Third-party Observers Research Articles

Dandelion++

Recent work has demonstrated significant anonymity vulnerabilities in Bitcoin's networking stack. In particular, the current mechanism for broadcasting Bitcoin transactions allows third-party observers to link transactions to the IP addresses that originated them. This lays the groundwork for low-cost, large-scale deanonymization attacks. In this work, we present \Algopp, a first-principles defense against large-scale deanonymization attacks with near-optimal information-theoretic guarantees. Dandelion++ builds upon a recent proposal called Dandelion that exhibited similar goals. However, in this paper, we highlight some simplifying assumptions made in Dandelion, and show how they can lead to serious deanonymization attacks when violated. In contrast, Dandelion++ defends against stronger adversaries that are allowed to disobey protocol. Dandelion++ is lightweight, scalable, and completely interoperable with the existing Bitcoin network. We evaluate it through experiments on Bitcoin's mainnet (i.e., the live Bitcoin network) to demonstrate its interoperability and low broadcast latency overhead.

Dandelion++

Recent work has demonstrated significant anonymity vulnerabilities in Bitcoin's networking stack. In particular, the current mechanism for broadcasting Bitcoin transactions allows third-party observers to link transactions to the IP addresses that originated them. This lays the groundwork for low-cost, large-scale deanonymization attacks. In this work, we present Dandelion++, a first-principles defense against large-scale deanonymization attacks with near-optimal information-theoretic guarantees. Dandelion++ builds upon a recent proposal called Dandelion that exhibited similar goals. However, in this paper, we highlight some simplifying assumptions made in Dandelion, and show how they can lead to serious deanonymization attacks when violated. In contrast, Dandelion++ defends against stronger adversaries that are allowed to disobey protocol. Dandleion++ is lightweight, scalable, and completely interoperable with the existing Bitcoin network.We evaluate it through experiments on Bitcoin's mainnet (i.e., the live Bitcoin network) to demonstrate its interoperability and low broadcast latency overhead.

Creative Processes in the Shaping of a Musical Interpretation: A Study of Nine Professional Musicians.

Various studies have been conducted to understand the role of mental representation when musicians practice or perform music (Lehman and Ericsson, 1997; Sloboda, 2005) and the work steps required for a musician to prepare a concert (Chaffin et al., 2003). More recent studies examine creativity in the shaping of a musical interpretation (Lisboa et al., 2011; Payne, 2016; Barros et al., 2017; Wise et al., 2017). However, none of these studies answers the following questions: Why do expert musicians working from the same score create different musical interpretations? During individual practice sessions, what happens that allows each musician to produce significantly different interpretive results? To answer these questions, we instructed nine expert musicians to record their individual practice sessions, verbalize their actions and thoughts, and answer a self-reflection questionnaire. A third-party observer also described what happened during the practice sessions. We conducted interviews in order to gather additional information about the contents of the individual practice sessions; the musicians' usual work habits; and their beliefs, values, and ideas regarding the role of the musician in the creative process. Based on the methodology of Analyse par théorisation ancrée1 (Paillé, 1994), we were able to take into account a diverse data set and identify aspects of the creative process that were specific to each individual as well as elements that all musicians shared. We found that the context in which the creative process takes place—the musician (e.g., his or her values and knowledge); the musical work (e.g., style, technical aspects, etc.); and the external constraints (e.g., deadlines, public expectations, etc.)—impacted the strategies used. The participants used reflection, extramusical supports, emotions, body reactions, intuition, and other tools to generate new musical ideas and evaluate the accuracy of their musical interpretations. We identified elements related to those already discussed in the literature, including the creative process as an alternation between divergent and convergent thinking (Guilford, 1950), creative associations (Lubart, 2015), and artistic appropriation (Héroux and Fortier, 2014; Héroux, 2016).

Men's Interest in Allying with a Previous Combatant for Future Group Combat.

Intra- and intergroup conflict are likely to have been recurrent features of human evolutionary history; however, little research has investigated the factors that affect men's combat alliance decisions. The current study investigated whether features of previous one-on-one combat with an opponent affect men's interest in allying with that opponent for future group combat. Fifty-eight undergraduate men recruited from a psychology department subject pool participated in a one-on-one laboratory fight simulation. We manipulated fight outcome (between-subjects), perceived fighter health asymmetry (within-subjects), and the presence of a witness (within-subjects) over six sets of five rounds of fighting. Following each set, we asked men how interested they would be in allying with their opponent for future group combat. We found that men were more interested in allying with their opponent for future group combat if their opponent won the fight or if a witness was present, but perceived fighter-health asymmetry did not affect men's decision to ally with their opponent. Exploratory analyses revealed a two-way interaction between fight outcome and the presence of a witness, such that winners without a witness present expressed less interest in allying with their opponent for future group combat. Our findings suggest that men attend to the benefits of allying with a man who has demonstrated relatively superior fighting ability. Alliance with a previous opponent for group combat may vary with the relationship value of the opponent and the utility of demonstrating cooperativeness to third-party observers. These findings inform our understanding of coalition formation.

