Social Judgment Task Research Articles

Brains in sync, friends in empathy: interbrain neural mechanisms underlying the impact of interpersonal closeness on mutual empathy.

Many everyday empathetic experiences arise within our social interactions and depend significantly on interpersonal closeness. However, the interbrain processes underlying social-oriented empathy by interpersonal closeness remain unclear. To address this gap, we conducted a dyadic social judgement task with dyads of friends and strangers, where targets received social evaluative feedback and empathizers observed the scenario in different experimental trials. Results showed that dyads of friends exhibited greater affect sharing than strangers when witnessing their partners being accepted or rejected. This was supported by the more pronounced event-related potential similarity in friends during the 340-840 ms post-feedback window, mediating the link between interpersonal closeness and affect sharing. Furthermore, witnessing emotional feedback elicited greater interbrain neural synchronization of brain α-oscillation between the empathizer's left prefrontal cortex and the target's left temporoparietal junction in dyads of friends compared with those of strangers. This empathy-related synchronization was associated with mutual affect sharing within dyads of friends but not within dyads of strangers. Our findings highlight the sensitivity of empathy to interpersonal closeness, which links to sustained attention and detailed evaluation in social scenarios, along with functional communication between brain regions for mentalizing and emotional regulation. These insights have therapeutic potential for improving social functioning and relationship satisfaction.

Probability errors in children's judgements about the likelihood of social characteristics.

The studies reported here investigated mechanisms underlying children's tendency to commit the conjunction fallacy (judging that a conjunction of two events is more likely than one of the events in isolation) when judging people's characteristics. Study 1 investigated these errors in 4- and 5-year-olds (N = 58) using a newly developed social judgement task in which children judged whether a conjunction or one of its elements would apply to a protagonist. Children made conjunction fallacy errors at chance level. Study 2 (N = 71) replicated these findings using an adapted version of the task, in which children separately judged the likelihood of the conjunction and each of its events. Study 3 investigated age-related changes in conjunction fallacy errors in a sample of 148 children aged 4 to 11 years old and 130 adults. This study also investigated how providing background information on the protagonist influenced error rate. Unlike younger children, 10- and 11-year-olds committed the conjunction fallacy at chance level in the absence of background information, but providing information consistent with the likely component of the conjunction significantly increased their error rate. Adults' error rate also significantly increased after the introduction of background information. Across all three studies, conjunction fallacy errors were unrelated to cognitive and social-cognitive abilities, such as verbal ability, theory of mind, and inhibitory control (Studies 1 and 2), and prejudice and hindsight bias (Study 3). These findings suggest that it is only in the second decade of life that children use social information to inform their judgements about people and that social decision-making errors are not determined by core aspects of cognitive and social-cognitive development. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Computational modeling of social evaluative decision-making elucidates individual differences in adolescent anxiety.

Adolescents experience significant developmental changes during a time of heightened sensitivity to social cues, particularly rejection by peers, which can be especially overwhelming for those with elevated levels of social anxiety. Social evaluative decision-making tasks have been useful in uncovering the neural correlates of information processing biases; however, linking youths' task-based performance to individual differences in psychopathology (e.g., anxiety symptoms) has proven more elusive. Here, we address this weakness with drift diffusion modeling to decompose youths' performance on the social judgment paradigm (SJP) to determine if this approach is useful in discovering individual differences in anxiety symptoms, as well as puberty, age, and sex. A sample of 103 adolescents (55 males, Mage = 14.49, SD = 1.69) completed the SJP and self-report measures of anxiety, as well as self- and parent-reported measures of puberty. The decision threshold parameter, reflecting the amount of evidence needed to make a social evaluative decision, predicted youth self-reported anxiety, above and beyond typical metrics of SJP performance. Our results highlight the potential advantage of parsing task performance according to the underlying cognitive processes. Future research would likely benefit from applying computational modeling approaches to social judgment tasks when attempting to uncover performance-based individual differences in psychopathology.

