Social Interaction Mechanisms Research Articles

Dual routes of chunking social interaction: Insights from grouping two agent actions in working memory.

Humans have evolved the sophisticated ability to extract social relations embedded in interactive entities. One typical demonstration is a social chunking phenomenon wherein the cognitive system chunks individual actions into a unified episode basing on perceived interactive actions. However, the mechanisms underlying social chunking remain to be elucidated. Most studies have adopted static images and manipulated interactions through agents' facingness (face-to-face vs. back-to-back). Connecting agents via directed contingent actions is crucial in forming real-life social interaction. Hence, we employed dynamic actions as stimuli, separated physical- and communicative-contingency interactive actions, and predicted that domain-general physical regularities and domain-specific social relationships are crucial in social interactions, respectively. We tested this prediction by using an involuntary chunking effect in working memory, wherein two individual actions are involuntarily chunked when containing task-irrelevant interactive information. We found that involuntary chunking occurred for both types of upright interactive actions (Experiments 1, 3, 5, and 6). Inverting actions erased the chunking of communicative- but not physical-contingency actions (Experiments 2, 4, and 5). The facingness of dyads did not participate in chunking physical-contingency actions but was a prerequisite for chunking communicative-contingency actions (Experiments 3 and 6). These results reveal the dual routes of chunking interactive actions. Moreover, they suggest that the chunking mechanisms of dynamic social interaction are distinct from those of static images, highlighting the importance of using dynamic stimuli to explore the mechanisms of social interaction in emerging people-watching interdisciplinarity. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Elevating low-effort engagement to cultivate stronger community commitment: A study of social capital within Instagram's brand community

Purpose: This study aimed to analyze the role of social capital in enhancing the engagement of community members, specifically transitioning them from low-effort participation to higher levels of commitment toward the community.Design/methodology: This study presents the results derived from a quantitative analysis of 483 participants across diverse automotive brand communities found on Instagram.Findings: Based on the foundation of social capital theory, this research enquires into the effects of shared relational elements of social capital on the commitment of members to communities. The results indicate that when members perceive an adequate degree of social trust and adhere to a recognized norm of reciprocity, there is a notable influence on the potential for heightened commitment to the community.Research limitations/implications: This study solely focused on a specific type of social media, underscoring the prominent role of visual presentation style as the primary approach in content creation. As a result, this has a notable impact on the mechanism of social interaction among users.Originality/value: In visually oriented settings such as Instagram, the barriers to participating in social interactions are noticeably reduced. Consequently, activities that require only minimal engagement effort have a higher probability of evolving into more profound and intensified forms of social exchange among community members. This, in turn, greatly facilitates the cultivation of social trust and the establishment of a norm of reciprocity.

Inter-brain desynchronization in social interaction: a consequence of subjective involvement?

Hyperscanning approaches to human neuroscience aim to uncover the neural mechanisms of social interaction. They have been largely guided by the expectation that increased levels of engagement between two persons will be supported by higher levels of inter-brain synchrony (IBS). A common approach to measuring IBS is phase synchrony in the context of EEG hyperscanning. Yet the growing number of experimental findings does not yield a straightforward interpretation, which has prompted critical reflections about the field's theoretical and methodological principles. In this perspective piece, we make a conceptual contribution to this debate by considering the role of a possibly overlooked effect of inter-brain desynchronization (IBD), as for example measured by decreased phase synchrony. A principled reason to expect this role comes from the recent proposal of irruption theory, which operationalizes the efficacy of a person's subjective involvement in behavior generation in terms of increased neural entropy. Accordingly, IBD is predicted to increase with one or more participant's socially motivated subjective involvement in interaction, because of the associated increase in their neural entropy. Additionally, the relative prominence of IBD compared to IBS is expected to vary in time, as well as across frequency bands, depending on the extent that subjective involvement is elicited by the task and/or desired by the person. If irruption theory is on the right track, it could thereby help to explain the notable variability of IBS in social interaction in terms of a countertendency from another factor: IBD due to subjective involvement.

