57 research outputs found
Social Influence and the Brain: Persuasion, Susceptibility to Influence and Retransmission
Social influence is an important topic of research, with a particularly long history in the social sciences. Recently, social influence has also become a topic of interest among neuroscientists. The aim of this review is to highlight current research that has examined neural systems associated with social influence, from the perspective of being influenced as well as influencing others, and highlight studies that link neural mechanisms with real-world behavior change beyond the laboratory. Although many of the studies reviewed focus on localizing brain regions implicated in influence within the lab, we argue that approaches that account for networks of brain regions and that integrate neural data with data beyond the laboratory are likely to be most fruitful in understanding influence
The Value of Sharing Information: A Neural Account of Information Transmission
Humans routinely share information with one another. What drives this behavior? We used neuroimaging to test an account of information selection and sharing that emphasizes inherent reward in self-reflection and connecting with other people. Participants underwent functional MRI while they considered personally reading and sharing New York Times articles. Activity in neural regions involved in positive valuation, self-related processing, and taking the perspective of others was significantly associated with decisions to select and share articles, and scaled with preferences to do so. Activity in all three sets of regions was greater when participants considered sharing articles with other people rather than selecting articles to read themselves. The findings suggest that people may consider value not only to themselves but also to others even when selecting news articles to consume personally. Further, sharing heightens activity in these pathways, in line with our proposal that humans derive value from self-reflection and connecting to others via sharing
A neural model of valuation and information virality
Information sharing is an integral part of human interaction that serves to build social relationships and affects attitudes and behaviors in individuals and large groups. We present a unifying neurocognitive framework of mechanisms underlying information sharing at scale (virality). We argue that expectations regarding self-related and social consequences of sharing (e.g., in the form of potential for self-enhancement or social approval) are integrated into a domain-general value signal that encodes the value of sharing a piece of information. This value signal translates into population-level virality. In two studies (n = 41 and 39 participants), we tested these hypotheses using functional neuroimaging. Neural activity in response to 80 New York Times articles was observed in theory-driven regions of interest associated with value, self, and social cognitions. This activity then was linked to objectively logged population-level data encompassing n = 117,611 internet shares of the articles. In both studies, activity in neural regions associated with self-related and social cognition was indirectly related to population-level sharing through increased neural activation in the brainâs value system. Neural activity further predicted populationlevel outcomes over and above the variance explained by article characteristics and commonly used self-report measures of sharing intentions. This parsimonious framework may help advance theory, improve predictive models, and inform new approaches to effective intervention. More broadly, these data shed light on the core functions of sharingâto express ourselves in positive ways and to strengthen our social bonds
TIMSS 2019. Skalenhandbuch zur Dokumentation der Erhebungsinstrumente und Arbeit mit den DatensÀtzen
Die Studie TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) ist eine international vergleichende Schulleistungsuntersuchung, die von der International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) â einem unabhĂ€ngigen, internationalen Zusammenschluss von Forschungseinrichtungen, Wissenschaftler:innen sowie Regierungsstellen â durchgefĂŒhrt wird. Das Kernanliegen der Studie ist es, langfristige Entwicklungen in den Bildungssystemen der teilnehmenden Staaten und Regionen zu untersuchen. Im Fokus stehen mathematische und naturwissenschaftliche Kompetenzen von ViertklĂ€ssler:innen. Mit dem vorliegenden Handbuch werden die im Rahmen von TIMSS 2019 in Deutschland eingesetzten Befragungsinstrumente dokumentiert. Das Handbuch umfasst damit die Instrumente, die Teil der internationalen Berichterstattung sind, und nationale ErgĂ€nzungen dieser Instrumente, die in Deutschland vorgenommen wurden. Um die Arbeit mit den DatensĂ€tzen der Studie zu ermöglichen, werden zudem System-, Organisations- und Linkingvariablen sowie nachtrĂ€glich generierte Indizes dokumentiert. Deskriptive Statistiken und Skalenkennwerte ermöglichen eine EinschĂ€tzung der Verteilungen der eingesetzten Variablen sowie der DatenqualitĂ€t. Die Dokumentation der Erhebungsinstrumente ist in der Reihenfolge der Administration und nach den befragten Personengruppen gegliedert. Ferner ermöglichen Verzeichnisse und Ăbersichtstabellen einen inhaltlichen Zugang. (DIPF/Orig.