Impaired social reward processing in individuals with Internet gaming disorder and its relationship with early face perception

Previous research has found that individuals with Internet gaming disorder (IGD) show different patterns of social function impairments in game-related and real-life social contexts. Impaired social reward processing may be the underlying mechanism according to the Social Motivation Theory. Thus, in this study, event-related potentials were recorded from 24 individuals with IGD and 24 healthy gamers during a social judgement task. We focused on reward positivity (RewP) elicited by game-related and real-life social rewards, and N170 elicited by game avatar faces and real faces. These indicators were used to explore the neurocognitive mechanism of impaired social reward processing in individuals with IGD and its relationship with early face perception. Results showed that (1) the RewP elicited by real-life social reward was considerably reduced in individuals with IGD relative to healthy gamers. (2) The N170 elicited by game avatar faces in individuals with IGD was larger than that elicited by real faces. However, the N170 was not associated with RewP in either group. (3) The score for IGD severity was correlated with the RewP elicited by real-life social reward and the N170 elicited by game avatar face. In conclusion, the present study suggests that the impaired social reward processing in individuals with IGD is mainly manifested in a decreased neural sensitivity to real-life social reward. Meanwhile, the reduced RewP elicited by real-life social reward and the enhanced N170 elicited by game avatar face might serve as potential biomarkers for IGD.

Associations between autistic traits, depression, social anxiety and social rejection in autistic and non-autistic adults

Autistic people frequently experience negative judgements from non-autistic people, often fuelled by misconceptions that autistic people lack empathy. Understanding responses to negative social judgement among autistic people is crucial because of the potential negative impact on wellbeing and future interactions. We investigated the role of autistic traits, social anxiety, and depression on behavioural indices of social rejection in 20 autistic (AUT; 11 males) and 40 non-autistic (N-AUT; 21 males) university students. Participants completed the Social Judgement Task (SJT) where they predicted whether they were liked by another person, then received feedback on whether those evaluations were correct. Participants also completed an Age Judgement Task (AJT) where they estimated the age of the pictured person. The AUT group had lower positive expectation scores, meaning less tendency to predict being liked. Across the whole sample, higher social anxiety predicted greater tendency to anticipate rejection from others, not autistic traits. These findings suggest early experiences of rejection might lead to a negative self-bias in autistic people and emphasise the importance of using a transdiagnostic approach by showing that social anxiety rather than autistic traits is associated with expectation of social rejection.

Short report: Social processing in non-emotional contexts by children with and without autism spectrum disorders (ASD).

Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have been reported to show social-processing deficits in forced-choice social judgment or story interpretation tasks. However, these methods may limit examination of social-processing within a set of acceptable answers. In this pilot study, we propose a novel method predicated on the premise that language carries social information and validate this method to measure social perception in ASD. 20 children with ASD and 20 typically developing (TD) children matched-pairwise on age (5-12 years), gender, and non-verbal IQ, described pictures of people in everyday situations varying on extent of social engagement. Their social language production was examined in high- and low-social picture conditions. The TD group produced significantly more social language in high-social than low-social picture conditions, with a large effect size (d = 3.15). The TD group produced significantly more social language than the ASD group under high-social conditions (p< .001, η2p = 0.24), but were not significantly different under low-social conditions (p < .05). The study presents proof-of-concept that expressed language carries social information. The findings indicate that social language may be used to measure social perception and examine differences in ASD, with potential applications for other clinical groups with social-processing challenges.

Gender stereotypes drive perceptual differences of vocal confidence.

One's ability to express confidence is critical to achieve one's goals in a social context-such as commanding respect from others, establishing higher social status, and persuading others. How individuals perceive confidence may be shaped by the socio-indexical cues produced by the speaker. In the current production/perception study, we asked four speakers (two cisgender women/men) to answer trivia questions under three speaking contexts: natural, overconfident, and underconfident (i.e., lack of confidence). An evaluation of the speakers' acoustics indicated that the speakers significantly varied their acoustic cues as a function of speaking context and that the women and men had significantly different acoustic cues. The speakers' answers to the trivia questions in the three contexts (natural, overconfident, underconfident) were then presented to listeners (N = 26) in a social judgment task using a computer mouse-tracking paradigm. Listeners were sensitive to the speakers' acoustic modulations of confidence and differentially interpreted these cues based on the perceived gender of the speaker, thereby impacting listeners' cognition and social decision making. We consider, then, how listeners' social judgments about confidence were impacted by gender stereotypes about women and men from social, heuristic-based processes.