The evolution of peace (and war) is driven by an elementary social interaction mechanism.

Here we revise Glowacki's model by proposing a simple and empirically tested mechanism that is applicable to a comprehensive set of social interactions. This parsimonious mechanism accounts for the choice of both cooperative and peaceful alternatives and explains when each choice benefits the interacting parties. It is proposed that this mechanism is key to the evolution of both peace and conflict.

Cancel Culture” in Political Discourse: Multiple Forms and Research Opportunities

The article discusses the so-called “cancel culture” as a factor in the new social reality, influencing the configuration of constantly changing social relations. At the same time, it is shown that the interpretations of “cancel culture” in sociopolitical and sociocultural discourse are very extensive. An attempt has been made to analyse “cancel culture” in the context of the variety of forms of its manifestation, and the main features and characteristics of this phenomenon are described. As a result of the analysis, it was concluded that “cancel culture” is one of the forms of interaction between subjects of social relations. It is shown that “cancel culture” can be considered both as a form of political relations and as a technology currently used in various spheres of public life to achieve certain political or business goals. At the same time, attention should be paid to the fact that “cancel culture” is becoming widespread in connection with the transition to the widespread use of information and communication technologies and the emergence of a network society. And the process of digitalisation, including social relations, largely contributes to its expansion in modern society.
 The transition to a new type of society - information, network society - entailed a transition to new forms and mechanisms of social interactions. The work notes that the acceleration of social development has a significant impact on all aspects of social life, including the system of social interactions and relationships. It is suggested that technologies and mechanisms for the implementation of social interactions, alternative to existing ones, are emerging in the 21st century. From these positions, it is argued that “cancel culture” is one of the types of social interactions, primarily in network projection. It is concluded that the range of interpretation of the concept of “cancel culture” is quite wide, research approaches are diverse and make it possible to study it from the point of view of forms and technologies of social interaction, as well as one of the varieties of communication models.
 The phenomenon of “cancel culture” is considered in the context of the digital transformation of modern society. Based on the analysis of digitalisation processes (from the perspective of the considered issue of the relationship between digitalisation and “cancel culture”), the special significance of the political, legal and ethical aspects of the implementation of “cancel culture” in social practices is noted.

Personal stories as a result of creative activity and a tool for overcoming the fragmentation of everyday life: cultural and philosophical analysis

The object of this research is the fragmented everyday life of social life practices. The subject of the research is personal stories realized in storytelling and considered as the result of the creative activity of the subject and a way to overcome the fragmentation of everyday life of modern culture. The authors consider the fragmentation of everyday life as a factor in the desocialization of the subject and the leveling of unified mechanisms of social interaction. Storytelling is defined as a way for a person to consistently present various storylines and broadcast the principles of their personal existence, creating an effect of belonging among recipients and awakening their imagination. The research substantiates that storytelling resources allow a subject to broadcast personal values, creatively express their individuality through virtual self-presentation and respond to current public demands, thereby overcoming the fragmentation of everyday life. As the conclusions of the research, the authors state that public order and social interaction are conditioned by the influence of the narratives of each subject on the foundation of their own being and the formation of a vector of development of all participants in intersubjective relations through the dissemination of the principles of personal existence in the storytelling system. The authors emphasize the creative nature of personal stories, the creation and telling of which is a prerequisite for the formation of unified principles of social existence due to the transmitted ideas about socially acceptable rules and stable patterns of behavior that become a set of rituals. The authors conclude that personal stories allow the subject to overcome fragmented everyday life, move to a qualitatively new level of normative determination, develop a strategy of self-identity and move from a separate way of being to a holistic existence in the context of intersubjective interactions.

Distinct ACC Neural Mechanisms Underlie Authentic and Transmitted Anxiety Induced by Maternal Separation in Mice.

