Social Information Processing Research Articles

How Socially Avoidant Emerging Adults Process Social Feedback during Human-to-Human Interaction after Social Rejection: An Event-Related Potential Study.

Social avoidance refers to active non-participation in social activities, which is detrimental to healthy interpersonal interaction for emerging adults. Social rejection is a kind of negative social evaluation from others making people feel social pain. However, how socially avoidant emerging adults process social feedback information after experiencing social rejection has received less attention. The current study aimed to explore the differences in social interaction feedback processing after social rejection between a socially avoidant group (n = 16) and a comparison group (n = 16) in a human-to-human interaction context. Computer game tasks with two types of interaction (cooperation and competition) were used to record the event-related potentials when receiving social interaction feedback in two conditions (social rejection and control condition). The results showed that (1) the socially avoidant group had lower reward positivity amplitudes than the comparison group when receiving social feedback; (2) the socially avoidant group presented larger P300 amplitudes in the social rejection condition than in the control condition, but the comparison group did not; and (3) social rejection evoked more negative N1 amplitudes in the socially avoidant and comparison groups. The findings suggest that socially avoidant emerging adults may have flaws in reward sensitivity during interpersonal interaction, and they might also exert more attentional and emotional resources to social feedback after social rejection.

How does mindful leadership promote employee green behavior? The moderating role of green human resource management

AbstractGiven the global environmental issues, mindful leadership could be a new approach to help employees and organizations keep their inner capabilities of mindfulness and resilience in facing uncertainty and complexity. Building on social information processing theory, the present study theorized and tested the effect of mindful leadership on employee green behavior. Among the links proposed, green organizational identity and green self‐efficacy were utilized as mediating roles, and green human resource management (GHRM) was regarded as a moderator. A total of 291 sample data were collected from Southwestern China, and the research hypotheses were examined by a structural equation model. Results confirm the significant indirect effect between mindful leadership and employee green behavior through the mediating roles of green organizational identity and green self‐efficacy. GHRM moderates the relationship between mindful leadership and employee green organizational identity, green self‐efficacy, and green behavior. Results provide a new perspective on employees' green outcomes and provide practical significance for improving organizational environmental sustainability.

Personal values and social behavior in early childhood: Understanding the contribution of social information processing and attitudes

Values, defined by Schwartz (1994) as basic motivational cognitive structures, guide life goals, transcend contexts, and affect individuals’ courses of action differently depending on their preferred values. With young children, an important question that emerges is what factors underlie the linkages between their preferred motivations (i.e., preferred values) and their behavior tendencies in key social contexts. This study proposed one potential socio-cognitive mechanism that may explain how children’s values are linked to their prosocial and antisocial behaviors in kindergarten via their values-oriented social information processing patterns (SIP) and their attitudes toward their kindergarten. The sample included 121 children (59 girls; Mage = 67.45 months). Children’s values, values-oriented SIP patterns, and attitudes toward kindergarten class were examined in one-on-one interviews. Teachers reported on the children’s social behaviors. Results showed children’s preferences for self-transcendence values were linked to their more prosocial behaviors and less antisocial behaviors in class via their self-transcendence values-oriented SIP patterns and their positive attitudes toward kindergarten. The findings offer important insights into the socio-cognitive elements that drive values-behavior relationships, as well as the links between various facets of young children’s social cognition and their social behavior in kindergarten.

Linking child adjustment difficulties with mother's maladaptive parental behavior: The mediating roles of parental cognitions and parenting stress.

Child abuse is prevalent worldwide, with most of the burden in developing countries. To reduce and prevent child abuse occurrence, many efforts are directed toward reducing maladaptive parental behaviors (MPBs), a predictor of parents' risk of engaging in child abusive behaviors. MPBs have been associated with child (e.g., behavioral difficulties) and parent characteristics (e.g., parenting stress and parental cognitions), although little research tested for mediational pathways. This study aimed to test the pathways through which child and parent characteristics are linked to MPB. Consistent with the social information processing model of parenting, we hypothesized that child behavioral difficulties would exert an indirect influence on MPB through parenting stress and that parenting stress will exert a direct and indirect effect on MPB through parental cognitions (i.e., expectations, attitudes, and attributions). This study used data from 243 mothers of children aged between 2 and 9 years in Romania. Two-stage structural equation modeling was employed to test the hypothesized model. Results support the role of child behavior, parenting stress, and parental cognitions in predicting MPB (R2 = 0.69). Significant indirect effects were found from child behavior to MPB via parenting stress and parental cognitions. Direct effects from parenting stress and parental cognitions to MPB were significant. Findings show that parenting stress and parental cognitions are important mechanisms through which child behavioral difficulties influence maladaptive parental behavior, underscoring the need to focus on these mechanisms when assessing or intervening with families at risk for child abuse.

