Social Interaction Game Research Articles

The association between social rewards and anxiety: Links from neurophysiological analysis in virtual reality and social interaction game

Individuals’ affective experience can be intricate, influenced by various factors including monetary rewards and social factors during social interaction. However, within this array of factors, divergent evidence has been considered as potential contributors to social anxiety. To gain a better understanding of the specific factors associated with anxiety during social interaction, we combined a social interaction task with neurophysiological recordings obtained through an anxiety-elicitation task conducted in a Virtual Reality (VR) environment. Employing inter-subject representational similarity analysis (ISRSA), we explored the potential linkage between individuals’ anxiety neural patterns and their affective experiences during social interaction. Our findings suggest that, after controlling for other factors, the influence of the partner's emotional cues on individuals’ affective experiences is specifically linked to their neural pattern of anxiety. This indicates that the emergence of anxiety during social interaction may be particularly associated with the emotional cues provided by the social partner, rather than individuals’ own reward or prediction errors during social interaction. These results provide further support for the cognitive theory of social anxiety and extend the application of VR in future cognitive and affective studies.

Players as Rock Stars

Music-based social interaction games are a recent, specific niche of analog games that are made possible through the advent of music streaming and widespread availability of music playback. This article investigates the card game Song Saga (2020) as an explorative case study for such social interaction games, and explores the possibilities in the application of quantitative and qualitative text corpus analysis for such games and musicology/game studies in general. Analyzing both the paratexts and the text of Song Saga, the article explains how Song Saga invites its players to view themselves and their biographies through the lens of rock stardom. In this sense, the design of the game ultimately conceptualizes music as a universal biographic asset and replaces the music’s creator as the music’s protagonist with the recipient.

A randomized placebo-controlled intranasal oxytocin study on first impressions and reactions to social rejection

Oxytocin is central to pair-bonding in non-human animals. We assessed effects of intranasal oxytocin on bond formation between two opposite-sex strangers. In a double-blind placebo-controlled design, 50 pairs of one man and one woman received oxytocin or placebo spray intranasally. After treatment, they played a social interaction game, followed by tasks designed to measure first impressions of the opposite-sex co-participant, and a virtual ball-tossing game (cyberball), designed to measure reactions to rejection by the co-participant. We found no evidence that intranasal oxytocin can improve first impressions of an opposite-sex stranger, and some Bayesian support against this hypothesis. For rejection sensitivity, we observed a sex-and-context-dependent drug effect on post-ostracism mood ratings, consistent with recent studies indicating that interindividual variation and social context can interact with intranasal oxytocin effects. Further research is needed to determine the generalisability of these findings, i.e. if oxytocin can improve first impressions in humans under different conditions.

Information theory and behavior

The quantal response behavior widely observed in experiments and observations of human and animal behavior can be derived as expected payoff maximization subject to a constraint on the entropy of the subject’s behavior mixed strategy. The Lagrange multiplier corresponding to the entropy constraint is an agent’s “behavior temperatureˮ. Entropy-constrained behavior approximates payoff-maximizing behavior, but in many contexts exhibits qualitatively different outcomes. The “endowment effectˮ and other instances of “loss-aversionˮ, for example, can be seen as a consequence of entropy-constrained behavior. Identical entropy-constrained agents with the same value for a good or asset will exhibit spontaneous “noise tradingˮ. An entropy-constrained agent with a lower behavior temperature will systematically take economic surplus away from an agent with the same valuation of a good but a higher behavior temperature in bilateral transactions. The equilibrium of a standard supply-demand models with entropy-constrained agents is a non-degenerate frequency distribution of transaction prices rather than a single equilibrium price. Changes in behavior temperature can transform social interaction games from prisoners’ dilemmas to assurance games. Entropy-constrained quantal responses allow quantitative inferences about payoff changes and distribution stronger than qualitative Pareto comparisons.

Which are the patterns of video game use in Spanish school adolescents? Gender as a key factor

Video games are part of the technological revolution, and it is possible nowadays to play video games anytime and anywhere as a primary source of youth entertainment. The research question of this study refers to which are the patterns of video game usage by Spanish school adolescents. In particular, it analyzes the time and money spent on video games among Spanish teenage students of 11–19 years old (M = 13.98; SD ± 1.397), as well as the game platform and the type of video games used, according to type of day and, especially, gender of the player. A survey was applied to a representative sample of adolescent students (n = 1502) from Valencian Region (Spain). The results showed an average of 47.23 min/day dedicated to video games. Adolescents’ boys spent more time and money than girls did, and more time on weekends than on weekdays. Time on weekends increased much more in boys than in girls. Girls were often occasional players and boys predominantly moderate or frequent players. More boys, compared to girls, play on console and computers, while more girls, compared to boys, play on mobile and tablet platforms. Also, more boys played action, sports and simulation games than girls, while more girls played leisurely, educational and social interaction games. These findings reveal that video games are currently a male-dominated arena, although as a cultural phenomenon that is socially constructed this situation may change.