It is known that humans and rodents are capable of transmitting stress to their naive partners via social interaction. However, a comprehensive understanding of transmitted stress, which may differ from authentic stress, thus revealing unique neural mechanisms of social interaction resulting from transmitted stress and the associated anxiety, is missing. We used, in the present study, maternal separation (MS) as a stress model to investigate whether MS causes abnormal behavior in adolescence. A key concern in the analysis of stress transmission is whether the littermates of MS mice who only witness MS stress ("Partners") exhibit behavioral abnormalities similar to those of MS mice themselves. Of special interest is the establishment of the neural mechanisms underlying transmitted stress and authentic stress. The results show that Partners, similar to MS mice, exhibit anxiety-like behavior and hyperalgesia after witnessing littermates being subjected to early-life repetitive MS. Electrophysiological analysis revealed that mice subjected to MS demonstrate a reduction in both the excitatory and inhibitory synaptic activities of parvalbumin interneurons (PVINs) in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). However, Partners differed from MS mice in showing an increase in the number and excitability of GABAergic PVINs in the ACC and in the ability of chemogenetic PVIN inactivation to eliminate abnormal behavior. Furthermore, the social transfer of anxiety-like behavior required intact olfactory, but not visual, perception. This study suggests a functional involvement of ACC PVINs in mediating the distinct neural basis of transmitted anxiety.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is a critical brain area in physical and social pain and contributes to the exhibition of abnormal behavior. ACC glutamatergic neurons have been shown to encode transmitted stress, but it remains unclear whether inhibitory ACC neurons also play a role. We evaluate, in this study, ACC neuronal, synaptic and network activities and uncover a critical role of parvalbumin interneurons (PVINs) in the expression of transmitted stress in adolescent mice who had witnessed MS of littermates in infancy. Furthermore, inactivation of ACC PVINs blocks transmitted stress. The results suggest that emotional contagion has a severe effect on brain function, and identify a potential target for the treatment of transmitted anxiety.

Bodily-Affective Aspects of Phenomen in Malevich’s Suprematism

The study addresses some aspects of Suprematist theory of perception, allowing to investigate the structure of Suprematist phenomenon in the context of ontology, socio-political and religious-mystical works of K. Malevich. The aim of the paper is to present Malevich’s theory of perception in the framework of enactivism. Namely, the article focuses on the theory of social affordances, which today is widely used in design, game development and other everyday practices. The author refers to Malevich’s theoretical and sociopolitical essays, as well as to the commentary literature. Although Suprematism represents a well-researched tradition in art theory, the author stress the need for a follow-up study of Malevich’s theoretical essays in the contemporary context of philosophy of consciousness. The author also emphasizes the relevance of Suprematist philosophy for today’s way of thinking. For the most authentic presentation of Malevich’s ideas I use the phenomenological and hermeneutical method on a par with elements of the ecological approach in psychology and enactivism in the philosophy of consciousness. Consequently, the theory of affordances an effective and natural unification of all the aspects discussed above. The study shows the affinity of Malevich’s ideas to this theory. The author focused on the thesis of feeling as the goal of the expressive act of art. As one could see, Kazemir Malevich always emphasized the bodily-affective dimension of art, and in this sense he participated in a global cultural-historical shift in our conception of the essence of art. Since then, art has ceased to be elitist, but has instead inherited everyday practices. Thus, Malevich speaks of a new art that suits the man of the new world, the Soviet citizen. In this context, I relate the idea of affordance, which means the creation of a feeling-opportunity for subjective action (agency), to the artistic act whose goal, according to Malevich, is the creation of an emotional body-affective feeling. I defend the theory of social affordances, explaining the mechanism of social interaction, as the most adequate model for explaining Suprematism. As a result, based on the already developed concept of bodily-affective dynamics, I show how visionary and creative Malevich was, and how his ideas contribute to the development of a theory of social, emotional affordances.