The Influence of Social Information Processing and Perceived Usefulness in Building Customer Trust in Halodoc Users

The rapid development of digital technology has reshaped healthcare, with mobile apps such as Halodoc emerging as key tools for quick and efficient access to medical services and information. However, the success of such health apps depends on customer trust. This study investigated the relationship between social information processing (SIP) theory, perceived usefulness, and customer trust among Halodoc users in Surabaya City using quantitative methods. A total of 157 respondents were sampled, and data analysis was conducted using the SPSS application. The results showed that social information processing and perceived usefulness are simultaneously and partially significant in influencing the development of customer trust, where users assess Halodoc's information features and express satisfaction with its services, which then fosters trust. The findings highlight the importance of social information processing and perceived usefulness in building customer trust, offer insights for increasing trust in healthcare applications and inform marketing and product development strategies in the telemedicine industry.

An incoming threat: the influence of automation potential on job insecurity

PurposeIn today’s digital age, news and social media are abuzz with ChatGPT and a myriad of advanced AI tools. Experts from disciplines like computer science and socioeconomics have discussed the profound transformations AI can bring. While certain industries have embraced AI, its penetration across all sectors remains uneven. Yet, even with this limited adoption, the psychological ramifications it presents for workplace employees are profound. Our study integrated social information processing and transactional stress theories to analyze the effect of automation brought by AI on job insecurity. Our study also considers whether moderating factors like supervisor–subordinate relationships and social media engagement can alleviate the adverse consequences of automation.Design/methodology/approachWe empirically test our research hypotheses with longitudinal data from the US General Social Survey (GSS).FindingsUsing US General Social Survey data, our findings indicate that employees in industries with high automation potential are more susceptible to job insecurity. Interestingly, social media engagement appears to dampen this relationship, while the quality of the supervisor–subordinate relationship shows negligible impact.Originality/valueThis study provides valuable insights into the effects of automation potential and the role of social media engagement in coping with it, making a meaningful contribution to the existing literature in this area.

Servant leadership and employee innovative behaviour: Unpacking the role of support for innovation and creative self-efficacy in knowledge intensive service context

Employee innovative behaviour is widely emphasized as a critical driver of organizational innovation. Drawing on social information processing theory, this research proposes that by exhibiting servant leadership style, organizational managers can stimulate employee innovative behaviour directly and through the mechanism of support for innovation. This study also anticipates that the role of of employees’ creative self-efficacy in strengthening the influence of support for innovation on innovative behaviour. To test the proposed relationships, data is collected from 338 IT professionals working in twelve large-sized IT-based service organizations of Pakistan. The results surfaced from PLS-SEM analysis indicate strong support for direct and positive linkage between servant leadership and innovative behaviour and significant role of support for innovation in mediating this relationship. However, the accentuating role of creative self-effecacy is not supported. This study extends existing knowledge concerning the nexus between servant leadership and innovation by examining the mechanism of support for innivation by which servant leadership can augment employee innovative behaviour. Findings of this research entails vital implications for service organizations striving for superior innovation performance. Furthermore, some contradictory findings of this research call for further empirical investigation for more finegrained managerial implications.

New Thoughts on Research Framework for Integrating Leader Voice-Taking Behavior: A Literature Review Based Study

Objective: The purpose of this study is to conduct a relatively comprehensive literature review with leader voice-taking behavior as the core dimension in order to construct a logical quantitative research framework for studying organizational innovation in the hospitality industry. Theoretical Framework: The framework can be used to guide the optimization of management processes in Chinese hospitality industry, especially in response to corporate innovation problems caused by leaders who do not pay attention to the voices of their front-line employees (FLEs). Method: This study used a theoretical integration of a conventional review of literature textual research, drawing on persuasion theory, social information processing theory, and affective event theory to explain a model of leader voice-taking behavior. Results and Discussion: The findings of this paper more systematically integrates the logical relationships between the dimensions related to leader voice-taking behavior, including message factors (promotive voice, prohibitive voice, issue importance, voice directness), source factors (employee’s voice efficacy, value congruence, employee loyalty, employee expertise) and context factors (diversity, LMX) as predictable antecedents of leader voice-taking behavior. On the other hand, FOCC and affective factors (positive emotions, relational energy) are potentially mediating the relationship between leader discourse behavior and service innovation in FLEs. Research Implications: This study provides theoretical support for leadership-employee related behavioral theories, emphasizes the role of voice-taking behavior in corporate innovation, and is instructive for quantitative analysis of Chinese hospitality industry related to this type of research. Originality/Value: This study contributes to the literature review by leader voice-taking behavior. This is academically capable of guiding other related research and has a strong academic value.