Can Beauty Raise Entrepreneurs’ Income?

Entrepreneurship is one of the vital driving forces of the economic transformation and upgrading in China. The human capital of entrepreneurs plays a fundamental role in the entrepreneurial activity. Beauty is a special kind of human capital, which may have an impact on entrepreneurial performance. Individuals with beautiful appearance have higher bargaining power in various social interaction games, so they can strive for better opportunities, occupy more resources, and enjoy the so-called Beauty Premium”. Related studies have generally found that beauty can improve the labor compensation obtained by labor force. In this paper, we focus on the beauty economy” in the entrepreneurial labor market, and try to explore whether there exists the similar effect. According to the existing research, physical appearance affects entrepreneurial performance through many channels. First, beauty could affect the development of entrepreneurs’ knowledge and skills, since beauty requires self-management and self-control. Second, beauty may reflect the individual enterprising spirit and self-motivation, and affect the entrepreneurial motivation of entrepreneurs. Third, individuals with good appearance normally enjoy trust and encouragement from others, which will help them cultivate confidence and optimistic spiritual quality. The data used in this study are derived from the Chinese Family Panel Studies （CFPS） and the China Labor-force Dynamics Survey （CLDS）. The estimated results are as follows. The estimated coefficients of the core explanatory variable are significantly positive at the 1% level. For every one point increase in the appearance, female entrepreneurs’ income will increase by 12.8%, while male entrepreneurs’ income will increase by 14.3%. It is obvious that beauty can bring a higher income premium to men in the entrepreneurial market than women. In addition, the results reveal that the beauty premium in urban areas is significantly higher than that in rural areas. Considering that different industries and occupations will have an impact on the beauty premium, we control the fixed effects of industry and occupation. In addition, the fixed effect of region is also controlled in the model to consider the economic development and the cultural gap. Finally, people dress differently according to the season, which may interfere with the interviewer’s visual assessment of appearance, so we also control the time-fixed effect. After controlling the above fixed effects, the core estimated coefficients remain significantly positive at the 1% level basically. Also, after controlling the fixed effects of industry and occupation, the beauty premium of female entrepreneurs is no longer significant. This means that beautiful female entrepreneurs mainly choose to carry out entrepreneurial activities in industries and occupations that give higher beauty feedback. We also find that as the whole income increase, the effect of beauty on entrepreneurial income generally increases first and then decreases. In addition, we perform the estimation with CLDS data to make a robustness test, and hourly income and operational income of entrepreneurs are used as the dependent variable in the model to correct the income deviation. At last, the estimation of the instrumental variable is used to solve the problem of endogeneity. Compared with the existing literature, the marginal contribution of this paper contains two points. First, this is the first time for a Chinese paper to work on the relationship between physical appearance and entrepreneurial income. Chinese traditional culture thinks little of personal appearance, while this paper shows that physical appearance will affect the personal income of entrepreneurs. Second, this paper identifies the causal relationship between physical appearance and entrepreneurial income effectively.

Social interaction game to promote empathy among first year medical students: a pilot study

Background: Empathy is integral to professionalism, but is lacking in medical students. There are few interventions that promote empathy. This pilot study describes the first use of a novel intervention to promote empathy.Methods: A novel social interaction game was developed and administered to first MBBS students. It provided an experiential simulation of persons belonging to lower socioeconomic strata over 4 simulated ‘days’. This cross-sectional study assessed the impact of the intervention on empathy using a 5-point Likert scale to score self-perceptions across several domains. The data were analyzed using repeated measures analysis of variance (RMANOVA).Results: There was a statistically significant decline in scale scores on all days following Day 1 (p<0.05). This was true across all domains. Cronbach’s alpha for internal reliability was 0.91 for Day 1; and 0.97 for Day 1 through Day 4. Open ended comments indicated empathic feelings were generated due to the intervention.Conclusions: A simulation experience like the social interaction game described here, may be used to improve the attitudes and empathy of medical students towards persons from low socioeconomic backgrounds.

