Which experimental scenario is most likely to result in social facilitation?

How the brain negotiates divergent executive processing demands: Evidence of network reorganization in fleeting brain states

2021, NeuroImage

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During performance in everyday contexts, multiple networks draw from shared executive resources to maintain attention, regulate arousal, and solve problems. At times, requirements for attention and self-regulation appear to be in competition. How does the brain attempt to resolve conflicts arising from such divergent processing demands? Here we demonstrate that the brain is capable of managing multiple processes via rapidly cycling between functional brain states over time, as it is typically regarded. Treating the brain as a complex system, comprising relationships within and between functional networks, we implemented Hidden Markov Modeling (HMM) on electroencephalographic (EEG) data to identify nonlinear brain states in both intra and internetwork synchrony that produced better performance for women subjects who were tasked with solving difficult problems under autobiographically-relevant, evaluative stress. Prior work often found that emotion-regulation and default-mode network (ERN and DMN) activity conflicted with the frontoparietal network's (FPN) ability to facilitate executive functioning necessary for problem solving. Contrastingly, we discovered that fleeting, nonlinear states dominated by FPN and ERN internetwork synchrony supported optimum performance generally, while during stress, states dominated by ERN and DMN intranetwork synchrony were more important for performance. These results imply that the brain may be capable of resolving competing processes through networks’ cooperative dynamics. Further, data suggests a novel role for DMN as a mechanism for integrating external threats with internal, self-referent processing during evaluative stress within the observed population.

Cheap talk? Follower sarcasm reduces leader overpay by increasing accountability

2021, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology

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Leaders often engage in costly, self-interested behaviors when they have the power and discretion to do so. Because followers are well-positioned to reduce these behaviors, I test how a specific follower communication—sarcasm expression—affects a particularly costly behavior: leader overpay. In three behavioral experiments and a field study (Ns = 240–526), I test the effect of follower sarcasm on leaders' self-pay. I also test a moderator—leader moral identity—because leaders with low moral identity are more likely to overpay themselves and are more open to social norm violations (including follower sarcasm), as well as a mechanism—leader accountability—because I propose that follower sarcasm decreases leaders' overpay by increasing leaders' perceived accountability. As expected, follower sarcasm reduced leader overpay (vs. the control/no humor and vs. non-sarcastic humor), especially for leaders with weak moral identity. Study 3 replicated these results while showing explicit evidence of the accountability mechanism. Study 4 further supported these ideas with correlational data from real leaders recalling a more (vs. less) sarcastic follower, but only when the sarcasm was publicly (vs. privately) enacted. While talk is cheap, these results show that follower sarcasm can also be valuable, because it reduces leaders' overpay by increasing accountability.

Can a monologue-style ECA more effectively motivate eHealth users in initial distress than textual guidance?

2021, Heliyon

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Stress is a prevalent issue amongst patients with chronic conditions. As eHealth interventions are gaining importance, it becomes more relevant to invoke the possibilities from the eHealth technology itself to provide motivational acts during experiences of stress as to enhance adherence to the intervention. Embodied Conversational Agents (ECA's) also known as ‘robots on screen’ can potentially provide a remedy. Within our eHealth experiment we applied a between-subjects design and experimentally studied the difference in appraisal of motivation and guidance. We deployed a functionally modest, monologue-style ECA and compared them with textual guidance. This way, we filtered out the considerable positive impact of interactive features that go along with dialogue-style ECA's. The study was carried out amongst eHealth users of which half were deliberately put in a stressful pre-condition. The rationale was two-sided; first, we hypothesized that it would induce a need for motivational support. Second, it would provide a fair representation of eHealth users in real life. Furthermore, we investigated hypothesized positive effects from a gender match between participant and ECA. The results demonstrated preferential ECA effects compared to text but only in the no stress conditions. Although our set-up controlled for user distraction by putting the facilitating ECA in a pane separate from the eHealth environment, we suspect that the enduring visual presence of the ECA during task completion had still inhibited distressed users. Discussing this phenomenon, our stance is that the hypothesis that ECA support is always superior to textual guidance is open for re-evaluation. Text may sometimes serve users equally well because it lacks human-like aspects that in stressful circumstances can become confrontational. We discuss the potential of ECA's to motivate, but also elaborate on the caveats. Further implications for the ECA, intervention adherence, and eHealth study fields are discussed in relation to stress.