Neural Signals of Video Advertisement Liking:Insights into Psychological Processes and their Temporal Dynamics
What drives the liking of video advertisements? The authors analyzed neural signals during ad exposure from three functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data sets (113 participants from two countries watching 85 video ads) with automated meta-analytic decoding (Neurosynth). These brain-based measures of psychological processesâincluding perception and language (information processing), executive function and memory (cognitive functions), and social cognition and emotion (social-affective response)âpredicted subsequent self-report ad liking, with emotion and memory being the earliest predictorsafter the first three seconds. Over the span of ad exposure, while the predictiveness of emotion peaked early and fell, that of social cognition had a peak-and-stable pattern, followed by a late peak of predictiveness in perception and executive function.At the aggregate level, neural signalsâespecially those associated with social-affective responseâimproved the prediction of out-of-sample ad liking compared with traditional anatomically based neuroimaging analysis and self-report liking. Finally, earlyonset social-affective response predicted population ad liking in a behavioral replication. Overall, this study helps delineate the psychological mechanisms underlying ad processing and ad liking and proposes a novel neuroscience-based approach for generating psychological insights and improving out-of-sample predictions
Effects of self-transcendence on neural responses to persuasive messages and health behavior change
Self-transcendence refers to a shift in mindset from focusing on self-interests to the well-being of others. We offer an integrative neural model of self-transcendence in the context of persuasive messaging by examining the mechanisms of self-transcendence in promoting receptivity to health messages and behavior change. Specifically, we posited that focusing on values and activities that transcend the self can allow people to see that their self-worth is not tied to a specific behavior in question, and in turn become more receptive to subsequent, otherwise threatening health information. To test whether inducing self-transcendent mindsets before message delivery would help overcome defensiveness and increase receptivity, we used two priming tasks, affirmation and compassion, to elicit a transcendent mindset among 220 sedentary adults. As preregistered, those who completed a self-transcendence task before health message exposure, compared with controls, showed greater increases in objectively logged levels of physical activity throughout the following month. In the brain, self-transcendence tasks up-regulated activity in a region of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, chosen for its role in positive valuation and reward processing. During subsequent health message exposure, self-transcendence priming was associated with increased activity in subregions of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, implicated in self-related processing and positive valuation, which predicted later decreases in sedentary behavior. The present findings suggest that having a positive self-transcendent mindset can increase behavior change, in part by increasing neural receptivity to health messaging
Addressing climate change with behavioral science: a global intervention tournament in 63 countries
Effectively reducing climate change requires marked, global behavior change. However, it is unclear which strategies are most likely to motivate people to change their climate beliefs and behaviors. Here, we tested 11 expert-crowdsourced interventions on four climate mitigation outcomes: beliefs, policy support, information sharing intention, and an effortful tree-planting behavioral task. Across 59,440 participants from 63 countries, the interventionsâ effectiveness was small, largely limited to nonclimate skeptics, and differed across outcomes: Beliefs were strengthened mostly by decreasing psychological distance (by 2.3%), policy support by writing a letter to a future-generation member (2.6%), information sharing by negative emotion induction (12.1%), and no intervention increased the more effortful behaviorâseveral interventions even reduced tree planting. Last, the effects of each intervention differed depending on peopleâs initial climate beliefs. These findings suggest that the impact of behavioral climate interventions varies across audiences and target behaviors
Neural and Psychological Bases of Health News Sharing