Neurobiological Mechanisms of Responding to Injustice.

People are particularly sensitive to injustice. Accordingly, deeper knowledge regarding the processes that underlie the perception of injustice, and the subsequent decisions to either punish transgressors or compensate victims, is of important social value. By combining a novel decision-making paradigm with functional neuroimaging, we identified specific brain networks that are involved with both the perception of, and response to, social injustice, with reward-related regions preferentially involved in punishment compared with compensation. Developing a computational model of punishment allowed for disentangling the neural mechanisms and psychological motives underlying decisions of whether to punish and, subsequently, of how severely to punish. Results show that the neural mechanisms underlying punishment differ depending on whether one is directly affected by the injustice, or whether one is a third-party observer of a violation occurring to another. Specifically, the anterior insula was involved in decisions to punish following harm, whereas, in third-party scenarios, we found amygdala activity associated with punishment severity. Additionally, we used a pharmacological intervention using oxytocin, and found that oxytocin influenced participants' fairness expectations, and in particular enhanced the frequency of low punishments. Together, these results not only provide more insight into the fundamental brain mechanisms underlying punishment and compensation, but also illustrate the importance of taking an explorative, multimethod approach when unraveling the complex components of everyday decision-making.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The perception of injustice is a fundamental precursor to many disagreements, from small struggles at the dinner table to wasteful conflict between cultures and countries. Despite its clear importance, relatively little is known about how the brain processes these violations. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, we combine methods from neuroscience, psychology, and economics to explore the neurobiological mechanisms involved in both the perception of injustice as well as the punishment and compensation decisions that follow. Using a novel behavioral paradigm, we identified specific brain networks, developed a computational model of punishment, and found that administrating the neuropeptide oxytocin increases the administration of low punishments of norm violations in particular. Results provide valuable insights into the fundamental neurobiological mechanisms underlying social injustice.

Third party observer effect: Application to autistic traits in the normal population

ABSTRACTThis study examined how autistic traits relate to third-party observation during neuropsychological testing. Using a counterbalanced within-subjects design (N = 61), we manipulated the absence and presence of third-party observation when administering alternate forms of the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test and Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test to individuals with variable autistic traits. Bayesian linear mixed effects modeling was used to examine the interaction between autistic traits and third-party observation on test performance. With more autistic traits, susceptibility to a third-party observer decreased on the dependent variables. The third-party observer effect may therefore depend on the social awareness exhibited by the examinee.

LMX and Attributions of Organizational Citizenship Behavior Motives: When is Citizenship Perceived as Brownnosing?

This study tests the potential negative impact of leader-member exchange (LMX) quality on perceptions of followers’ motives to perform organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Based on the OCB motives introduced and tested by Rioux and Penner (Journal of Applied Psychology, 86, 1306–1314, 2001), structural equation modeling using matched-pair data from follower-leader-coworker triads was used to test a model proposed by (Bowler, Halbesleben, and Paul Human Resource Management Review, 20, 309–316 2010) of the double-bind faced by those in low- or high-quality LMX relationships. Followers have their OCB motives attributed to positive pro-social values and organizational concern motives or, alternatively to, negative impression management motives based solely on the point of view of the observer. The first double-bind occurs in that third-party observers attribute the OCB performance motives of followers in high-quality LMX relationships to impression management motives. This puts high LMX followers in a double-bind in that while performing OCB is encouraged and positive, such behavior is seen as self-serving by coworkers. This can lead to followers being labeled as brownnosers by coworkers, among other descriptors. The second double-bind occurs when employees in low-quality LMX relationships have their OCB attributed negatively by their leader. This makes it difficult for employees to develop LMX with their leader. We discuss the implications of the study and outcomes for future research on LMX and OCB motives along with recommendations for practitioners for handling the potential dark side of LMX relationships.