Acetaminophen does not affect Cardiac and Brain Responses to Social Rejection but seems to attenuate Behavioral Adaptation in a Social Judgement Task

The present study examined the effect of Acetaminophen on the painful experience of social rejection by examining brain, cardiac and behavioral measures reflecting different aspects of social feedback processing. Healthy students (N=72), after ingesting either Acetaminophen or a placebo, performed a social judgement paradigm (SJP), in which they could be expectedly or unexpectedly rejected or accepted. During the task, cardiac and brain responses to different types of feedback were measured, as well as expectancies relating to the given feedback. Enhanced cardiac deceleration was found after unexpected social rejection as compared to all other conditions. Larger mean P3 amplitude was found after expected positive and negative feedback stimuli as compared to unexpected stimuli. While cardiac deceleration and P3 were not affected by Acetaminophen, behavioral responses were. While in the control group the percentage of acceptance predictions decreased over the experiment (learning from negative feedback), the Acetaminophen group did not adjust their positive prediction bias over time. The unexpected effect of Acetaminophen on prediction behavior suggests that Acetaminophen might indeed play a role in social pain perception. The normally observed social pain-based learning effect seems to disappear when participants ingest Acetaminophen, which can be interpreted as a reduced pain perception after Acetaminophen.

Temporal Unfolding of Micro-valences in Facial Expression Evoked by Visual, Auditory, and Olfactory Stimuli

Appraisal theories suggest that valence appraisal should be differentiated into micro-valences, such as intrinsic pleasantness and goal-/need-related appraisals. In contrast to a macro-valence approach, this dissociation explains, among other things, the emergence of mixed or blended emotions. Here, we extend earlier research that showed that these valence types can be empirically dissociated. We examine the timing and the response patterns of these two micro-valences via measuring facial muscle activity changes (electromyography, EMG) over the brow and the cheek regions. In addition, we explore the effects of the sensory stimulus modality (vision, audition, and olfaction) on these patterns. The two micro-valences were manipulated in a social judgment task: first, intrinsic un/pleasantness (IP) was manipulated by exposing participants to appropriate stimuli presented in different sensory domains followed by a goal conduciveness/obstruction (GC) manipulation consisting of feedback on participants’ judgments that were congruent or incongruent with their task-related goal. The results show significantly different EMG responses and timing patterns for both types of micro-valence, confirming the prediction that they are independent, consecutive parts of the appraisal process. Moreover, the lack of interaction effects with the sensory stimulus modality suggests high generalizability of the underlying appraisal mechanisms across different perception channels.

The Normative Features of Creativity: Creative Individuals are Judged to be Warmer and More Competent

AbstractMany studies mention the social valorization of creative individuals. However, previous works show contrasting results concerning both this valorization and the links between creativity and the two dimensions of social judgment (individuals’ warmth and competence). Consequently, we implemented two paradigms classically used when examining the normative features of individuals' traits such as creativity. Study 1 (N = 206), using a self‐presentation paradigm, showed that individuals tend to present themselves as creative in order to gain others' approval. Thus, creativity seems to be subject to social valorization. Studies 2 (N = 149) and 3 (N = 457), using social judgment tasks, corroborated these findings, and allowed to gain a finer‐grained vision of what dimensions of social value are associated with creativity. These ones showed that highly creative individuals were considered warmer and more competent than weakly creative individuals. Results from Study 3 also suggest that these judgments may be domain‐dependent. Implications for research on creativity, as well as on social judgment, are discussed.

Neural substrates of expectancy violation associated with social feedback in individuals with subthreshold depression.

