Social Predispositions Research Articles

Bias and Fairness in AI Models: How can Bias in AI Models be Identified, Mitigated, and Prevented in Data Science Practices?

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) systems are progressively used in different areas, going with basic choices that influence individuals' lives. In any case, these frameworks can sustain and try and fuel existing social predispositions, prompting uncalled for results. This paper looks at the wellsprings of predisposition in simulated intelligence models, assesses current methods for distinguishing and relieving inclination, and proposes an extensive structure for creating more pleasant simulated intelligence frameworks. By coordinating specialized, moral, and functional points of view, this exploration plans to add to a more evenhanded utilization of computer-based intelligence across various areas, guaranteeing that artificial intelligence driven choices are fair, straightforward, and socially dependable.

Children 's literature between the rhythmic structure and the semantic structure A poem of farewell to "poet Nasser Lohishi" model-

The present study deals with some rhythmic aspects and their significance for children literature. This has been approached within a framework entitled: “Children literature between the rhythmic and semantic structure: case study of farewell song for the poet "Nacer Louhichi". The study has touched upon the different rhythmic structures such as phonemic, metric and rhetoric, and their relationship with semantics. Within this perspective, these structures were deemed as subsystems included within the text which is considered as a holistic system. Afterwards, the research attempted to find a thread that links the various rhythmic structures with the general meaning of the text, and reveal the functionality of these structures to fit children’s intellectual and bodily capabilities as well as their psychological and social predispositions.

Identităţi etno-culturale şi mecanisme ale etnicității în contextul securitar interbelic: comunităţile de şvabi din România Mare / Ethno-cultural identities and mechanisms of ethnicity in the interwar security context: Swabian communities in Greater Romania.

In the first decades of the 20th century Europe was marked by important systemic transformations which decisively affected various societal and political factors. The outbreak of World War I caused the collapse of entire European empires and prepared the path for the emergence of a new political order dominated by new established nation-states. The rise of Greater Romania occurred in this particular context, fulfilling therefore a much-needed national objective, namely the unification of all the historical provinces inhabited mostly by ethnic Romanians. Soon after the Great Union the young Romanian state became a major administrative challenge for the political stakeholders of that time. In this respect one of the major issues was the situation of minorities especially in the new incorporated regions such as Banat or Transylvania. The strategic need of Romania’s centralized administration to make minorities loyal in order not to potentially undermine the state interests was in many cases perceived as an aggressive attempt to homogenize the social sphere in multicultural regions. This paper attempts to investigate the social dynamic of Swabian minority groups in the first years after the Great Union and their attitudes towards political processes or geopolitical transformations. The main objective of this analytical undertaking is to highlight the ethnic dimension of civic culture and to uncover the social predispositions towards certain types of activism.

What makes young people get involved with street gangs in London? A study of the perceived risk factors.

This study examined the perceived determinants of street gang-related antisocial behavior (ASB) and crime of young people (YP) in a deprived and ethnically diverse community in London. Twenty-sixparticipants were recruited from two youth centers (one sport and one art-based program) from the borough of Tower Hamlets. Participants took part in four focus groups (FGs) organized into two youth (N = 14) and two adults (N = 12) subgroups. The FG questions explored participants' understanding of their community and social environment, their social interaction with the local YP and youth gangs. Data were analyzed using a thematic approach and key factors associated with youth gang membership, ASB, and crime were identified. Participants highlighted a series of determinants, which were centered on social predispositions and psychological factors. Associated risk factors were heavily embedded in the racial and religious tensions within the borough. Therefore, context-specific to the individual communities' risk factors should be identified before the development and implementation of intervention strategies to enhance their potential for impact.