A Study of the 「Jukdojuin-jeon」 :-Focused on Contents of Work Product and Background of Creative Work -

In this study, it introduces the contents of the newly discovered work product, Jukdojuin-jeon , and discusses narrative structure, background of creative work, consciousness of writer and so forth. Jukdojuin-jeon is a story of 7 seamen of Juk-do drifting around and eventually arrived in an island where a giant was living. Two of them were killed and only 5 of them returned alive. The narrator listened to the experience of those seamen and conveyed the story with its record. This work uses the structure of ‘Jeon (story)’ superficially, but the actual story is closer to short-story novel written in Chinese letters. In the process of escaping, they poke the eyes of the giant and cover themselves with the sheep skin to deceive the giant and it has the same story with the adventure of Odysseus that it may be considered as the story transitioning from the west to the east. However, in Asia, Taeyanggwanggi has the story related to a giant. Jukdojuin-jeon is about the story of Korean style man-eating (cannibal) giant with the mixture of western legend coming through the sea onto the eastern story tale. When it compares with the same type of work in Daeindo Sanggak Dojanmyeong or Giheukdoinsa , it has much more complete story structure. All these three works had the style to deliver the stories heard around by taking the frame-style structure, but Jukdojuin-jeon involved the imagination of the recorder with excellent detailed expression for a difference. The recorder describes the incident with the point of view as third-party observer by using the dialogue to enhance the objectivity of narrative. When seamen encounter any desperate situation, they are involved with their emotion to talk about the thought and feeling of seamen. This story has close relationship with the island and coastal area. It depicts on island near to Juk-do as the spatial background in the introduction part and this is the scheme to enhance the credibility while it is proven that the story has been delivered mouth to mouth around the island and coastal areas. The place most effective to narrate the drifting experience would be island and the material that is best imagined with the fear on sea would be the story on the man-eating giant. Also, there is the ‘Youngdong Harbang’ legend that has been handed down in Jeju-do as the similar story theme shared around and it seemed to disperse and expand through the sea routes that were used by convoys and merchants.

Observing Others’ Anger and Guilt Can Make You Feel Unfairly Treated: The Interpersonal Effects of Emotions on Justice-Related Reactions

Drawing upon emotions as social information theory, we propose that others’ emotions can influence individuals’ justice judgments, outcome satisfaction, and behaviors even when individuals are not unfairly treated themselves and in the absence of explicit information about the fairness of others’ treatment. Study 1 demonstrated that individuals make inferences about the outcome favorability and procedural justice encountered by others based on others’ expressions of guilt and anger, which also influence individuals’ judgments of others’ overall justice and outcome satisfaction. Studies 2 and 3 demonstrated that others’ emotions can influence individuals’ own judgments of procedural justice and overall justice. Specifically, individuals perceive lower levels of justice when another person expresses guilt or anger relative to no emotion. Moreover, others’ emotions influence individuals’ outcome satisfaction and behaviors (i.e., helping intentions and retaliation); these effects are mediated by individuals’ own justice judgments (i.e., procedural and overall justice). Theoretical implications related to the role of emotions as antecedents to justice judgments, the social function of emotions, and the impact of emotions on third-party observers are discussed.

Collective Apologies Moderate the Effects of Justice Concerns on Support for Collective Punishment

Abstract. Following an offense, various justice concerns arise, and people might support the punishment of the offender’s entire group to restore a sense of justice (even if the other group members are innocent). We hypothesized that support for collective punishment might increase along one’s justice concerns, and that such effect can be hindered by the group’s collective apologies. In three studies, third-party observers were presented with various cases of aggression and we measured (Study 1) or manipulated (Studies 2 and 3) their justice concerns. In all studies, the presence (vs. absence) of collective apologies was additionally manipulated. The results confirmed our hypothesis thereby increasing our knowledge of both the determinants of collective punishment and the potential effects of collective apologies.

Status moves: Evaluations and effectiveness of status behaviors

This paper examines reactions of in-group members and third-party observers to behaviors people perform to affect the status hierarchy of their group (i.e., status moves). We understand status hierarchies to be “negotiated,” where “status moves” are a means to negotiate the group’s informal order. Results indicate that the valence (positive vs. negative) and context (initiating vs. reacting) of the status move interactively affect observers’ reactions (Studies 1 and 3), and that these reactions are explained by perceptions of the actor’s self- versus group concern (Studies 1–2 and 4) in both experimental as well as more naturalistic contexts. Specifically, initiating status moves elicit stronger reactions, with positive/negative initiating moves resulting in recommendations of greater reward/punishment and status gain/loss for the actor (Studies 1 and 3) than reacting moves. Overall, we offer a first systematic examination of status moves and how people perceive and react to them.