Abnormal processing of social feedback is an important contributor to social dysfunction in depression, however the exact mechanisms remain unclear. One important factor may be the extent to which social processing depends on expectations, in particular whether social feedback confirms or violates expectations. To answer this question, we studied behavioral and brain responses during the evaluative processing of social feedback in 25 individuals with subthreshold depression (SD) and 25 healthy controls (HCs). Participants completed a Social Judgment Task in which they first indicated expectation about whether a peer would like them or not, and then received peer's feedback indicating acceptance or rejection. Individuals with SD who reported greater depressive symptoms gave fewer positive expectations. Compared to HCs, individuals with SD showed reduced activation in the medial prefrontal cortex when expecting positive feedback. They also exhibited increased dorsal anterior cingulate cortex after receipt of unexpected social rejection, and reduced ventral striatum activity after receipt of unexpected social acceptance. The observed alternations are specific to unexpected social feedback processing and highlight an important role of expectancy violation in the brain dysfunction of social feedback perception and evaluation in individuals at risk for depression.

Psychometric assessment of social cognitive tasks

Although there has been a marked increase in interest in social cognition (SC) in recent years, psychometric data relating to many tasks used to measure its components remain limited in healthy populations with only five articles published to date. It is accordingly premature to speak of a consensus concerning the specific components, or best tests of the components, and possible cultural differences. The present study sought to partially fill that gap, examining the psychometric properties of a battery of SC tasks in a sample of 100 healthy adults aged 18–85 years old. Initially, nine tasks assessing four SC components were selected: emotion recognition, theory of mind, attributional bias, and social judgment. Construct validity and criterion-related validity were assessed using factor and correlational analyses. Performance across age and sex groups was also investigated. Reliability was assessed through internal consistency, interrater and intercoder agreement. Results indicated satisfactory properties for the Ambiguous Intentions Hostility Questionnaire-blame score, the Social Judgment Task, the Facial Emotions Recognition Test, and a modified version of the Strange Stories Task. Statistically significant differences were found between the groups with regard to age and sex after accounting for demographic and cognitive factors. However, the correlations of these measures with relationship quality were mostly very low, raising questions about their concomitant validity. Other tasks showed sub-optimal properties, suggesting that some frequently used tests require further validation or modifications to ensure the quality of research findings. Based on the results, recommended measures for future studies and limitations are discussed.

Thinking about Others\u2019 Minds: Mental State Inference in Boys with Conduct Problems and Callous-Unemotional Traits

Children with conduct problems (CP) and high levels of callous-unemotional traits (CP/HCU) have been found to have an intact ability to represent other minds, however, they behave in ways that indicate a reduced propensity to consider other people’s thoughts and feelings. Here we report findings from three tasks assessing different aspects of mentalising in 81 boys aged 11–16 [Typically developing (TD) n = 27; CP/HCU n = 28; CP and low levels of callous-unemotional traits (CP/LCU) n = 26]. Participants completed the Movie Assessment of Social Cognition (MASC), a task assessing ability/propensity to incorporate judgements concerning an individual’s mind into mental state inference; provided a written description of a good friend to assess mind-mindedness; and completed the Social Judgement Task (SJT), a new measure assessing mentalising about antisocial actions. Boys with CP/HCU had more difficulty in accurately inferring others’ mental states in the MASC than TD and CP/LCU boys. There were no group differences in the number of mind-related comments as assessed by the mind-mindedness protocol or in responses to the SJT task. These findings suggest that although the ability to represent mental states is intact, CP/HCU boys are less likely to update mental state inferences as a function of different minds.

