of extant data that cannot be accounted for using purely social explanations of memory deficits in ASD. We conclude by identifying key questions raised by our framework and suggest how they might be addressed in future research.

Who counts in poverty research?

Mainstream poverty analysis currently renders certain people and degrees of privation more socially legible than others across high-income countries. This article examines how these hierarchies carry through to and corrupt wider social scientific analysis, inscribing differential value to actors and phenomena in ways that undermine social understanding and explanation. First, conventional approaches to poverty analysis and measurement obscure the de facto prevalence of deep poverty, as well as those most subject to its violence. Second, a growing number of hyper-marginalised groups are missing from population income surveys, undermining the accuracy of (deep) poverty estimates and public understanding of both its determinants and dynamics. Third, the inferential and external validity of income surveys is significantly diminished by problems surrounding data quality and coverage. Attempts to address this have principally focused on improving data quality, but as demonstrated in this article, these strategies exacerbate poor representation of the lowest-income groups in distributional analysis. Much more than merely technical or pragmatic, these are theoretical and normative judgements about who counts in welfare policy and politics. Overall, I demonstrate how current data practices occlude some the most violent forms of denigration and exploitation that structure advanced marginality, particularly the gendered, racialised, bordering and ableist practices underpinning state-citizen dynamics. Focusing principally on the UK context, I argue that the epistemic erasure committed features in and systematises a policy blindness to deep poverty for some of the most marginalised social groups making it harder to evidence its effects and address its causes across high-income countries.

Development And Deconstruction: Self-Identity Of Characters In Richard Wright's The Outsider (1953)

Modern concerns for personality support mental self-view as an interchange between the longing for independence and the certainty of arrangement. Self-character looms not just as a philosophical as well as political case to self-acknowledgment, yet in addition as the freedom of Descartes' cogito. The ramifications are various: abolishment of the Nietzchean resolution, post-structuralist legitimation of the decentred subject, borderland personalities, systematization of social relations, and self-contestation. The point of this paper is to investigate the manners by which Richard Wright builds and dismantles way of life as a socio-political and social explanation. The focal person of The Outsider, Cross Damon, endeavors to destroy the self from the trap of self-recognizable proof and social acknowledgment to accomplish a recently manufactured character. Originating from a natural yearning to sidestep over a wide span of time Afro-American subject-jobs, Damon's idealistic endeavor to a future character closes in a legendary like loss against the colossal powers of social limitation and observation, as encapsulated in the hunchbacked Lead prosecutor, Ely Houston. The twofold connection, exemplified in Cross Damon and Ely Houston's conflict, presents Richard Wright's existential journey for importance and a scrutinize of society. Richard Wright's predominant inquiry to broaden the socio-political union and additionally guarantee to self-personality rules over the unique capability of self-development/adequacy.

Candidates' Teaching Practice Experiences in the Natural Disaster Period

Natural disasters cause great damage to society as they cause great destruction and risks. Educational services provided after a disaster have an important role for the children and young people to be able to cope with the trauma experienced. One of the regulations regarding the educational process after a natural disaster is related to the practice courses in higher education institutions. In the scope of regulations made by the Council of Higher Education regarding the teaching practice courses of final-year students in the Faculty of Education, students benefited from the right to complete their practices at higher education institutions in different provinces. This study was carried out at a state university in the Aegean Region. 6 special education teachers determined with purposive sampling participated in the study on a voluntary basis. The data of this study which was conducted in phenomenological design as a qualitative research were collected with the focus group interview technique. The data of the study were analyzed holistically using content analysis. In the findings consisting of four main themes which are Information Resources Sharing and Planning, Professional Expectations and Preparation Process, Educational Life After the Natural Disaster, and About the Path Taken One Step Before the Profession, it was stated that attention was drawn to the up-to-date information of the institutional websites through written and social media explanations of official announcements during the announcement, follow-up, and application processes. The participants emphasized the importance of institutional information and communication in the quality of accommodation, transportation, education, and training practices while making decisions. It could be suggested that teaching practices include holistic preparation based on feedback in the process one step before the profession.

Darfur Model, Rwanda, and the ICTR: John Hagan’s Sociology of Genocide Continued

AbstractCore contributions from John Hagan’s scholarship on genocide are at stake in this article. First, this article examines, for the Rwandan genocide, the applicability of Hagan and Wenona Rymond-Richmond’s multi-level causal model of genocide, developed in Darfur and the Crime of Genocide. Asking how causal factors and processes highlighted in that model play out in scholarship on the Rwandan genocide, it moves toward answering the question of external validity versus historical specificity. Second, the article examines, again with a focus on Rwanda, the relationship between social scientific explanation and judicial thought. While it highlights—in line with the first author’s previous work—how judicial narratives address or select out core factors highlighted in the Darfur model, the article focuses—in line with Hagan’s Justice in the Balkans—on the question of what knowledge social science can nevertheless gain from court proceedings. An analysis of a sample of cases processed by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda identifies overlaps with social science analyses, but it also highlights distinctions.

The social life of prejudice

ABSTRACT A ‘vestigial social practice' is a norm, convention, or social behavior that persists even when few endorse it or its original justifying rationale. Begby (2021) explores social explanations for the persistence of prejudice, arguing that even if we all privately disavow a stereotype, we might nevertheless continue acting as if it is true because we believe that others expect us to. Meanwhile the persistence of the practice provides something like implicit testimonial evidence for the prejudice that would justify it, making it rational for members of the next generation to acquire the corresponding prejudiced beliefs. This paper distinguishes between three different types of vestigial social practice in terms of the underlying explanatory mechanisms, and argues that the persistence of prejudicial social stereotypes is most tightly linked not to others’ beliefs or expectations, but to the ways that material infrastructure constrains options shapes social outcomes. Given that, the persistence of a practice only provides grounds to infer that most people endorse the corresponding prejudiced belief only if we are in a position to dismiss relevant alternative explanations.

Communal focused or market focused: Moral judgment on business practices in nonprofit organizations

AbstractAlthough the adoption of business‐like practices, such as commercialization and managerialization, may enhance the capacity and sustainability of nonprofit organizations, these practices may elicit negative reactions from the general public. This tension poses a challenge for nonprofit organizations as they seek to strike a balance between implementing practices that promote growth and survival and maintaining public support. This study focuses on people's moral judgment of nonprofits' practices and offers a social psychological explanation for why some business‐like practices may be viewed as inappropriate by the public. Specifically, we illuminate the significance of people's normative preferences for communal‐ or market‐focused principles as a basis for determining how an organization should operate and deliver its services. Using an online experiment with a sample size of 1255 participants, we found that: (1) people express a relatively high level of moral acceptance of business‐like practices, but this level is significantly lower than that of nonprofits' societal practices; (2) individuals are more likely to rate business‐like practices that have revenue‐seeking intentions as less acceptable when they believe that an organization should operate and deliver services based on communal principles. Moreover, our findings reveal that people's normative preferences differ more based on the service (e.g., health, microfinance, art) than on the organizational ownership (nonprofit vs. for‐profit).