Perceptions of Harm, Criminality, and Law Enforcement Response: Comparing Violence by Men Against Women and Violence by Women Against Men

ABSTRACTThe authors compare third-party evaluations of male violence against women and female violence against men with regard to perceived injury severity, criminal labeling, and recommending police contact. They determine if victim–offender gender directly influences third-party perceptions of injury, and test whether injury mediates victim–offender gender effects on assessments. Injury perception mediated but could not fully explain differences in labeling. Differences in police contact support remained significant after taking injury perceptions into account. Male and female respondents differed in injury evaluations in acts with male victims or female perpetrators, but not in injury rating of male perpetrator or female victim violence. Findings suggest gender stereotypes directly and indirectly influence third-party observers of violence, shaping assessments of injury and ability or willingness to criminalize violence.

Reconceptualizing Social Movements and Power: Towards a Social Ecological Approach

ABSTRACTExisting social movement theories subsume protests into abstract conceptualizations of society, and current ethnographic studies of protests overburden description. Through a case study of London protests, this article transcends these limitations by articulating a social ecological approach consisting of critical ethnography and autoethnography that unearth the organizational strategies and symbolic representations exchanged among police, protesters, and third-party observers, while mapping the physical and symbolic characteristics of space bearing on these interactions. This approach points to a conceptualization of power at work as transient, typological structures: (a) rooted in collective agency; (b) both mediating and mediated by symbolic representations; (c) whose sensibilities are determined by symbolic interpretations; and (d) thrown into binary opposition between protester power and police power, who mutually represent meanings to resist and be resisted by.

Cues of control modulate the ascription of object ownership.

Knowing whether an object is owned and by whom is essential to avoid costly conflicts. We hypothesize that everyday interactions around objects are influenced by a minimal sense of object ownership grounded on respect of possession. In particular, we hypothesize that tracking object ownership can be influenced by any cue that predicts the establishment of individual physical control over objects. To test this hypothesis we used an indirect method to determine whether visual cues of physical control like spatial proximity to an object, temporal priority in seeing it, and touching it influence this minimal sense of object ownership. In Experiment 1 participants were shown a neutral object located on a table, in the reaching space of one of two characters. In Experiment 2 one character was the first to find the object then another character appeared and saw the object. In Experiments 3 and 4, spatial proximity, temporal priority, and touch are pitted against each other to assess their relative weight. After having seen the scenes, participants were required to judge the sensibility of sentences in which ownership of the object was ascribed to one of the two characters. Responses were faster when the objects were located in the reaching space of the character to whom ownership was ascribed in the sentence and when ownership was ascribed to the character who was the first to find the object. When contrasting the relevant cues, results indicate that touch is stronger than temporal priority in modulating the ascription of object ownership. However, all these effects were also influenced by contextual social cues like the gender of both characters and participants, the presence of a third-party observer, and the co-presence of characters. Consistently with our hypothesis, results indicate that many different cues of physical control influence the ascription of ownership in daily social contexts.

Effect of Male and Female Early Childhood Education Teacher’s Educational Practices on Children’s Social Adaptation

ABSTRACTIt is believed children stand to benefit from a greater male teacher presence in early childhood education (ECE) where, internationally, the vast majority of ECE teachers are female. This study (N = 180) examines the relationship between children’s social adaptation and the educational practices of 53 ECE teachers, 23 (44%) of which were male. Third-party observers assessed practices using the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) in the natural classroom setting. Parents evaluated social adaptation using the Social Competence and Behavior Evaluation. Observational data reveal no intersex differences in educational practices. Multilevel model analyses show that children in ECE centers with male and female teachers exhibit less internalized behavior compared with those in centers with female teachers only. A relationship is observed between good classroom organization and instructional support, respectively, and improved children’s social adaptation, regardless of teacher gender. The authors discuss the potential impact of the results on future educational interventions.

Third-party punishment as a costly signal of high continuation probabilities in repeated games

Why do individuals pay costs to punish selfish behavior, even as third-party observers? A large body of research suggests that reputation plays an important role in motivating such third-party punishment (TPP). Here we focus on a recently proposed reputation-based account (Jordan et al., 2016) that invokes costly signaling. This account proposed that “trustworthy type” individuals (who are incentivized to cooperate with others) typically experience lower costs of TPP, and thus that TPP can function as a costly signal of trustworthiness. Specifically, it was argued that some but not all individuals face incentives to cooperate, making them high-quality and trustworthy interaction partners; and, because the same mechanisms that incentivize cooperation also create benefits for using TPP to deter selfish behavior, these individuals are likely to experience reduced costs of punishing selfishness. Here, we extend this conceptual framework by providing a concrete, “from-the-ground-up” model demonstrating how this process could work in the context of repeated interactions incentivizing both cooperation and punishment. We show how individual differences in the probability of future interaction can create types that vary in whether they find cooperation payoff-maximizing (and thus make high-quality partners), as well as in their net costs of TPP – because a higher continuation probability increases the likelihood of receiving rewards from the victim of the punished transgression (thus offsetting the cost of punishing). We also provide a simple model of dispersal that demonstrates how types that vary in their continuation probabilities can stably coexist, because the payoff from remaining in one’s local environment (i.e. not dispersing) decreases with the number of others who stay. Together, this model demonstrates, from the group up, how TPP can serve as a costly signal of trustworthiness arising from exposure to repeated interactions.