Overarching States of Mind

2020, Trends in Cognitive Sciences

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We all have our varying mental emphases, inclinations, and biases. These individual dispositions are dynamic in that they can change over time and context. We propose that these changing states of mind (SoMs) are holistic in that they exert all-encompassing and coordinated effects simultaneously on our perception, attention, thought, affect, and behavior. Given the breadth of their reach, understanding how SoMs operate is essential. We provide evidence and a framework for the concept of SoM, and we propose a unifying principle for the underlying cortical mechanism whereby SoM is determined by the balance between top-down (TD) and bottom-up (BU) processing. This novel global account gives rise to unique hypotheses and opens new horizons for understanding the human mind.

Arousal increases self-disclosure

2020, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology

Citation Excerpt :

Why might arousal increase self-disclosure? The social facilitation literature suggests that habitual behaviors are more likely to be performed when aroused, and rehearsed information is more readily accessible when aroused (Zajonc, 1965; Zajonc & Sales, 1966). Since highly personal information is familiar and often thought about, requires effortful concealment (Omarzu, 2000), and the mind frequently ‘wanders’ to information that requires effort to conceal (Slepian et al., 2017), then it seems that highly personal information might also be more accessible and therefore disclosed when aroused.

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This research tests the hypothesis that arousal increases self-disclosure. We find that affective arousal increases the amount (study 1) and the severity (study 2) of self-disclosure, and that self-disclosure is also increased by physiological arousal (study 3). We further explore the moderating effect of thought frequency on the arousal-disclosure relationship, finding that often-thought-about thoughts are more likely to be disclosed than less thought-about thoughts. This research has practical importance in terms of understanding when and why people self-disclose personal information, and enriches our understanding of the theoretical relationship between arousal and information sharing.

Social contextual influences on behaviour

2022, The Routledge International Handbook of Comparative Psychology

Research article

Social presence and the composite face effect

Acta Psychologica, Volume 158, 2015, pp. 61-66

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A robust finding in social psychology research is that performance is modulated by the social nature of a given context, promoting social inhibition or facilitation effects. In the present experiment, we examined if and how social presence impacts holistic face perception processes by asking participants, in the presence of others and alone, to perform the composite face task. Results suggest that completing the task in the presence of others (i.e., mere co-action) is associated with better performance in face recognition (less bias and higher discrimination between presented and non-presented targets) and with a reduction in the composite face effect. These results make clear that social presence impact on the composite face effect does not occur because presence increases reliance on holistic processing as a “dominant” well-learned response, but instead, because it increases monitoring of the interference produced by automatic response.

Research article

Dissociation of the neural substrates of foraging effort and its social facilitation in the domestic chick

Behavioural Brain Research, Volume 294, 2015, pp. 162-176

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The frequency or intensity of behavior is often facilitated by the presence of others. This social facilitation has been reported in a variety of animals, including birds and humans. Based on Zajonc’s “drive theory,” we hypothesized that facilitation and drive have shared neural mechanisms, and that dopaminergic projections from the midbrain to striatum are involved. As the ascending dopaminergic projections include the mesolimbic and nigrostriatal pathways, we targeted our lesions at the medial striatum (MSt) and substantia nigra (SN). We found that a bilateral electrolytic lesion of the MSt suppressed baseline foraging effort, but social facilitation was intact. Conversely, an electrolytic lesion targeted at the unilateral SN (on the right side) partially suppressed social facilitation, while baseline foraging effort remained unaffected. However, selective depletion of catecholaminergic (thyrosine hydroxylase immunoreactive) terminals by micro-infusion of 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) to bilateral MSt had no significant effects on foraging behavior, whereas it impaired formation of the association memory reinforced by water reward. Neurochemical assay by high-perfromance liquid chromatography also revealed a significant decrease in the dopamine and noradrenaline contents in MSt after 6-OHDA micro-infusion compared with intact control chicks. Thus, we conclude that the neural substrate of social facilitation can be dissociated from that responsible for reward-based foraging effort, and that ascending dopaminergic pathways do not appear to contribute to social facilitation. Based on our detailed analysis of the lesion areas, we discuss fiber tracts or neural components of the midbrain tegmental area that may be responsible for social facilitation.

Research article

“I didn't know what I could do”: Behaviors, knowledge and beliefs, and social facilitation after distal radius fracture

Journal of Hand Therapy, 2021

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Biomedical models have limitations in explaining and predicting recovery after distal radius fracture (DRF). Variation in recovery after DRF may be related to patients’ behaviors and beliefs, factors that can be framed using a lens of self-management. We conceptualized the self-management process using social cognitive theory as reciprocal interactions between behaviors, knowledge and beliefs, and social facilitation. Understanding this process can contribute to needs identification to optimize recovery.