Generalized description and referential meaning of typical childlike situations comparable to sacrifice

The article discusses the issues regarding the essence of what the reality referring to typical childlike situations similar to sacrifice, and the ways the names and descriptions of behavior types differ from these types as per se. The description of lexical meanings via the semantic metalanguage and the description of typical linguistic and other cultural forms based on prototypes do not contradict each other, since they solve different problems. Consequently, generic descriptions of typical childlike situations comparable to sacrifice are lexical meanings of the short names of typical situations, constructed in metalanguage on the basis of an intuitive understanding of their similarity, existing as artefacts of text analysis, while the typical situations and forms of childlike behavior comparable to sacrifice are real-life objective forms of behavioral situations and biological, cultural and social predispositions to certain typical forms of behavior.

Sharing the Economic Torment due to COVID – 19 and Pertinent Behavioural Biases on Financial Risk Resilience Ability of Security Market Investors

Behavioural inclinations depict a replicable example in perceptual mutilation, mistaken judgment, unreasonable understanding, or what is extensively called mindlessness. This paper embraces an essential information way to deal with explore the impacts of behavioural predispositions due to Covid-19 on security market performance in India. The destinations are in twofold: one, to analyze the degree of behavioural predispositions among security market investors in India and, to look at the impacts of social inclinations on securities market in India. The paper utilized questionnaire as instrument and the strategy of correlation with Pearson Coefficient to examine a review of 150 haphazardly chose investors in India's security market. There is a solid proof that behavioural inclinations exists overwhelmingly due to COVID - 19 in the security market in light of the fact that a feeble negative relationship exists between social predispositions and securities exchange market in India. The biases due to behaviour include Confirmation bias, Reducing Regret bias, Myopic loss-aversion bias, Limited attention span bias, Chasing Trends bias and Status quo bias. The paper suggests that individual financial specialists in the market ought to connect with the administrations of investment advisors which will diminish individual inclinations in the administration of their portfolios.

Sensitive periods for social development: Interactions between predisposed and learned mechanisms

We analysed research that makes use of precocial species as animal models to describe the interaction of predisposed mechanisms and environmental factors in early learning, in particular for the development of social cognition. We also highlight the role of sensitive periods in this interaction, focusing on domestic chicks as one of the main animal models for this field. In the first section of the review, we focus on the emergence of early predispositions to attend to social partners. These attentional biases appear before any learning experience about social stimuli. However, non-specific experiences occurring during sensitive periods of the early post-natal life determine the emergence of these predisposed mechanisms for the detection of social partners. Social predispositions have an important role for the development learning-based social cognitive functions, showing the interdependence of predisposed and learned mechanisms in shaping social development. In the second part of the review we concentrate on the reciprocal interactions between filial imprinting and spontaneous (not learned) social predispositions. Reciprocal influences between these two sets of mechanisms ensure that, in the natural environment, filial imprinting will target appropriate social objects. Neural and physiological mechanisms regulating the sensitive periods for the emergence of social predispositions and for filial imprinting learning are also described.

THE CHARACTERISTICS OF CULTURAL CONSUMPTION OF THE POPULATION OF THE CITY OF NIŠ

The paper is based on the results of an extensive empirical study of the cultural participation of the urban, suburban and rural population of the City of Niš, carried out in 2015, using a combined questionnaire on a sample of 800 respondents. The research results presented here refer only to the aspect of cultural consumption, with the aim of presenting the empirical findings and indicating whether, and to what extent, the place of residence of the participants, in correlation with the remaining socio-demographic features (age, gender, level of education, profession, satisfaction with one’s financial status), influence their cultural consumption, determining the frequency, forms and limitations of this consumption. The research approach is primarily founded in sociology, and is methodologically quantitatively focused on and developed within the theory of the class-cultural homology of Pierre Bourdieu. The research results indicate that young people who live in urban settlements, with a higher education background and favorable economic means, more often than others participate in cultural consumption, and are more frequently than others involved in acquiring additional artistic, intellectual and/or technical knowledge or skills in their leisure time. One half of all the respondents included in the study, mostly the middle-aged (40–54 years of age), point out the lack of money (an objective obstacle), while one-fourth of all the surveyed respondents, especially the oldest members of village societies (over the age of 55), point out the lack of interest (a subjective obstacle) as the main limitation to their own cultural consumption. The results mostly indicate an average frequency and very limited extent of cultural consumption of all the respondents included in the research to residential inequality and the social predispositions of cultural practices.