Teaching and Learning Computational Thinking Through Game-Based Learning: A Systematic Review

Computational thinking (CT) is considered a fundamental skill that everyone in the 21st century should have. Game-based learning (GBL) may be used to teach CT, and it’s necessary to clarify how to design and implement game-based CT teaching. The literature was systematically searched for empirical studies published between 2011 and 2021. Thirty-nine studies were included in the review and findings suggested that GBL has positive effects on CT, but has non-significant effects on some CT elements (e.g., conditions, triggers, and abstraction) because of limited time to learn these elements and students’ preferences for using CT elements. Game elements, particularly clear goals and rules, progressive challenges, immediate feedback, storyline, avatar, social interaction and various reward mechanisms were used to motivate students to engage in activities to develop CT. Furthermore, single or multiple theoretical foundations, such as constructivist learning theory and experiential learning theory, may guide the design and implementation of game-based activities. Problem-solving, project-based approaches were used to encourage students to use CT to solve problems or complete a project. Finally, guidelines for designing and implementing game-based learning activities for promoting CT were discussed.

The roles of social media and mutual relationships between travel attitudes and brand equity

PurposeThe purpose of this study has to conduct an integrated effective evaluation system to discover consumers' travel attitudes of the culinary experiences or cuisines and establishing an optimal mutual relationship of a brand equity evaluation model.Design/methodology/approachBased on a sample of 624 participants, the results support that social media engagement has indirect effects on culinary brand equity development through travel attitudes and information sharing.FindingsThe study finds that values are expressed as foundational attributes that have indirect effects on brand equity through hedonic function, perceived quality, brand awareness and brand image. In contrast, the social interaction mechanism strengthens subdimensional relationships. These findings extend the customer brand equity literature and the nature of tourists' perspectives in the context of Taiwan's culinary destination brand equity.Practical implicationsIt is a suggestion for tourism and hospitality managers to identify the different characteristics of attitudes towards visits and the customers' desert of participation in food-related activities when it derives to the classifications of food and culinary tourism.Originality/valueThe current study extended the findings and asserted that social interaction leads to and strengthens the relationships between memorable culinary hedonic experiences and perceived quality and improves tourists' positive awareness and image compared to other tourism experiences.

Social networks as a space of communication on health issues

Social media is bringing a new dimension to healthcare as it offers an environment through which the public, patients, and healthcare professionals can report health issues with the possibility of potentially improving health outcomes. Social networks are a powerful tool that ensures cooperation between users and is a mechanism of social interaction for a wide range of people. Although the use of social networks for communication in the field of health has a number of advantages, the exchange of information must be monitored for quality and reliability, as well as to preserve the confidentiality of users.

How digital health technologies promote healthy life in the Post-COVID-19 Era: evidences from national survey on Chinese adolescents and youngsters.

The rapid development of intelligent technologies coupled with the stay-at-home trends in the Post-COVID-19 Era has significantly changed youth's health behavior as well as reshaped their lifestyles. Digital health technologies (DHTs) have been more and more used for health management among youngsters. However, little was known about the use of DHTs among youths and its consequences on their health, especially in developing countries like China. Inspired by behavior intervention technology (BIT) model, this study examined the underlying mechanisms of use and social interactions of DHTs on Chinese adolescents' and youngsters' healthy lifestyles and mental health, using a representatively national survey among high school and freshman students in China (N = 2,297). It found that use of DHTs had a significantly positive effect on Chinese youths' healthy lifestyles and mental health, with behavioral regulation as a mediator. However, social interactions of DHTs were negatively associated with their mental health. The findings contribute to a better guidance on health promotion, as well as the enhanced design of DHTs' products.

The Effects of Structured Planning on Business Virtual Negotiations after the Pandemic

Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic has brought with it the need for the reinvention of human beings in virtually every area of knowledge. New paradigms and challenges, such as social isolation and urban mobility restrictions, are being overcome with innovations arising from the need to overcome the economic adversity caused by the pandemic, bordering on collapse on a global scale. In this context, developing negotiation skills as a mechanism of social interaction has never been more necessary in the so-called Age of Innovation as a peaceful method of dispute settlement. In this article, we analyze the challenges of distance negotiation through a non-parametric analysis of N=733 Brazilian business negotiations, with a confidence interval of 99 percent. The results indicate statistical significance in the planning and effective structuring of the negotiation. The analysis of primary data and discussion complements the present work. Ultimately, we present best negotiation practices recommendations useful to negotiators, scholars, academics, decision-makers, and other interested parties.

