To make good use of learning from others (social learning), we need to learn from the right others; from agents who know better than we do. Research on social learning strategies (SLSs) has ...identified rules that focus social learning on the right agents, and has shown that the behaviour of many animals conforms to these rules. However, it has not asked what the rules are made of, that is, about the cognitive processes implementing SLSs. Here, I suggest that most SLSs depend on domain-general, sensorimotor processes. However, some SLSs have the characteristics tacitly ascribed to all of them. These metacognitive SLSs represent ‘who knows’ in a conscious, reportable way, and have the power to promote cultural evolution.
Social learning theory, as originally proposed by Albert Bandura, followed 2000 years of intellectual inquiry into the determinants of human behavior. Reciprocal determinism is a central component of ...this theory and proposes that human behavior is determined by functional relationships between (1) personal factors, (2) the external environment, and (3) the behavior itself. Using this model, drug addiction can be viewed as resulting from the functional relationships between an individual’s personal characteristics, social environment, and drug-centric behaviors. In other words, addiction can be viewed as a chronically evolving biopsychosocial disorder, encompassing dimensions that are both internal and external to the individual. Effective treatment interventions should thus target all nodes of the model and the functional relationships between them, and they must constantly evolve with the progression of the disorder. An argument is thus constructed that emphasizes the need for an organized structure of metacontingencies, operating within an individual’s social environment, that targets the functional relationships between the factors that drive drug use. Optimally, these metacontingencies would operate within socially connected individuals who have the power to control the functional relationships that influence drug use, the vested interest to monitor individual and collective outcomes, the skills to determine what moment-to-moment decisions are needed to influence behavioral change, and the relative permanence necessary to carry through with the implementation of new strategies to produce outcomes that are cumulatively significant.
Just as with other forms of abuse such as bullying, dating violence is no longer limited to physical spaces. Several forms of dating violence can also be perpetrated by means of technology. Few ...studies have used a theoretical perspective to investigate cyber dating abuse. This study addresses this gap in the literature by focusing on the perpetration of digital monitoring behaviors—a form of cyber dating abuse—from a social learning perspective. We investigate the extent to which perceived social norms about cyber dating abuse, witnessing controlling behaviors among parents, and endorsing gender stereotypes are linked with adolescents’ engagement in digital monitoring behaviors. The study draws on data from 466 secondary school students (71.0% girls, n = 331) aged between 16 and 22 years (M = 17.99 years, SD = 0.92) in Flanders, Belgium, who were in a romantic relationship. Linear regression analysis indicates that being female, being older, the perceived social norms of peers, the endorsement of gender stereotypes, and having observed intrusive controlling behaviors by the father are significantly and positively related to adolescents’ perpetration of digital monitoring behaviors. The findings have implications for practice and underscore the need for prevention efforts to address and lower the influence of these perceived social norms. Further implications include the need for prevention efforts to focus on diminishing the impact of gender stereotypical attitudes and the influence of witnessing controlling behaviors within the family context on cyber dating abuse perpetration.
•Both androgens and estrogens have been shown to play a role in social cognition.•Metabolites and precursors of androgens contribute to modulating social cognition.•The role of androgens in the two ...sexes is yet to be established.•Androgens may play a key role in disorders characterized by a strong sex ratio.
Gonadal hormones are becoming increasingly recognized for their effects on cognition. Estrogens, in particular, have received attention for their effects on learning and memory that rely upon the functioning of various brain regions. However, the impacts of androgens on cognition are relatively under investigated. Testosterone, as well as estrogens, have been shown to play a role in the modulation of different aspects of social cognition. This review explores the impact of testosterone and other androgens on various facets of social cognition including social recognition, social learning, social approach/avoidance, and aggression. We highlight the relevance of considering not only the actions of the most commonly studied steroids (i.e., testosterone, 17β-estradiol, and dihydrotestosterone), but also that of their metabolites and precursors, which interact with a plethora of different receptors and signalling molecules, ultimately modulating behaviour. We point out that it is also essential to investigate the effects of androgens, their precursors and metabolites in females, as prior studies have mostly focused on males. Overall, a comprehensive analysis of the impact of steroids such as androgens on behaviour is fundamental for a full understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying social cognition, including that of humans.
Relatively recently, in 2009, experimental studies were undertaken to determine the role of social observational learning in forming hypoalgesic, analgesic and hyperalgesic responses to a placebo. ...The research findings obtained in studies published before 2018 were integrated and formed the basis of the theoretical model of social learning of placebo effects in pain proposed by Bajcar and Bąbel. This model considered the involvement of different types of modeling (ie, behavioral modeling, symbolic modeling, and verbal modeling) in shaping placebo hypoalgesia/analgesia and nocebo hyperalgesia. The model assumed that pain expectancies might be involved in observationally induced placebo effects in pain and that the effectiveness of observational learning in shaping placebo effects could be moderated by the observer’s dispositions, especially empathy. Based on the latest research data, we propose a modified and significantly extended version of this model. The revised model includes the involvement of particular types of modeling in placebo effects and their role in shaping conscious pain-related expectancies. It explains the role of dispositional empathy in shaping observationally induced placebo effects. Notably, the extended version of the model considers the contribution of the characteristics of the observed person to the magnitude of placebo effects induced by social learning.