Unlearned visual preferences for the head region in domestic chicks.

Unlearned tendencies to approach animate creatures are of great adaptive value, especially for nidifugous social birds that need to react to the presence of potential social companions shortly after hatching. Domestic chicks’ preferences for taxidermized hens provided the first evidence of social predispositions. However, the nature of the stimuli eliciting this predisposition is not completely understood. Here we explore the unlearned preferences of visually naïve domestic chicks for taxidermized animals. Visually naive chicks were tested for their approach preferences between a target stimulus (an intact stuffed animal whose head region was clearly visible) and a control stimulus. After confirming the predisposition for the intact stuffed fowl hen (Exp. 1), we found an analogous preference for a taxidermized, young domestic chick over a severely scrambled version of the same stimulus, whose body structure was completely disrupted, extending to same-age individuals the results that had been obtained with taxidermized hens (Exp. 2). We also directly tested preferences for specimens whose head region is visible compared to ones whose head region was occluded. To clarify whether chicks are sensitive to species-specific information, we employed specimens of female mallard ducks and of a mammalian predator, the polecat. Chicks showed a preference for the duck stimulus whose wings have been covered over a similar stimulus whose head region has been covered, providing direct evidence that the visibility of the head region of taxidermized models drive chicks’ behaviour in this test, and that the attraction for the head region indeed extends to females of other bird species (Exp. 3). However, no similar preference was obtained with the polecat stimuli (Exp. 4). We thus confirmed the presence of unlearned visual preferences for the head region in newly-hatched chicks, though other factors can limit the species-generality of the phenomenon.

Effects of oxytocin-family peptides and substance P on locomotor activity and filial preferences in visually naïve chicks.

Nonapeptides from the vasopressin/oxytocin family have been implicated in a wide variety of social behaviours across vertebrates. Experimental manipulations that alter nonapeptide levels or receptor function in the brain have provided evidence for understanding how nonapeptides influence responses to social stimuli in adults. While behaviours in adults have been extensively studied, much less in known about roles of nonapeptides in early life and the development of affiliative social behaviours. We examined an experience-independent preference (social predisposition) that is present at hatching and is characterized by the tendency of visually naïve chicks (Gallus gallus) to prefer to approach a stuffed hen stimulus over a control stimulus in a choice test. Among chicks that show the social predisposition preference, bilateral intracranial mesotocin injections resulted in higher mean hen preference scores compared with saline-injected controls. Equimolar doses of mesotocin and vasotocin injections had different effects on locomotor activity: vasotocin, but not mesotocin, resulted in hypoactivity. We also tested whether intraperitoneal substance P had an effect on hen preference scores because previous research has proposed that vasotocin effects on social approach are mediated by peripheral release of substance P, but found no significant effect. All together, our data suggest that mesotocin signalling may be important for social predispositions and can potentially enhance the perceived salience of social stimuli soon after hatching. Specifically, mesotocin release and signalling in the brain may regulate the ability to recognize naturalistic stimuli and/or to act on the motivation to approach naturalistic stimuli.

Valproate Exposure in ovo Attenuates the Acquisition of Social Preferences of Young Post-hatch Domestic Chicks.

