For the greater good
Oxytocin modulates charismatic influence in groups
Ilanit Gordon & Yair Berson
Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, January 2018, Pages 132-138
Abstract:
Charismatic leaders have had tremendous effects on the fortunes and fates of individuals and societies across the world. Via verbal and nonverbal signaling, such leaders form profound emotional bonds with followers. Despite evidence for its powerful effects, we know very little about what facilitates the charismatic relationship. Here, we argue that the neuropeptide oxytocin (OT), known to be implicated in parent-child attachment, also enhances the effects of charismatic leaders in groups. In a double-blind placebo-controlled study, we administered intranasal OT to participants, led by a confederate trained to exhibit charisma, and monitored participants' responses to the confederate's signaling while leading a group task. We found that OT enhanced the effects of 3 common manifestations of charismatic signaling - verbal behaviors, nonverbal behaviors, and followers' perceptions of the confederate's charisma - on classic outcomes of charismatic influence. Specifically, participants under OT showed more expressions of positive affect and mimicry of the leader in response to the confederate's signaling, and perceptions of the confederate's charisma had stronger effects on participants' willingness to trust each other. These findings extend the role of OT beyond the attachment bond to explain leader-follower relationships, shed light on the role of neuroendocrine factors in contagion processes in groups, and support the social saliency perspective of OT. We note, however, that because charisma was not manipulated, we had reduced control over the confederates' specific behaviors. We address this limitation in the Discussion, point to broader theoretical implications of our work, and offer ideas for future research.
Effects of Oxytocin Administration on Receiving Help
Lauren Human, Joshua Woolley & Wendy Berry Mendes
Emotion, forthcoming
Abstract:
Receiving help can be a "mixed blessing." Despite the many psychosocial benefits it can carry, it sometimes has negative psychological consequences, such as loss in self-esteem or enhanced guilt. It is, therefore, important to understand the factors that modify responses to receiving help from others. We explored the role of the hormone oxytocin (OT) on affective and social responses to receiving help, given the putative role of OT in social bonding and attunement. To this end, we manipulated whether help was received from a same-sex interaction partner (confederate) versus a control condition, crossed with a double-blind administration of intranasal OT (vs. placebo), and examined subjective and observer-rated participant responses to help. We observed significant interactions between OT and the help manipulation. In the placebo condition, receiving help from the interaction partner compared with the control condition had negative consequences, such that participants reported greater negative affect and came to view themselves and their interaction partners more negatively after interacting together on several tasks. What is important, however, is that OT administration buffered against these negative subjective responses to receiving help. Further, outside observers rated participants who received OT administration as expressing greater happiness and gratitude in response to help, relative to those who received placebo. In sum, in the context of receiving help from a stranger, oxytocin administration fostered more positive affective and social responses.
Leadership Selection and Cooperative Behavior in Social Dilemmas: An Empirical Exploration of Assigned versus Group-Chosen Leadership
Charles Naquin & Terri Kurtzberg
Negotiation and Conflict Management Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
This research explores the leadership selection process as an antecedent to group cooperation. We compare group-chosen and assigned leaders and explore their resulting influence upon the group process and outcome in a social dilemma context. In three empirical studies, we predict and provide support for the idea that group-chosen leaders will attend more to the social aspects of the group's interaction as opposed to the economic (bottom-line) ones than will assigned leaders. Additionally, we found that those groups with group-chosen leaders had more overall group cooperation (i.e., less economic self-interest), greater trust in one another and in the leader, and had leaders who displayed more socially oriented leadership behaviors.
Evolution of language: An empirical study at eBay Big Data Lab
David Bodoff, Ron Bekkerman & Julie Dai
PLoS ONE, December 2017
Abstract:
The evolutionary theory of language predicts that a language will tend towards fewer synonyms for a given object. We subject this and related predictions to empirical tests, using data from the eBay Big Data Lab which let us access all records of the words used by eBay vendors in their item titles, and by consumers in their searches. We find support for the predictions of the evolutionary theory of language. In particular, the mapping from object to words sharpens over time on both sides of the market, i.e. among consumers and among vendors. In addition, the word mappings used on the two sides of the market become more similar over time. Our research contributes to the literature on language evolution by reporting results of a truly unique large-scale empirical study.
Punishment diminishes the benefits of network reciprocity in social dilemma experiments
Xuelong Li et al.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2 January 2018, Pages 30-35
Abstract:
Network reciprocity has been widely advertised in theoretical studies as one of the basic cooperation-promoting mechanisms, but experimental evidence favoring this type of reciprocity was published only recently. When organized in an unchanging network of social contacts, human subjects cooperate provided the following strict condition is satisfied: The benefit of cooperation must outweigh the total cost of cooperating with all neighbors. In an attempt to relax this condition, we perform social dilemma experiments wherein network reciprocity is aided with another theoretically hypothesized cooperation-promoting mechanism - costly punishment. The results reveal how networks promote and stabilize cooperation. This stabilizing effect is stronger in a smaller-size neighborhood, as expected from theory and experiments. Contrary to expectations, punishment diminishes the benefits of network reciprocity by lowering assortment, payoff per round, and award for cooperative behavior. This diminishing effect is stronger in a larger-size neighborhood. An immediate implication is that the psychological effects of enduring punishment override the rational response anticipated in quantitative models of cooperation in networks.
Trending Norms: A Lever for Encouraging Behaviors Performed by the Minority
Chad Mortensen et al.
Social Psychological and Personality Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
If many people currently engage in a behavior, others are likely to follow suit. The current article extends research on these descriptive norms to examine the unique effect of trending norms: norms in which the number of people engaging in a behavior is increasing - and even if this is only among a minority of people: trending minority norms. The current research shows people conform more to these trending minority norms than a minority norm alone, or a no norm control condition - even though the norms addressed behaviors that differed from the target behavior. This demonstrates a distinct effect of trends and a strategy for leveraging normative information to increase conformity to behaviors not yet performed by a majority. Findings support that this increased conformity emerges because people predict the increase in prevalence will continue. An internal meta-analysis examining all data we collected on this topic supports these conclusions.