The paper proposes a comprehensive theoretical approach to explaining the role of observational learning in shaping placebo effects in pain. The proposed model emphasizes the potential of this form of learning in shaping placebo responses and indicates factors that can modify the effectiveness of observational learning.
•Different types of modeling are involved in shaping placebo effects in pain.•Individual features of the demonstrator and observer modulate placebo effects induced by modeling.•Observing another person in pain influences observer’s expectancies.
The last two decades have seen a virtual explosion in empirical research on the role of social interactions in the development of animals' behavioral repertoires, and a similar increase in attention ...to formal models of social learning. Here we first review recent empirical evidence of social influences on food choice, tool use, patterns of movement, predator avoidance, mate choice, and courtship, and then consider formal models of when animals choose to copy behavior, and which other animals' behavior they copy, together with empirical tests of predictions from those models.
•Investigate the consumers’ panic buying behavior under supply disruption risk.•Analyze the impact of social learning on consumers’ panic buying decisions.•Derive the optimal ordering strategy when ...considering the panic buying and SL effects.•Examine the impact of panic buying and SL effects on total social welfare.
This study investigates the impact of consumers’ social learning (SL) behavior on their purchase decisions under supply disruption risk, and accordingly, how retailers should take this into account and optimize their inventory ordering strategy. We develop a model with two batches of consumers. The first batch of consumers evaluates the potential supply disruption risk and decides whether to stockpile extra units for future consumption (i.e., panic buying). Their purchase decisions influence the second batch of consumers via social learning. We derive the optimal inventory ordering policy for the retailer and evaluate the retailer’s loss of profit if the impact of SL is not taken into consideration. We show that when the portion of panic buying consumers among the first batch (which we define as the initial panic intensity) is at a moderate level, consumer panic buying and SL behaviors can be beneficial for the retailer and the social welfare. In contrast, if the initial panic intensity is very low or very high, SL can hurt the retailer’s profit and the total social welfare.
A few decades ago, we knew next to nothing about the behavior of our closest animal relative, the chimpanzee, but long-term field studies have since revealed an undreamed-of richness in the diversity ...of their cultural traditions across Africa. These discoveries have been complemented by a substantial suite of experimental studies, now bridging to the wild through field experiments. These field and experimental studies, particularly those in which direct chimpanzee-child comparisons have been made, delineate a growing set of commonalities between the phenomena of social learning and culture in the lives of chimpanzees and humans. These commonalities in social learning inform our understanding of the evolutionary roots of the cultural propensities the species share. At the same time, such comparisons throw into clearer relief the unique features of the distinctive human capacity for cumulative cultural evolution, and new research has begun to probe the key psychological attributes that may explain it.
Recent literature suggests that ethical leadership helps to inhibit followers’ unethical behavior, largely built on the premise that followers view ethical leaders as ethical role models and socially ...learn from them, thereby engaging in more (less) (un)ethical conduct. This premise, however, has not been adequately tested, leaving insufficient understanding concerning the conditions under which this social learning process occurs. In this study, we revisit this premise, theorizing that not all followers will equally regard the same ethical leader as being a personal ethical role model, thereby bounding the leader’s effects in reducing followers’ unethical behavior. We integrate the role of follower self-concepts into social learning theory, hypothesizing that the extent followers emulate their ethical leaders is contingent on how they identify with ethics (i.e.,
moral identity
) as well as the particular leader (i.e.,
leader identification
). We test our hypotheses with three-wave survey data collected from 214 employees, finding that ethical leaders are viewed as being role models only amongst followers higher in moral identity and leader identification, and that followers’ perceptions that the leader is an ethical role model mediated the effect of ethical leadership on followers’ unethical behavior. Interestingly, results for the full-model tests show that ethical leadership evokes
unethical behavior
amongst followers lower in both moral identity and leader identification. These results suggest that ethical leadership is not a universally useful practice to decrease unethical behavior and that a more nuanced understanding of its contingent effects needs to be better understood.
Understanding the interplay between social activities and disease dynamics is crucial for effective public health interventions. Recent studies using coupled behavior-disease models assumed ...homogeneous populations. However, heterogeneity in population, such as different social groups, cannot be ignored. In this study, we divided the population into social media users and non-users, and investigated the impact of homophily (the tendency for individuals to associate with others similar to themselves) and online events on disease dynamics. Our results reveal that homophily hinders the adoption of vaccinating strategies, hastening the approach to a tipping point after which the population converges to an endemic equilibrium with no vaccine uptake. Furthermore, we find that online events can significantly influence disease dynamics, with early discussions on social media platforms serving as an early warning signal of potential disease outbreaks. Our model provides insights into the mechanisms underlying these phenomena and underscores the importance of considering homophily in disease modeling and public health strategies.
•Coupled model of disease dynamics and vaccination games between two social groups.•Lack of cross-group interactions could lead to early disease outbreaks.•Extreme events on social media could significantly affect disease dynamics.•Discussion on vaccination serves as signals for potential vaccine uptake collapse.
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