Explaining the Outcomes of Social Gamification: A Longitudinal Field Experiment

ABSTRACT Social gamification, which allows technology users to interact with each other in gamified tasks, has drawn increasing interest due to its effectiveness in facilitating users’ game engagement and task efforts. In social gamification, users can compete or cooperate with other users or teams to complete game tasks and achieve game goals. However, it remains unclear how various social interaction mechanisms (SIMs), such as cooperation, interpersonal competition, and intergroup competition, influence gamification outcomes when they are separately or jointly implemented. In addition, the effects of SIMs on experiential and instrumental gamification outcomes have not been well differentiated. In this study, we systematically investigate the influences of these fundamental SIMs, as well as the possible interaction effects among them, on fitness app users’ game engagement and fitness behavior. Using a fitness app custom-developed for the Chinese market, Fitness Castle, we conducted a longitudinal field experiment to test our proposed model and hypotheses. The results indicate that when separately implemented, cooperation and interpersonal competition can lead to differential instrumental gamification outcomes in the fitness context. We also systematically compare the differential gamification outcomes when cooperation, interpersonal competition, and intergroup competition are combined in various coopetition settings. Our study offers a theory-based framework and design principles for social gamification. Our findings help practitioners better design SIMs in their gamified technologies with the purpose of achieving optimal experiential and instrumental gamification outcomes simultaneously.

Modeling framework unifying contact and social networks.

Temporal networks of face-to-face interactions between individuals are useful proxies of the dynamics of social systems on fast timescales. Several empirical statistical properties of these networks have been shown to be robust across a large variety of contexts. To better grasp the role of various mechanisms of social interactions in the emergence of these properties, models in which schematic implementations of such mechanisms can be carried out have proven useful. Here, we put forward a framework to model temporal networks of human interactions based on the idea of a coevolution and feedback between (i) an observed network of instantaneous interactions and (ii) an underlying unobserved social bond network: Social bonds partially drive interaction opportunities and in turn are reinforced by interactions and weakened or even removed by the lack of interactions. Through this coevolution, we also integrate in the model well-known mechanisms such as triadic closure, but also the impact of shared social context and nonintentional (casual) interactions, with several tunable parameters. We then propose a method to compare the statistical properties of each version of the model with empirical face-to-face interaction data sets to determine which sets of mechanisms lead to realistic social temporal networks within this modeling framework.

Social-interactive reward elicits similar neural response in autism and typical development and predicts future social experiences

Challenges in initiating and responding to social-interactive exchanges are a key diagnostic feature of autism spectrum disorder, yet investigations into the underlying neural mechanisms of social interaction have been hampered by reliance on non-interactive approaches. Using an innovative social-interactive neuroscience approach, we investigated differences between youth with autism and youth with typical development in neural response to a chat-based social-interactive reward, as well as factors such as age and self-reported social enjoyment that may account for heterogeneity in that response. We found minimal group differences in neural and behavioral response to social-interactive reward, and variation within both groups was related to self-reported social enjoyment during the task. Furthermore, neural sensitivity to social-interactive reward predicted future enjoyment of a face-to-face social interaction with a novel peer. These findings have important implications for understanding the nature of social reward and peer interactions in typical development as well as for future research informing social interactions in individuals on the autism spectrum.