The double‐edged sword of ethical leadership: Investigating when and why ethical leadership promotes versus inhibits team performance

AbstractAlthough previous studies pointed towards a positive association of ethical leadership and team performance, we suggest that ethical leadership may have unintended, paradoxical effects on interpersonal dynamics within the team, and, ultimately, team performance. Drawing on social information processing theory, we propose that ethical leadership can be a mixed blessing, with paradoxical impacts on team performance via two distinct pathways—task and relationship conflicts, contingent upon the team's informal power disparity. Specifically, we propose that ethical leadership has a positive indirect effect on team performance via reducing relationship conflict but a negative indirect effect on team performance via suppressing task conflict. Those indirect effects are more pronounced when the team has a more egalitarian power structure among their members. Results from a three‐wave field study, in which we surveyed 90 work teams in China, provided support for our conceptual model. Our findings reveal the benefits and costs of ethical leadership and the importance of examining informal power disparity in this leadership process.

The effect of digital leadership on employees' radical creativity

Drawing on social information processing theory, this study examined the mediating role of perceived leader expectations (PLE) for creativity and perceived leader support (PLS) for creativity on the relationship between digital leadership (DL) and employees’ radical creativity (RC). A total of 231 employees in China’s information technology industry contributed data through a two-wave survey over one week. Results from structural equation modelling and bootstrapping analysis indicate that digital leadership was directly associated with higher radical or innovative creativity. Perceived leader expectations for creativity and perceived leader support for creativity enhanced digital leadership effects on radical creativity. Perceived leader expectations for creativity–perceived leader support for creativity played a chain mediating role in the relationship between digital leadership and radical creativity, strengthening radical creativity. These findings are consistent with social information processing theory and expand the evidence of the impact of digital leadership on employees’ radical creativity.

Atypical neural encoding of faces in individuals with autism spectrum disorder.

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience pervasive difficulties in processing social information from faces. However, the behavioral and neural mechanisms underlying social trait judgments of faces in ASD remain largely unclear. Here, we comprehensively addressed this question by employing functional neuroimaging and parametrically generated faces that vary in facial trustworthiness and dominance. Behaviorally, participants with ASD exhibited reduced specificity but increased inter-rater variability in social trait judgments. Neurally, participants with ASD showed hypo-activation across broad face-processing areas. Multivariate analysis based on trial-by-trial face responses could discriminate participant groups in the majority of the face-processing areas. Encoding social traits in ASD engaged vastly different face-processing areas compared to controls, and encoding different social traits engaged different brain areas. Interestingly, the idiosyncratic brain areas encoding social traits in ASD were still flexible and context-dependent, similar to neurotypicals. Additionally, participants with ASD also showed an altered encoding of facial saliency features in the eyes and mouth. Together, our results provide a comprehensive understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying social trait judgments in ASD.

Investigating the relationship between green human resource management and employees' environmental behavior

AbstractAlthough accumulated evidence has shown that green human resource management (GHRM) has crucial effects on employees' environmental behavior, there is limited research on the underlying mechanisms of the link. Drawing on social information processing theory, we build a multilevel model to test that how and when GHRM has benefits for employees' environmental behavior. For a sample of 866 frontline employees organized into 53 hotels collected from three data sources, we find that GHRM is positively associated with work group green advocacy, which in turn is positively associated with employees' environmental behavior. Moreover, managerial interpretations of environmental issues strengthen the positive effect of work group green advocacy on employees' environmental behavior. Theoretical and practical implications of our results are discussed.