Embryonic exposure to valproic acid (VPA) is known to produce sociability deficits, resembling human autistic phenotypes, in several vertebrate species. Animals living in groups prefer the proximity of peers and have the ability to perceive and to respond to social signals for modifying behavior. Chicks of Galliform birds, known to display early preference behaviors, have been used extensively for adaptive learning studies. Young precocial birds seem to be useful models also for studying the effect of embryonic VPA treatment. Here, domestic chicken eggs were injected with sodium valproate (200 μl of 35 μmol/L solution) or with vehicle (distilled water) on the 14th day of incubation. After hatching, the chicks were tested for one-trial passive avoidance learning at day 1, vocalization due to isolation as a measure of stress level (day 2), approach preference to large versus small groups of age-matched conspecifics (day 5), and to those with normal versus blurred head features (day 7). In addition, we tested the preference of birds to conspecifics reared in group versus those reared in isolation (day 9), as well as the preference of chicks to familiar versus non-familiar conspecifics (day 21). Our findings confirm previous reports concerning an adverse effect of VPA on embryonic development, including a tendency for aborted or delayed hatching and, occasionally, for locomotor disorders in a small percentage of birds (eliminated from later studies). Otherwise, VPA treatment did not impair motor activity or distress level. Memory formation for the aversive stimulus and discrimination of colors were not impaired by VPA treatment either. Innate social predispositions manifested in approach preferences for the larger target group or for the birds with natural facial features remained unaffected by VPA exposure. The most prominent finding was attenuation of social exploration in VPA-exposed birds (expressed as the frequency of positional switches between two stimulus chicks after the first choice), followed by a deficit in the recognition of familiar conspecifics, unfolding at the end of the third week. Social exploration and recognition of familiar individuals are the key elements impaired at this stage. The results underline the importance of early social exploration in ASD.

Selective response of the nucleus taeniae of the amygdala to a naturalistic social stimulus in visually naive domestic chicks

The detection of animate beings at the onset of life is important for phylogenetically distant species, such as birds and primates. Naïve chicks preferentially approach a stimulus resembling a conspecific (a stuffed fowl) over a less naturalistic one (a scrambled version of the stuffed fowl, presenting the same low-level visual features as the fowl in an unnatural configuration). The neuronal mechanisms underlying this behavior are mostly unknown. However, it has been hypothesized that innate social predispositions may involve subpallial brain areas including the amygdala. Here we asked whether a stuffed hen would activate areas of the arcopallium/amygdala complex, in particular the nucleus taeniae of the amygdala (TnA) or septum. We measured brain activity by visualizing the immediate early gene product c-Fos. After exposure to the hen, TnA showed higher density of c-Fos expressing neurons, compared to chicks that were exposed to the scrambled stimulus. A similar trend was present in the lower portion of the arcopallium, but not in the upper portion of the arcopallium or in the septum. This demonstrates that at birth the TnA is already engaged in responses to social visual stimuli, suggesting an important role for this nucleus in the early ontogenetic development of social behavior.

Embryonic Exposure to Valproic Acid Affects Social Predispositions for Dynamic Cues of Animate Motion in Newly-Hatched Chicks.

Early predispositions to preferentially orient toward cues associated with social partners have been documented in several vertebrate species including human neonates and domestic chicks. Human newborns at high familiar risk of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) show differences in their attention toward these predisposed stimuli, suggesting potential impairments in the social-orienting mechanisms in ASD. Using embryonic exposure to valproic acid (VPA) we modeled ASD behavioral deficits in domestic chicks. To investigate social predispositions toward animate motion in domestic chicks, we focused on self-propulsion, using two video-animations representing a simple red circle moving at constant speed (speed-constant) or one that was changing its speed (accelerating and decelerating; speed-change). Using a spontaneous choice test for the two stimuli, we compared spontaneous preferences for stimuli that autonomously change speed between VPA- and vehicle-injected chicks. We found that the preference for speed changes was abolished in VPA-injected chicks compared to vehicle-injected controls. These results add to previous findings indicating similar impairments for static social stimuli and suggest a specific effect of VPA on the development of mechanisms that enhance orienting toward animate stimuli. These findings strengthen the hypothesis of an early impairment of predispositions in the early development of ASD. Hence, early predispositions are a potentially useful tool to detect early ASD symptoms in human neonates and to investigate the molecular and neurobiological mechanisms underlying the onset of this neurodevelopmental disorder.