Prevention of ADHD related problems: a universal preschool program

Purpose – Early onset of behavioral disorders is predictive of long term adverse outcomes. There are some indicated and selective early prevention programs for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), one of the most common behavioral disorders in childhood and adolescence. The purpose of this paper is to present a universal preschool program for preventing the development of ADHD related symptoms for children aged three to six. Design/methodology/approach – A total of 413 preschool children (experimental group (EG)=193; control group (CG)=220), and their teachers participated in the study. Children in the EG were randomized to two conditions: universal intervention (behavior modification (BM)=99) vs additional ADHD specific elements (BM+attention training; BM+AT=94) to evaluate effects of a universal intervention vs additional ADHD specific elements. The universal intervention trained general behavior modification (BM) techniques to enhance start behavior (i.e. following color based rules, positive participation in activities, enhancement of skills related to attentional function), and to extinguish stop behavior (i.e. hyperactive behavior such as uncontrolled running around, disturbing others, quarreling, etc.). These techniques were based on published intervention programs (Phelan and Schonour, 2004). The AT consisted of thirteen teacher led 45 minute based sessions in a small group format with an introductory play activity, 15 minutes picture based AT tasks (task analysis, action planning, action, reappraisal), a social interaction game, and a game to enhance perception of visual, auditory, olfactory, haptic, and gustatory senses. To determine effects, the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) and the Behavior Rating for Preschoolers (VBV) were used. A high risk group with high scores on those measures was analyzed separately. Findings – Children in all three groups did not differ significantly at baseline in all relevant variables (ADHD symptoms measured with the SDQ and VBV, socio-economic status (SES), gender, age: MANCOVA: F 10,796=1.732, p=0.07) and none of the children had a diagnosis of ADHD. After training participation, children in the EG showed significantly less ADHD related problem behavior compared to children in the CG (F 8,1,506=2.717, p=0.006); this was especially so for the high risk group (F 4,754=2.60, p=0.035). Multi-level analyses revealed significant influences of age, gender, and SES on post-training symptom ratings (SDQ: t-statistic=3.03, p=0.003; VBV 3-6: t-statistic=4.151, p < 0.001). Research limitations/implications – This is a quasi-experimental study, since due to time restriction half the preschools did not want to participate in the experimental study. Thus, participating children were not randomly assigned to the experimental and control conditions, though children were randomly assigned to two different treatments within the intervention group (EG1/EG2). Due to the design of the study and to ensure high participation rates, only preschool teachers rated children’s behavior, though the predictive value of teacher ADHD symptoms exceeds parental ones. Finally, inclusion of parent training elements would most probably enhance effects. Practical implications – General BM techniques are easily taught and seem to positively influence children’s ADHD related symptoms while not harming children without such symptoms. Since studies showed that after a bogus instruction teacher expected children to exhibit ADHD symptoms and rated them as more disturbed (Rosenthal effect), a universal approach is less stigmatizing and possibly more effective, especially when interventions start early in life before symptoms result in full diagnoses. Social implications – This study established positive universal effects, and moderate to large effects for the subgroup of high risk children with ADHD related symptoms. General behavior management in preschools might thus be a possible strategy for preventive interventions of ADHD related symptoms. Originality/value – The is one of the first studies on a preventive ADHD preschool program. General BM techniques of this study were easily taught and implemented, and showed positive effects. Since selective and indicated interventions depend on high program fidelity, are harder to implement, and related to higher costs, general BM techniques as introduced in this study, might be an option for universal prevention strategies for ADHD related symptoms in preschool settings.

Decoding the representation of learned social roles in the human brain

Humans as social beings are profoundly affected by exclusion. Short experiences with people differing in their degree of prosocial behaviour can induce reliable preferences for including partners, but the neural mechanisms of this learning remain unclear. Here, we asked participants to play a short social interaction game based on “cyber-ball” where one fictive partner included and another excluded the subject, thus defining social roles (includer – “good”, excluder – “bad”). We then used multivariate pattern recognition on high-resolution functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data acquired before and after this game to test whether neural responses to the partners' and neutral control faces during a perceptual task reflect their learned social valence. Support vector classification scores revealed a learning-related increase in neural discrimination of social status in anterior insula and anterior cingulate regions, which was mainly driven by includer faces becoming distinguishable from excluder and control faces. Thus, face-evoked responses in anterior insula and anterior cingulate cortex contain fine-grained information shaped by prior social interactions that allow for categorisation of faces according to their learned social status. These lasting traces of social experience in cortical areas important for emotional and social processing could provide a substrate of how social inclusion shapes future behaviour and promotes cooperative interactions between individuals.