Social Interaction, Financial Literacy, and Household Financial Fragility

With the rapid development of digitalization, social interaction is becoming more and more frequent and complex, and the problem of household financial fragility is becoming more and more prominent, which brings challenges to macro financial stability. In order to explore the relationship between social interaction and household financial vulnerability, Based on the data of China Family Panel Studies(CFPS) 2018, this paper constructs an index system of social interaction, financial literacy and household financial fragility, discusses the influence mechanism of social interaction on household financial fragility, and clarifies the mechanism of social interaction affecting household financial fragility through financial literacy. The results show that social interaction significantly alleviates household financial fragility; social interaction alleviates household financial fragility by improving financial literacy ; this impact mainly exists in subgroups with higher financial literacy, urban and Internet-using households. Therefore, household financial fragility can be alleviated by improving social interaction conditions and narrowing the financial literacy gap.

TOURISM AS A POTENTIAL FOR RESTORATION AND MODERNIZATION OF UKRAINIAN SOCIETY

The subject of research interest in this article is the study of the possibilities of visualization and disclosure of how the interdependence of economic, social, and cultural growth is achieved in tourism. How can the need for priority investments in the tourism industry be substantiated under the condition of state activity, that promotes development, relying on the methodological principles of. How diversification and renewal of types of tourist activity, its locations, and improvement of the relations of administrative, economic, and cultural subordination, can contribute to the restoration of the entire system of social practices. This is especially significant in the era of combating biological threats (Covid pandemic, its consequences) and the continuation of systemic crisis phenomena in the global space of the world economy and geopolitics, the aggravation of the destabilization of public life under the influence of russian military aggression. Therefore, revealing the stated topic of the of the article, it is essential to pay attention to the following issues: 1) mutually beneficial cooperation of the regions and the center in the comprehensive restoration and growth of the country's capabilities through the use of tourism practices; 2) the issue of modern interpretation of efficiency as optimization of interactions of various social actors and structures, taking into account the field of tourism; 3) peculiarities of activities in the tourism sphere as a unifying factor for various industries and social actors. The article is focused on researching the issues of how the foresight of the opportunities of the tourism industry appears, when there is a synergy of dangers in a state that is experiencing challenges and the need for transformations. Emphasis is placed on the market for the effective development of rules and mechanisms of social interaction, as institutional support for the functioning of every sphere of society, particularly tourism. New opportunities for its deployment in the context of granting Ukraine the status of a candidate for EU accession are outlined.

Factors Influencing Students' Continuous Willingness to Use E-Learning Platforms in Higher Education

The COVID-19 pandemic has imposed significant challenges on education worldwide, particularly in areas with limited online teaching experience. The research design is based on constructivism learning theory and the technology acceptance model. A questionnaire was also distributed to a university of finance and economics in China. Structural equation model was used to test the influence mechanism of social media interaction on college students' willingness to use e-learning platform continuously. The positive moderating effect of online teaching context on this mechanism is further analyzed. Therefore, the use of social media in the online teaching process in higher education institutions should be encouraged, and a good online teaching context should be fostered.

Visible skin disease symptoms of another person reduce automatic imitation of their hand movements.

Imitation is an important mechanism for social interaction and learning, and humans tend to imitate others automatically. While imitating others is often useful, it can backfire when imitation is incongruent with one's goals. For example, in forced-choice reaction time tasks, this tendency results in a reliable slowing of reactions if the observed and self-initiated actions are incompatible (compatibility effect). While imitation is commonly explained as a social phenomenon, previous results on the compatibility effect's dependence on social cues are inconsistent. However, in many previous studies, the associated social cues were easy to ignore by the participants. To make the social modifier more salient, the current study manipulated emotionally relevant aspects of the model hand itself in an imitation inhibition task by using models displaying skin disease symptoms which we expected to elicit (1) perceptions of dissimilarity and (2) disgust in participants. As predicted, participants' (n = 63) reaction times were influenced more by the incompatible actions of the symptom-free than the symptomatic model hand. However, both levels of self-reported disgust toward and self-other overlap with symptomatic hands were low and did not account for the observed effect on automatic imitation. Our findings show that automatic imitation depends on social factors if these are an integral part of the model and processed quickly, presumably due to their affective salience or the salience of the self-other distinction. Whether this effect is driven by emotional reactions to the model remains an open question.