Within-network brain connectivity during a social optimism task is related to personal optimism and optimism for in-group members.

Optimism bias is the tendency to believe desirable events are more likely to happen than undesirable ones. People often display optimistic biases for themselves (personal optimism), but also for members of groups they like or identify with (social optimism). However, the neural bases of and connections between these two concepts are poorly understood. The present study hence used both questionnaires and a social optimism task performed during magnetic resonance imaging to investigate how network connectivity associates with personal and social optimism biases. Using sparse canonical correlation analysis, we found that a behavioral dimension that included both in-group optimism bias and personal optimism bias was positively associated with a dimension of network connectivity. This dimension comprised two networks with positive weights (dorsal precuneus-related default mode network and dorsal sensorimotor network), and three with negative weights (including parts of the salience and central executive networks). Our findings indicate that connectivity in networks adjacent to the temporoparietal junction favors propagation of both personal and social optimism biases. Meanwhile, low connectivity in more frontal networks associated with more complex cognition may also further such propagation

Qualitative exploration of the potential for adverse events when using an online peer support network for mental health: Cross-sectional survey

Background: Online peer support networks are a growing area of mental health support for offering social connection, identity, and support. However, it has been reported that not all individuals have a positive experience on such networks. The potential for adverse events within a moderated online peer support network is a new area of research exploration. Objective: The objective of the study was to determine if use of an online moderated peer networks leads to adverse events for users. Methods: Four biannual online surveys (October 2014 to March 2016) were conducted by a large national UK mental health charity, with users of their online peer support network exploring personal safety, moderation, experiences on the site, and how the site could be improved. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis by 2 independent researchers using a priori themes: negative experiences of moderation, social exclusion, contagion, negative interactions with other users, online relationships, co-rumination and collusion, and other. Results: In total, 2353 survey responses were logged with 197 (8.37%) documenting an adverse event of negative experience. A dominant theme of negative experiences of moderation emerged (73/197, 37.1%) with evidence of social exclusion (50/197, 25.4%). Reading user posts was shown to be a cause of worry and distress for a few users, and analysis highlighted several instances of depressogenic and emotional contagion as well as some limited evidence of behavioral contagion (46/197, 23.4%). Very limited evidence of co-rumination (1/197, 0.5%) and no evidence of collusion were identified. Conclusions: Evidence of adverse events was identified at low levels in the sample of respondents, although we have no comparison data to indicate if levels are low compared with comparable platforms. Not all users of online peer support networks find them wholly beneficial. Research must explore what works for whom. The next stage of service development should consider which users may be likely to receive no benefit, or even deteriorate, as a result of using the service

Emergence of good conduct, scaling and Zipf laws in human behavioral sequences in an online world

We study behavioral action sequences of players in a massive multiplayer online game. In their virtual life players use eight basic actions which allow them to interact with each other. These actions are communication, trade, establishing or breaking friendships and enmities, attack, and punishment. We measure the probabilities for these actions conditional on previous taken and received actions and find a dramatic increase of negative behavior immediately after receiving negative actions. Similarly, positive behavior is intensified by receiving positive actions. We observe a tendency towards anti-persistence in communication sequences. Classifying actions as positive (good) and negative (bad) allows us to define binary 'world lines' of lives of individuals. Positive and negative actions are persistent and occur in clusters, indicated by large scaling exponents alpha~0.87 of the mean square displacement of the world lines. For all eight action types we find strong signs for high levels of repetitiveness, especially for negative actions. We partition behavioral sequences into segments of length n (behavioral `words' and 'motifs') and study their statistical properties. We find two approximate power laws in the word ranking distribution, one with an exponent of kappa-1 for the ranks up to 100, and another with a lower exponent for higher ranks. The Shannon n-tuple redundancy yields large values and increases in terms of word length, further underscoring the non-trivial statistical properties of behavioral sequences. On the collective, societal level the timeseries of particular actions per day can be understood by a simple mean-reverting log-normal model.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure

Influence of Personal Preferences on Link Dynamics in Social Networks

We study a unique network dataset including periodic surveys and electronic logs of dyadic contacts via smartphones. The participants were a sample of freshmen entering university in the Fall 2011. Their opinions on a variety of political and social issues and lists of activities on campus were regularly recorded at the beginning and end of each semester for the first three years of study. We identify a behavioral network defined by call and text data, and a cognitive network based on friendship nominations in ego-network surveys. Both networks are limited to study participants. Since a wide range of attributes on each node were collected in self-reports, we refer to these networks as attribute-rich networks. We study whether student preferences for certain attributes of friends can predict formation and dissolution of edges in both networks. We introduce a method for computing student preferences for different attributes which we use to predict link formation and dissolution. We then rank these attributes according to their importance for making predictions. We find that personal preferences, in particular political views, and preferences for common activities help predict link formation and dissolution in both the behavioral and cognitive networks.Comment: 12 page

From post-consumption experience evaluation to online generated content and intensification

En el contexto de los museos, el presente trabajo analiza hasta qué punto la evaluación de la experiencia in situ (satisfacción y valor percibido) que realizan los visitantes refuerza sus comportamientos online a corto plazo (consultar y generar contenido online). Sobre la base de la teoría del equilibrio y de la teoría del nivel óptimo de estimulación, proponemos la existencia de un efecto de la evaluación de la experiencia que adoptará forma de U invertida sobre la intensificación y forma de U sobre la intención de generar contenido online después de la visita. Los resultados indican que la satisfacción fomenta la intención de consumir más contenido, mientras que la percepción de haber alcanzado el máximo valor lo limita (efecto U invertida). Por otro lado, si bien la satisfacción y la percepción de una visita rentable motivan a los visitantes a publicar comentarios, las malas experiencias en los museos no tienen ningún impacto en la generación de contenido online.In the context of museums, this paper analyses to what extent visitor evaluation of the in situ experience (satisfaction and perceived value) drives their short-term online behaviours (visiting online content and generating content in online sites). On the basis of the balance theory and on the optimal stimulation level theory, it proposes that the evaluation of the experience has an inverted U-effect on visit intensification while a U-effect on the intention to generate content after the visit. Findings indicate that satisfaction fosters the intention to consume further content, while the perception of having gained the maximum value limits it (inverted U-effect). On the other hand, while satisfaction and the perception of a profitable visit motivate visitors to post online comments, poor experiences in museums have no impact on the generation of online content

HIV/AIDS and Behavioral Risk Factors Among Former Texas Prison Inmates

As of the end of 2010, .9% (20,093) of the inmate population under the care of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons and 1.7% (2,394) of the inmate population under the care of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice were living with HIV/AIDS. The purpose of this quantitative correlational study was to analyze the relationships between HIV/AIDS status and former inmate demographic characteristics, intravenous drug use (IDU), and social support networks. The behavior models of importation and deprivation formed the theoretical frameworks used to explore the relationship between HIV/AIDS and behavioral risk factors for released Texas prison inmates. Fifty former prison inmates in Texas were recruited through Prison Talk, an online prison and family support community, and asked to complete a 57-item web-based survey on demographic characteristics, IDU, and social support networks. Spearman correlation and multiple logistic regression analyses were used to test potential relationships between risk factors. A significant negative correlation was found between African American race and HIV infection (rs = -.31, p \u3c .05). A significant positive correlation was found between IDU and HIV infection (rs = .49, p \u3c .001). Logistic regression analysis confirmed IDU as a significant predictor of HIV infection (B = 3.99, OR = 54.33, p \u3c .05); access to or a desire for social support were not found to be significant predictors of HIV infection. Decreasing IDU among former prison inmates was shown to be an important step in HIV/AIDS prevention. Findings from the study can provide policy makers, legislators, prison administrators, educators, and researchers with insight into the factors that contribute to the prevalence of HIV/AIDS, possibly leading to positive social change by reducing the prevalence of HIV/AIDS among former prison inmates and their partners

Academic Performance and Behavioral Patterns

Identifying the factors that influence academic performance is an essential part of educational research. Previous studies have documented the importance of personality traits, class attendance, and social network structure. Because most of these analyses were based on a single behavioral aspect and/or small sample sizes, there is currently no quantification of the interplay of these factors. Here, we study the academic performance among a cohort of 538 undergraduate students forming a single, densely connected social network. Our work is based on data collected using smartphones, which the students used as their primary phones for two years. The availability of multi-channel data from a single population allows us to directly compare the explanatory power of individual and social characteristics. We find that the most informative indicators of performance are based on social ties and that network indicators result in better model performance than individual characteristics (including both personality and class attendance). We confirm earlier findings that class attendance is the most important predictor among individual characteristics. Finally, our results suggest the presence of strong homophily and/or peer effects among university students