Affirmative Action Attitudes of Whites: Evidence from a List Experiment Survey in Brazil

Recently in Brazil, public policies have begun to be implemented to reduce discrimination and promote the inclusion of excluded social groups based on a specific individual characteristic: race. However, there is little public consensus about such policies, especially among whites. In this work, I look at the racial attitudes towards affirmative action among white college students. I make use of new research methods for the empirical study of socially sensitive issues and ask whether these attitudes stem from prejudice, conflicts between social groups or individual political predispositions. Furthermore, I ask what is the relationship between political knowledge and such racial attitudes. I use the list experiment method because of its potential to offset the under-representation of opinions and attitudes. This approach allows respondents to be indirectly questioned, ensuring greater sincerity in their answers and, hence, providing more accurate portrayal of attitudes. This study shows that white respondents’ answers on affirmative action policies are strongly affected by social desirability. Only 6% of white respondents agreed that it is important to have a quota policy for blacks at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC). Individuals with greater political knowledge tend to express greater support for affirmative action and hold more coherent racial attitudes Results also reveal that negative racial attitudes and political predispositions are both determinants of the white student’s attitudes towards affirmative action policies.

Embryonic Exposure to Valproic Acid Impairs Social Predispositions of Newly-Hatched Chicks

Biological predispositions to attend to visual cues, such as those associated with face-like stimuli or with biological motion, guide social behavior from the first moments of life and have been documented in human neonates, infant monkeys and domestic chicks. Impairments of social predispositions have been recently reported in neonates at high familial risk of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Using embryonic exposure to valproic acid (VPA), an anticonvulsant associated to increased risk of developing ASD, we modeled ASD behavioral deficits in domestic chicks. We then assessed their spontaneous social predispositions by comparing approach responses to a stimulus containing a face configuration, a stuffed hen, vs. a scrambled version of it. We found that this social predisposition was abolished in VPA-treated chicks, whereas experience-dependent mechanisms associated with filial imprinting were not affected. Our results suggest a specific effect of VPA on the development of biologically-predisposed social orienting mechanisms, opening new perspectives to investigate the neurobiological mechanisms involved in early ASD symptoms.

Coming Full Circle: Why Social and Institutional Dimensions Matter for the Circular Economy

SummaryIn light of the environmental consequences of linear production and consumption processes, the circular economy (CE) is gaining momentum as a concept and practice, promoting closed material cycles by focusing on multiple strategies from material recycling to product reuse, as well as rethinking production and consumption chains toward increased resource efficiency. Yet, by considering mainly cost‐effective opportunities within the realm of economic competitiveness, it stops short of grappling with the institutional and social predispositions necessary for societal transitions to a CE. The distinction of noncompetitive and not‐for‐profit activities remains to be addressed, along with other societal questions relating to labor conditions, wealth distribution, and governance systems. In this article, we recall some underlying biophysical aspects to explain the limits to current CE approaches. We examine the CE from a biophysical and social perspective to show that the concept lacks the social and institutional dimensions to address the current material and energy throughput in the economy. We show that reconsidering labor is essential to tackling the large share of dissipated material and energy flows that cannot be recovered economically. Institutional conditions have an essential role to play in setting the rules that differentiate profitable from nonprofitable activities. In this context, the social and solidarity economy, with its focus on equity with respect to labor and governance, provides an instructive and practical example that defies the constraints related to current institutional conditions and economic efficiency. We show how insights from the principles of the social and solidarity economy can contribute to the development of a CE by further defining who bears the costs of economic activities.