Social cognition in children with neurofibromatosis type 1

ABSTRACT Introduction Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) is a genetic pathology that can lead to impaired social functioning that has a negative impact on patients’ quality of life. To date, although the hypothesis of impaired social cognition has been proposed as a potential explanation for these difficulties, very few studies have focused on theory of mind in children with NF1. Furthermore, other complex sociocognitive abilities have never been investigated. The aim of the present study was to assess theory of mind, moral reasoning, and social information processing in children with NF1 compared with a control group. Method We administered the Paediatric Evaluation of Emotions, Relationships and Socialization® to 38 children with NF1 aged between 8 years and 16 years 11 months (mean = 11.4, SD = 2.3) and 43 control children with comparable sociodemographic characteristics. Results Patients performed significantly worse than controls on moral reasoning and social information processing tests, but there was no significant difference on theory of mind. Conclusions These results seem to confirm the presence of social cognition difficulties in NF1 that could explain, at least in part, their social difficulties, although not all dimensions are concerned. The differences between the processes we assessed are discussed in relation to the methodologies used to measure them, and raises questions about the complementarity of traditional tools and more ecological assessments.

Will human capital humble CEOs? Effects of career variety and education

ABSTRACT Integrating human capital theory, social information processing theory, and literature on humble leadership behaviours, this study takes an initial step to investigate the effects of CEO human capital on CEO humble leadership behaviours. We developed a model that explains how experience human capital (career variety) and education human capital (education level and elite education) independently and jointly influence CEO humble leadership behaviours. We examined the proposed model using multi-source data. The data of the independent variables were hand-collected from multiple sources, including the CSMAR database, corporate websites, and press releases. The data of the dependent variable were collected with an online survey from 175 listed companies. We found that career variety positively influenced CEO humble leadership behaviours, while elite education was negatively associated with CEO humble leadership behaviours. Moreover, career variety and education level had a positive interaction effect on CEO humble leadership behaviours, while career variety and elite education had a negative interaction effect on CEO humble leadership behaviours. Our findings highlight that different types of human capital may exert different impacts. Moreover, apart from the direct impact of one specific type of human capital, various types of human capital can interact to influence CEO humble leadership behaviours.

Social Identities and Cognitive Information Processing Theory: A Qualitative Analysis

Social identities impact the way individuals see themselves and their career options but career theories have been slow to the call in exploring how social identities interface with theoretical assumptions. The purpose of this study was to examine how social identities affect and inform specific dimensions identified by cognitive information processing (CIP) theory as being essential for effective career decision-making, that is, self-knowledge, options knowledge, decision-making process and skills, career beliefs, and overall career decision. Seventy-six students across ten sections of an undergraduate CIP-based career development course answered questions on an anonymous survey related to how their social identities impacted aspects of their career decision-making. Frequencies for social identities were calculated for each CIP dimension, and 11 categories identified for open-ended responses using the consensual qualitative research-modified approach accompanied pre-determined domains based on CIP theory. Across each component, the most common SI was age and generational differences. While students expressed the influence of social identities as occurring in each CIP dimension, statements related to the self-concept category occurred most often and were present in each domain. Our findings support previous work that the presence and impact of SIs on career decision-making components is undeniable, but also not universal. CIP theory provides a structure and avenues for discussing the role of social identities in career decision-making.

How does humble leadership stimulate employees’ service improvisation in hospitality? A social information processing perspective

PurposeDrawing on social information processing theory (SIP), this paper examines whether and how humble leadership affects employees' service improvisation (ESI) in the hospitality industry. Further, the study investigates the mediating role of psychological safety and the moderating role of creative self-efficacy (CSE).Design/methodology/approachTo test the proposed relationships, the study adopts a cross-sectional design, administering questionnaires to 456 frontline staff in Egypt’s hospitality industry across three main sectors: restaurants, hotels and travel agencies. SPSS 27 and AMOS 22 were used for statistical analysis.FindingsThe study reveals a positive relationship between humble leadership and ESI, partially mediated by psychological safety. Furthermore, CSE not only strengthens the relationship between psychological safety and ESI but also enhances the indirect effect of humble leadership on ESI via psychological safety.Practical implicationsThe study offers valuable insights for practitioners in the hospitality industry. To boost ESI, organizations can incorporate humble leadership attributes into their leadership development programs. Fostering a psychologically safe workplace would facilitate the positive impact of humble leadership on ESI. Recognizing CSE as a pivotal moderator underscores the importance of strategically selecting and developing employees with high CSE. These insights aim to cultivate a more service-oriented and effective workforce in the hospitality industry.Originality/valueThis study significantly contributes to leadership research in the hospitality industry by uncovering a previously unexplored link between humble leadership and ESI. Exploring psychological safety as a mediator and CSE as a moderator enhances our comprehension of how and when humble leadership influences ESI.