0252 Influence of Sleep on Negative Social Judgment

Abstract Introduction Sleep plays an important role in emotional regulation. Emotional regulation can be disrupted by psychosocial stress, including social judgment. It is not known whether sleep can regulate emotions arising from social judgment. The aim of this study is to determine if sleep can reduce emotional reactivity associated with negative social judgment. Methods On day one, subjects participated in a social judgment task (SJT) in the morning, followed by a nap or wake condition. Subjects’ physiological responses to social judgment task (skin conductance and heart rate) and mood were measured before and after the SJT, after the nap/wake condition, and once on day three. Results Mood ratings decreased after social judgment for all subjects, but increased following the nap intervention. Mood ratings improved after the 2 day delay. There were no changes in social status. Skin conductance during judgment decreased for subjects in nap condition, but not wake. After a 2 day delay, skin conductance decreased across subjects, with those in nap condition experiencing greater decrease. Heart rate response during social judgment exposure decreased only for those in nap group, with a 2 day delay showing decreased heart rate response across all subjects. Conclusion A nap directly following social judgment buffers negative response to the experience by decreasing emotional reactivity as measured by mood, skin conductance, and heart rate response. No differences were found between nappers and non-nappers on day three, suggesting that sleep benefits emotional reactivity associated with the stress of social judgment and that these benefits can happen with a nap or a night of sleep, more than a period of wake. Support University of California, Irvine.

Oxytocin amplifies the influence of good intentions on social judgments

Studies have shown that the evolutionarily conserved neuropeptide oxytocin (OT) promotes various prosocial behaviors, yet there are few studies of the effect of OT on social judgments, especially on judgments when the actor's intention and the final outcome are incongruent. In a double-blind, placebo-controlled experiment, participants were asked to play the role of the recipient in a dictator game and to make social judgments about the dictator after intranasal OT administration. To isolate the outcome and the intention of the dictator's allocation, we developed a novel social judgment task in which recipients were told that 50% of the dictators' proposals would be reversed. The results showed that the effect of OT on social judgment was modulated by intention: OT increased goodness ratings only towards dictators with hyperfair intention. Our findings support the affiliative-motivation theory which states that OT enhances the affiliative motivation and recognition of positive-valence social stimuli.

A Tool for Assessing the Experience of Shared Reality: Validation of the German SR-T.

Humans are highly motivated to achieve shared reality – common inner states (i.e., judgments, opinions, attitudes) with others about a target object. Scholarly interest in the phenomenon has been rapidly growing over the last decade, culminating in the development of a five-item self-report scale for Shared Reality about a Target (SR-T; Schmalbach, Rossignac-Milon, Keller, Higgins, and Echterhoff, unpublished). The present study aims to validate the German version of the scale. Individuals can establish shared reality either by receiving social verification (i.e., agreement or confirmation from an interaction partner) or by aligning their inner state with that of their partner. To increase the scope of the present validation, we implemented both pathways of shared-reality creation in three studies (N = 522). Study 1 employed a social judgment task, in which participants assessed ambiguous social situations and received confirming (vs. disconfirming) feedback from their partner. Studies 2 and 3 build on the saying-is-believing paradigm, in which participants align their own evaluation of the target with their partner’s judgment. Based on an evaluatively ambiguous description, participants communicated about a target person and later recalled information about the target (Study 2). To further generalize the findings, message production was omitted from the paradigm in Study 3. Overall, the five-item model of the SR-T evinced good fit and reliability. In Study 1, the SR-T reflected experimentally induced differences in commonality of judgments– even when controlling for several related state measures, such as Inclusion of Other in the Self and Need Threat. In Studies 2 and 3, the SR-T predicted participants’ evaluative recall bias, which is an established, indirect index of communicators’ shared-reality creation. This effect was stronger when participants overtly communicated with their study partner, but it still emerged without overt communication. Across all studies, correlations with related constructs support the convergent validity of the SR-T. In sum, we recommend the use of the SR-T in research on interpersonal processes and communication.

Judging social interaction in the Heider and Simmel movie.

Simple displays of moving shapes can give rise to percepts of animacy. These films elicit impoverished narratives in some individuals, such as those with an autism spectrum disorder. However, the verbal demand of producing a narrative limits the utility of this task. Non-verbal tasks have so far focused on detecting animate objects. Lacking from previous research is a task that relies less on verbal description but more than animacy perception. Here, we presented data using a new social interaction judgement task. Healthy young adults viewed the Heider and Simmel movie and pressed one button whenever they perceived social interaction and another button when no social interaction was perceived. We measured the time points at which social judgement began, the fluctuation of the judgement in relation to stimulus kinematic properties, and the overall mean of social judgement. Participants with higher autism traits reported lower levels of social interaction. Reversing the film in time produced lower social interaction judgements, though the temporal profile was preserved. Our study suggests that both low-level motion characteristics and high-level understanding contribute to social interaction judgement. The finding may facilitate future research on other populations and stimulate computational vision work on factors that drive social judgements.