Dynamic features of animate motion activate septal and preoptic areas in visually naïve chicks (Gallus gallus)

The septum is an evolutionarily well-conserved part of the limbic system. It is known to be involved in many aspects of social behavior and is considered a key node of the social behavior network, together with the preoptic area. Involvement of these two brain regions has been recently observed in newly hatched chicks exposed to the natural motion of a living conspecific. However, it is unknown whether these areas respond also to simple motion cues that elicit animacy perception in humans and social predispositions in chicks. For example, naïve chicks are attracted by visual objects that appear to spontaneously change their speed (an index of self-propulsion, typical of animate creatures). Here we show that the right septum and the preoptic area of newly hatched visually naïve chicks exposed to speed changes have higher neuronal activity (revealed by c-Fos expression), compared with that of chicks exposed to constant motion. We thus found an involvement of these two areas in the perception of motion cues associated with animacy in newly hatched chicks without any previous visual experience. This demonstrates their early involvement in processing simple motion cues that allow the detection of animate creatures and elicit social predispositions in this animal model, as well as preferential attention in human infants and the perception of animacy in human adults.

Newborn chicks show inherited variability in early social predispositions for hen-like stimuli

Predispositions of newborn vertebrates to preferentially attend to living beings and learn about them are pervasive. Their disturbance (e.g. in neonates at risk for autism), may compromise the proper development of a social brain. The genetic bases of such predispositions are unknown. We use the well-known visual preferences of newly-hatched chicks (Gallus gallus) for the head/neck region of the hen to investigate the presence of segregating variation in the predispositions to approach a stuffed hen vs. a scrambled version of it. We compared the spontaneous preferences of three breeds maintained genetically isolated for at least eighteen years while identically raised. Visually-naïve chicks of all breeds (Padovana, Polverara and Robusta maculata) showed the same initial preference for the predisposed stimulus, suggesting that the direction of the initial preference might be genetically fixed. A few minutes later though, striking differences emerged between breeds, which could indicate different strategies of dealing with affiliative objects: while the Polverara breed maintained a constant preference across the entire test, the Padovana and Robusta breeds progressively explored the alternative stimulus more. We hence documented the presence of inherited genetic variability in the expression of early social predispositions in interaction with environmental stimuli.

Elección de modalidad educativa en la Enseñanza Media y su rol en la postulación a las universidades del CRUCH

Even though vocational education at the secondary level is focused on preparing students for the work world, in Chile, it has turned into a way to enter higher education. In this context, this research aims to increase the knowledge about educational trajectories of students in vocational education at the secondary level, by addressing two main areas: factors related to a preference for vocational secondary school and the future choice of these students to apply to a university . This investigation, thus, studied the association between a set of variables related to habitus and the preference for studying vocational education at the secondary level. Additionally, it investigated if having studied this modality in secondary education affects the probability that these students will apply to the universities of the Consejo de Rectores de las Universidades Chilenas (CRUCH, Board of Regents of Chilean Universities), after controlling for academic and socioeconomic variables. This investigation’s results support the relevance of social predispositions on educational trajectories and highlight the role that the modality of secondary level education would have on the reproduction of the students’ social differences.

First exposure to an alive conspecific activates septal and amygdaloid nuclei in visually-naïve domestic chicks (Gallus gallus)

The septal nuclei are an evolutionarily well-conserved part of the limbic system, present in all vertebrate groups. Functionally, septal nuclei are involved in many important aspects of social behavior and lateral septum is considered a node of the social decision making network, together with amygdaloid nuclei. Given the importance of septal nuclei for social behaviors, it is somewhat surprising that it has never been investigated whether they are involved in early social responses of naïve animals. In the present study we wanted to know if simple exposure of visually naïve newly hatched chicks to a visual object (an alive, behaving conspecific), that also contains all features to which chicks are known to express early social predispositions, will selectively activate septal areas. We measured brain activity by visualizing the immediate early gene product c-Fos with a standard immunohistochemical procedure. Notably, after a brief visual exposure to an alive behaving conspecific septum showed higher activation in experimental subjects, compared to baseline animals that were exposed to the same environment in the absence of the conspecific. This is, to the best of our knowledge, the first demonstration of septal involvement in early social responses. We also found similar effects in the nucleus taeniae and arcopallium (amygdala homologues), but not in the medial striatum. This result indicates that at least some nuclei of the social decision making network may participate in early responses to social stimuli. Future studies could capitalize on these results, by identifying the specific visual cues eliciting this effect.