Describe the components of the self-management process after DRF from the patient's perspective.

Qualitative descriptive analysis.

Thirty-one adults aged 45-72 with a unilateral DRF were recruited from rehabilitation centers and hand surgeons’ practices. They engaged in one semi-structured interview 2-4 weeks after discontinuation of full-time wrist immobilization. Data were analyzed using qualitative descriptive techniques, including codes derived from the data and conceptual framework. Codes and categories were organized using the three components of the self-management process.

Participants engaged in medical, role, and emotional management behaviors to address multidimensional sequelae of injury, with various degrees of self-direction. They described limited knowledge of their condition and its medical management, naive beliefs about their expected recovery, and uncertainty regarding safe movement and use of their extremity. They reported informational, instrumental, and emotional support from health care professionals and a broader circle.

Descriptions of multiple domains of behaviors emphasized health-promoting actions beyond adherence to medical recommendations. Engagement in behaviors was reciprocally related to participants’ knowledge and beliefs, including illness and pain-related perceptions. The findings highlight relevance of health behavior after DRF, which can be facilitated by hand therapists as part of the social environment. Specifically, hand therapists can assess and address patients’ behaviors and beliefs to support optimal recovery.

Research article

Effects of the mere presence of conspecifics on the motor performance of rats: Higher speed and lower accuracy

Behavioural Processes, Volume 159, 2019, pp. 1-8

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Many studies on humans and animals have shown that the mere presence of another individual or individuals accelerates the motor performance speed of the subject individual. However, it has not been well investigated whether the mere presence of another individual affects the accuracy of motor performance in animals. In this study, we developed a novel task (run-and-pull task) to simultaneously investigate both the speed and accuracy of motor performance in rats and examined the effect of the mere presence of another rat on the task performance of the subject rat. Rats were first trained in isolation to run a runway and then pull a lever on the terminal end of the runway. After training, the subject rats were required to perform the task in isolation (Single) or in front of a non-competitive confederate rat without direct interaction (Pair). The results showed that the latency to start running and to pull the lever were shorter and the accuracy of the lever-pull movement was lower in the Pair condition than in the Single condition. These findings suggest that the mere presence of another individual increased the speed and decreased the accuracy of the motor performance of rats.

Research article

The social facilitation of eating: why does the mere presence of others cause an increase in energy intake?

Physiology & Behavior, Volume 240, 2021, Article 113539

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There is strong evidence that people eat more when eating with friends and family, relative to when eating alone. This is known as the ‘social facilitation of eating’. In this review, we discuss several gaps in the current scientific understanding of this phenomenon, and in doing so, highlight important areas for future research. In particular, we discuss the need for research to establish the longer-term consequences of social eating on energy balance and weight gain, and to examine whether people are aware of social facilitation effects on their own food intake. We also suggest that future research should aim to establish individual and contextual factors that moderate the social facilitation of eating (e.g. sex/gender), and it should clarify how eating socially causes people to eat more. Finally, we propose a novel evolutionary framework in which we suggest that the social facilitation of eating reflects a behavioural strategy that optimises the evolutionary fitness of individuals who share a common food resource.

Research article

Being observed caused physiological stress leading to poorer face recognition

Acta Psychologica, Volume 196, 2019, pp. 118-128

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Being observed when completing physical and mental tasks alters how successful people are at completing them. This has been explained in terms of evaluation apprehension, drive theory, and due to the effects of stress caused by being observed. In three experiments, we explore how being observed affects participants' ability to recognise faces as it relates to the aforementioned theories — easier face recognition tasks should be completed with more success under observation relative to harder tasks. In Experiment 1, we found that being observed during the learning phase of an old/new recognition paradigm caused participants to be less accurate during the test phase than not being observed. Being observed at test did not affect accuracy. We replicated these findings in an line-up type task in Experiment 2. Finally, in Experiment 3, we assessed whether these effects were due to the difficulty of the task or due to the physiological stress being observed caused. We found that while observation caused physiological stress, it did not relate to accuracy. Moderately difficult tasks (upright unfamiliar face recognition and inverted familiar face recognition) were detrimentally affected by being observed, whereas easy (upright familiar face recognition) and difficult tasks (inverted unfamiliar face recognition) were unaffected by this manipulation. We explain these results in terms of the direct effects being observed has on task performance for moderately difficult tasks and discuss the implications of these results to cognitive psychological experimentation.