Impaired Spontaneous Attention to Gaze Cueing in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Eye Tracking Study.

The aim of this study was to determine whether or not patients with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) differed from the control group in paying spontaneous attention to gaze cueing. The OCD patient and control groups were tested on a shortened version of Social Distance Judgement Task using pictures of two human cartoon figures with their bodies directed toward the observer and their heads facing each other or in opposite directions. Participants were asked to compare the distances between the cartoon figures and between the blocks drawn under each figure, while their eye movements were recorded by eye-tracking equipment. Before the recording, a rectangular area, with its lower side located at the shoulder region of the cartoon figures, was determined as the area of interest for visual fixation. During the test, human cartoon figures were presented on a computer screen, and the number and duration of visual fixations on the area of interest by both patients and controls were recorded and compared with each other. In comparison to the control group, the patients with OCD had less number (p=0.029) and duration (p=0.051) of visual fixations on the head and surrounding region of the cartoon figures. The number and duration of fixations on the region of interest did not show correlation with the severity of symptoms. Patients with OCD are less likely to pay spontaneous attention to gaze cueing in comparison to healthy individuals. Impairment in spontaneous attention to social cues may underlie the social functioning disorders observed in these patients.

How Children Form and Update Beliefs from an Evidence Series

Our attitudes/beliefs typically develop gradually, with information appearing over time. This study considered how 6- and 9-year-olds (N = 80) form beliefs from serial information, and how information order affects this, in parallel social and physical judgment tasks. Children updated their beliefs continuously, after each bit of information, or gave one judgment at the end of the series. Updating results showed strong, short-term recency effects; stable beliefs, reflecting all informers, developed as well. These stable beliefs were weaker for younger children; the recency was stronger. Both ages used a running average strategy when serially updating judgments, but a memory-based approach when responding only at the end. The latter produced no recency or age differences and led to stronger beliefs. It is concluded that children use the same serial judgment strategies as adults. Process parameters, e.g., recency weights, change with development/information complexity, but even young children form serial beliefs effectively.

Neurochemical evidence for differential effects of acute and repeated oxytocin administration.

A discrepancy in oxytocin's behavioral effects between acute and repeated administrations indicates distinct underlying neurobiological mechanisms. The current study employed a combination of human clinical trial and animal study to compare neurochemical changes induced by acute and repeated oxytocin administrations. Human study analyzed medial prefrontal metabolite levels by using 1H-magnetic resonance spectroscopy, a secondary outcome in our randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover trial of 6 weeks intranasal administrations of oxytocin (48 IU/day) and placebo within-subject design in 17 psychotropic-free high-functioning men with autism spectrum disorder. Medial prefrontal transcript expression levels were analyzed in adult male C57BL/6J mice after intraperitoneal injection of oxytocin or saline either once (200 ng/100 μL/mouse, n = 12) or for 14 consecutive days (200 ng/100 μL/mouse/day, n = 16). As the results, repeated administration of oxytocin significantly decreased the medial prefrontal N-acetylaspartate (NAA; p = 0.043) and glutamate-glutamine levels (Glx; p = 0.001), unlike the acute oxytocin. The decreases were inversely and specifically associated (r = 0.680, p = 0.004 for NAA; r = 0.491, p = 0.053 for Glx) with oxytocin-induced improvements of medial prefrontal functional MRI activity during a social judgment task not with changes during placebo administrations. In wild-type mice, we found that repeated oxytocin administration reduced medial frontal transcript expression of N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor type 2B (p = 0.018), unlike the acute oxytocin, which instead changed the transcript expression associated with oxytocin (p = 0.0004) and neural activity (p = 0.0002). The present findings suggest that the unique sensitivity of the glutamatergic system to repeated oxytocin administration may explain the differential behavioral effects of oxytocin between acute and repeated administration.