When and by whom are apologies considered? The effects of relationship and victim/observer standing on Japanese people’s forgiveness

Existing studies report on tendencies for first-party victims of a transgression to be less considerate of apologies compared to third-party observers when deciding on forgiveness. The present research investigated the conditions in which such discrepancies arise, focusing exclusively on the factor of one’s relational involvement with the transgressor. We presented Japanese participants (N = 116) with hypothetical cases of transgression, while varying on victim/observer standing, involvement with the transgressor, and the sincerity of presented apologies. As a result, the victim/observer discrepancy—where people who took the victim’s perspective rather than the observer’s perspective indicated decreased discrimination of the apology’s sincerity—emerged under high relational involvement. We further examined the role of trait evaluation of the transgressor as a mediator of the effect of apology on forgiveness. The test revealed that high involvement strengthens the mediation effect among the observers, while weakening the mediation among the victims. Based on the obtained findings, we discussed insights into how the relational factor facilitates different motives in victims and observers, leading to discrepancies in their reactions.

The effect of a third party observer and trait anxiety on neuropsychological performance: the Attentional Control Theory (ACT) perspective

Objective: Studies have reported that the presence of a third party observer (TPO) during neuropsychological assessments negatively affects the test performance of the examinee. The present study aimed to investigate the effects of a TPO and trait anxiety on neuropsychological performance according to Attentional Control Theory (ACT). Method: A sample of college students was recruited (n = 318) and then 80 participants were selected to represent the high and low trait anxiety groups. Participants of each of group were randomly assigned to either the NTPO (non-TPO) or TPO conditions. The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory – Trait measure (STAI-T), Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST-64), Stroop test, and Rating Scale for Mental Effort (RSME) were administered to both groups. To analyze the data, univariate ANOVAs were conducted. Results: The results indicated that under the conditions without a TPO the group with high trait anxiety had poorer processing efficiency, but under the conditions with a TPO they had poorer processing efficiency and poorer performance effectiveness than the group with low trait anxiety. In addition, the group with low trait anxiety showed poorer processing efficiency in the TPO compared to non-TPO condition. Conclusions: These findings provide support for the hypotheses of ACT regarding the relation between observer presence and poorer performance on neuropsychological tests, with individuals with higher trait anxiety showing greater negative effects. Implications and suggestions for further research are discussed.

Individual differences in the propensity to make attributions to prejudice

Whether racism is perceived in ambiguous situations may depend on individual differences in perceivers’ beliefs about the prevalence of racial prejudice and discrimination, trivialization of targets’ concerns, and vigilance and confidence in recognizing instances of racial prejudice. In Studies 1 and 2, we develop a psychometrically sound measure of these beliefs, the Propensity to Make Attributions to Prejudice Scale (PMAPS), and provide evidence that the PMAPS is related to individual differences in the justification and suppression of prejudice. Studies 3 and 5 provide evidence that the PMAPS predicts attributions to prejudice in a variety of situations. Theoretically consistent racial and gender differences in the PMAPS were found in a large sample (Study 4). Together, these data provide evidence supporting the reliability and validity of the PMAPS and provide insights about the role that beliefs and expectations play in third-party observers’ judgments about expressions of prejudice.

Cumulative Risk on the Oxytocin Receptor Gene (OXTR) Predicts Empathic Communication by Physician Assistant Students

ABSTRACTIn the relationship between patients and health care providers, few communicative features are as significant as the providers’ ability to express empathy. A robust empirical literature describes the importance of physician communication skills—particularly those that convey empathy—yet few studies have examined empathic communication by physician assistants, who provide primary care for an increasing number of Americans. The present study examines the empathic communication of physician assistant students in interactions with standardized patients. Over a 6-month period, each student conducted three clinical interviews, each of which was evaluated for empathic communication by the patients, the students’ clinical instructors, and third-party observers. Students also provided saliva samples for genotyping six single-nucleotide polymorphisms on the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) that are linked empirically to empathic behavior. Consistent with recent research, this study adopted a cumulative risk approach wherein students were scored for their number of risky alleles on the single-nucleotide polymorphisms. Results indicated that cumulative risk on OXTR receptor gene predicted lower patient empathy scores as rated by instructors and observers, but not by standardized patients.