It's not where you do it, it's who you do it with?

Individuals often recreate with others, but models of recreation-site choice (which ski area, climbing route, golf course, or bike trail) ignore the social aspect—a trait they share with most choice models. Site-choice models seek to explain site choice as a function of only the cost of visiting each site, the physical characteristics of the sites, income, and other characteristics of the individual. They ignore the influence of others on site choice. We find, using choice experiments, that having a companion and the companion's relative ability are critical determinants of site choice—what social psychology would predict. One will often choose a site less preferred in terms of its costs and characteristics if one has a companion of one's ability at the lesser site but not at the better site. Companions of comparable ability are preferred over companions that are better or worse. And, importantly, how one values the physical characteristics of sites depends on whether one has a companion. The magnitudes of our estimated companion effects suggest recreation-demand models that ignore them, all do, omit a critical endogenous variable. An implication is that observed trip patterns can be generated by social-interaction game playing (“where I go depends on where you go and …”), not utility maximization in isolation. This paper does not model the game; it estimates a recreator's utility/reaction function with companion effects, showing the importance of the social component.

Larry Moss: One of the Good Guys in Economics

When Widdy Ho, widow of Larry Moss, invited me to contribute a short piece to this volume in remembrance of Larry Moss, I was honored, and immediately accepted. Larry was of the guys, and it's always sad when a is taken before his time by that big in the sky. I suspect that I will get into hot water with the p.c. crowd for saying good guys--I recognize that I should have put and gals--no, that wouldn't do either. I should have put one of the people. But to phrase it that way would have destroyed the flow and cadence of the sentence. I suspect that had Larry been the editor of this volume, he would have let one of the slip through. What do I mean by good guy? I don't mean those sets of economists who agree with me on policy or on theory. I suspect Larry and I disagreed on many policy and theoretical issues. But concordance of views of theory or policy has nothing to do with my definition of a guy. Instead, a has to do with attitude. Good guys recognize that social interaction is an intricate game, and they watch themselves as they play the social interaction game. A brings a certain attitude toward scholarship--one that is constantly questioning and trying to find points of agreement as well as points of disagreement. A is constantly willing to question conventional wisdom, and to point when that conventional wisdom seems less wisdom and more rhetorically encrusted hash. A is willing to treat the pillars of establishment as a dog treats a fire hydrant. Larry fit this characterization of well. He would say what he thought, and let the pieces fall where they may. Consider his comment on the general profession: does not bode well for the present stream of Nobel awards that much of what is novel and new is just old wine in new bottles. It is particularly sad that the majority of the profession does not know this, and it is also deeply disturbing that it does not care to find out (Moss 2005: 217). Being a involves more than being willing to attack conventional wisdom. A must also have the ability to treat himself as a fire hydrant as well. A recognizes that she is not imparting a truth to others, but rather is imparting a particular perception of truth. She will recognize that truth (as best we can reach it) is not held by person, but is a collectively developed truth. Truth is not found; it emerges from the competitive interchange of ideas. For a guy, the purpose of attacking conventional wisdom is not to convey an unconventional truth to others, but to get others to stop and think so that they can have a better chance at arriving at the truth. This second characteristic of what it means to be a good guy reduces the set of guys enormously, and is where I believe many self-described heterodox economists fall short. These self-described heterodox economists will micturate on the pillars of the mainstream establishment but they will not micturate on the pillars of their own particular beliefs. This tendency creates protected areas--incubator bubbles--for the various particular brands of heterodoxy. For a time within these bubbles, heterodox ideas can develop and even thrive. To some degree, especially when an idea is initially being developed, being protected in a bubble serves a useful purpose. But at some point, if that idea is to spread, it must leave the bubble and live or die in the mainstream world. Because the conditions for idea survival are much more difficult outside the bubble, most will die once they are transplanted. That's the life (and death) of an idea. But a few will take root, grow, and become the mainstream. In my view, all too often self-described heterodox groups overprotect their ideas. They stay for too long within their bubble, writing for and conversing with primarily others in the bubble. When that happens, the heterodox groups become the establishment within the bubble--the ones that need to be seen as fire hydrants. …