How can leaders spark employee creativity? An interpersonal emotion management perspective

Purpose This paper seeks to examine how leaders shape employee creativity by using interpersonal emotion management (IEM) strategies. Drawing on the social information processing (SIP) theory, the authors argue that psychological safety translates leader problem-focused IEM into employee creativity, an impact which is moderated by organizational justice.Design/methodology/approach Data were collected in two waves from 201 employees and their leaders in China. Regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses.Findings Leader problem-focused IEM is positively related to employee creativity, and this relationship is mediated by psychological safety. Organizational justice positively moderates the relationship between leader problem-focused IEM and psychological safety as well as the indirect relationship between leader problem-focused IEM and employee creativity via psychological safety.Originality/value This paper identifies a novel and useful predictor of employee creativity from the perspective of leader problem-focused IEM and provides practical insights for organizations regarding ways of improving employee creativity.

Evolution of olfactory receptor superfamily in bats based on high throughput molecular modelling.

The origin of flight and laryngeal echolocation in bats is likely to have been accompanied by evolutionary changes in other aspects of their sensory biology. Of all sensory modalities in bats, olfaction is perhaps the least well understood. Olfactory receptors (ORs) function in recognizing odour molecules, with crucial roles in evaluating food, as well as in processing social information. Here we compare OR repertoire sizes across taxa and apply a new pipeline that integrates comparative genome data with protein structure modelling and then we employ molecular docking techniques with small molecules to analyse OR functionality based on binding energies. Our results suggest a sharp contraction in odorant recognition of the functional OR repertoire during the origin of bats, consistent with a reduced dependence on olfaction. We also compared bat lineages with contrasting different ecological characteristics and found evidence of differences in OR gene expansion and contraction, and in the composition of ORs with different tuning breadths. The strongest binding energies of ORs in non-echolocating fruit-eating bats were seen to correspond to ester odorants, although we did not detect a quantitative advantage of functional OR repertoires in these bats compared with echolocating insectivorous species. Overall, our findings based on molecular modelling and computational docking suggest that bats have undergone olfactory evolution linked to dietary adaptation. Our results from extant and ancestral bats help to lay the groundwork for targeted experimental functional tests in the future.

Neighborhood features moderate genetic and environmental influences on children's social information processing.

Neighborhood is a key context where children learn to process social information; however, the field has largely overlooked the ways children's individual characteristics might be moderated by neighborhood effects. We examined 1,030 six- to 11-year-olds (48.7% female; 82% White) twin pairs oversampled for neighborhood disadvantage from the Twin Study of Behavioral and Emotional Development in Children. We evaluated neighbor reports (N = 1,880) of neighborhood structural and social characteristics as moderators of genetic and environmental influences on children's social processing. Although there was no evidence of moderation for children's hostile attributions, there was robust evidence that the social and structural characteristics of the neighborhood moderated the genetic and environmental origins of children's positive expectations of aggressive behavior. Specifically, we found that genetic influences on aggressive expectations increased in the presence of neighborhood deprivation and decreased in the presence of protective social processes and availability of resources. Such findings suggest that protective neighborhood social processes may buffer against the development of aggressive expectations during middle childhood by suppressing the expression of genetic influences on those outcomes. In doing so, they suggest that neighborhood social processes may be able to promote youth resilience to neighborhood deprivation "under the skin." (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Neural correlates of aggression outcome expectation and their association with aggression: A voxel-based morphometry study

BackgroundAggression outcome expectation is an important cognitive factor of aggression. Discovering the neural mechanism of aggression outcome expectation is conducive to developing aggression research. However, the neural correlates underlying aggression outcome expectation and its effect remain elusive. MethodsWe utilized voxel-based morphometry (VBM) to unravel the neural architecture of aggression outcome expectation measured by the Social Emotional Information Processing Assessment for Adults and its relationship with aggression measured by the Buss Perry Aggression Questionnaire in a sample of 185 university students (114 female; mean age = 19.94 ± 1.62 years; age range: 17–32 years). ResultsWe found a significantly positive correlation between aggression outcome expectation and the regional gray matter volume (GMV) in the right middle temporal gyrus (MTG) (x = 55.5, y = −58.5, z = 1.5; t = 3.35; cluster sizes = 352, p < 0.05, GRF corrected). Moreover, aggression outcome expectation acted as a mediator underlying the association between the right MTG volume and aggression. ConclusionsThese results revealed the neural correlates of aggression outcome expectation and its effect on aggression for the first time, which may contribute to our understanding of the cognitive neural mechanism of aggression and potentially identifying neurobiological markers for aggression.