Mass media content often propagates through social channels, for instance through shares on social media. In these social spaces, message effects interact with social forces like social influence to impact behavior and attitudes which has important implications for large-scale media effects. The abundance of online data about sharing patterns has enabled detailed descriptions of these processes but commonly used methods are less well suited to understand the psychological processes that facilitate sharing decisions. To address this knowledge gap, this dissertation used functional magnetic resonance imaging to study processes occurring in propagation chains where communicators shared New York Times health news articles with receivers through Facebook messages. Results from four empirical studies support a parsimonious framework, suggesting that communicators integrate considerations of the expected self-related and social outcomes of sharing into an overall signal of the value of sharing a piece of content which directly impacts their choices. To this end, Chapter 2 demonstrates the involvement of neural activity in regions associated with self-related, social, and value-related processing in sharing decisions made by individual communicators. Chapter 3 shows that the extent of neural value-related activity in response to these articles is significantly related to population-level sharing behavior of hundreds of thousands of real-world online New York Times readers and that neural valuation mediates the effects of self-related and social processing on choice. Chapter 4 demonstrates that these key processes are relevant across sharing contexts, namely when communicators are faced with different audience sizes. Yet the measures used here still showed insightful context-sensitivity through modulation of signal intensity. Finally, Chapter 5 discusses neural communicator-receiver coupling of activity in key regions of interest associated with valuation, self-related and social processing as a facilitator of information transfer between communications and receivers. Significant coupling suggests that central processes identified in communicators may propagate through social interaction and impact secondary receivers. In sum, this dissertation offers a detailed, parsimonious framework of the neural and psychological bases of sharing decisions and thus constitutes progress in scientific efforts to optimally account for and utilize social forces in the design of large-scale message campaigns and interventions
a scientometric analysis
Das Bakterium B. burgdorferi zÀhlt zur Familie der SpirochÀten und ist
Verursacher der LB, einer durch Zecken ĂŒbertragenen Erkrankung mit vielseitig
klinischem Erscheinungsbild. Entdeckt wurden die Bakterien 1981 durch den
Mikrobiologen Willy Burgdorfer und sie stehen bis heute im Fokus der
Ăffentlichkeit. Bisher bestehen die herkömmlichen Behandlungsstrategien in der
Verabreichung von Antibiotika. Wirksame Impfstoffe konnten sich noch nicht
durchsetzen. Des Weiteren ergeben sich fortlaufend neue Fragestellungen
bezĂŒglich der komplexen biochemischen VorgĂ€nge bei der Umgehung des
Immunsystems des Menschen, sowie die Assoziation zu bestimmten Organen (Haut,
Gelenken, Herz, Gehirn etc.) und das Verweilen der Bakterien in den Geweben.
Die Verbreitung des Erregers nimmt bis zur heutigen Zeit stetig zu und
betrifft die meisten LĂ€nder in Europa, den USA und Teile von Asien. Ziel
dieser Arbeit war es daher, das weltweite Forschungsaufkommen bezĂŒglich des
Bakteriums B. burgdorferi zu untersuchen. Dabei wurden alle Arbeiten, die zu
diesem Thema von 1983 bis 2008 publiziert und entsprechend Eingang in die
Listen der wissenschaftlichen Datenbanken gewonnen haben, einbezogen. Mit
Hilfe der Suchtermini âBorrelia burgdorferiâ und âLyme Disease spirocheteâ
konnten im WoS 7001 Publikationen ermittelt werden. Diese wurden durch die
Funktionen âAnalyze Resultsâ und âCitation Reportâ des WoS hinsichtlich
verschiedener Schwerpunkte wie Publikationsjahre, Sprachzugehörigkeit,
Fachzeitschriften, Erscheinungsformen, Institutionen, LĂ€nder, Themenbereiche
sowie Zitationen und Autoren genauer analysiert. Zur graphischen
Veranschaulichung dienten zahlreiche Diagramme und Kartenanamorphoten. Der
erste gelistete Artikel im WoS wurde im Jahr 1983 veröffentlicht. Seither
zeigen sich positiv wachsende Trendentwicklungen hinsichtlich des
PublikationsverhÀltnisses. Mehr als 94% der identifizierten Arbeiten wurden
hierbei in englischer Sprache veröffentlicht, woraus sich der Trend der
wissenschaftlichen Sprache zum Englischen hin erkennen lĂ€sst. Die GrĂŒnde fĂŒr
steigende Publikationszahlen sind vielseitig und umfassen wirtschaftliche,
technische, finanzielle als auch medizinische Aspekte. Die USA nehmen in Bezug
auf die Erforschung von B. burgdorferi eine dominierende Rolle ein. Sie
liefern den gröĂten Umfang an Veröffentlichungen zu diesem Thema, wobei sich
3.793 Publikationen auf 980 Institutionen verteilen. Der Erreger wurde in den
Vereinigten Staaten entdeckt und stellt dort bis heute ein aktuelles
Gesundheitsproblem dar. Die USA, als groĂes Land mit einer hohen
Bevölkerungszahl (307 Mio.), sind eine Nation mit hohem traditionellem
wissenschaftlichem Output. Diese starke PrÀsenz zeigt sich auch in zahlreichen
anderen Forschungsgebieten. Neben den USA beteiligen sich zahlreiche
europĂ€ische LĂ€nder (besonders Deutschland, Frankreich, Ăsterreich und Schweiz)
und vereinzelt LÀnder des fernöstlichen Raumes, z. B. Japan und China, an der
Forschung zum Thema B. burgdorferi. Die Publikationsbeteiligung spiegelt
gleichzeitig das Auftreten des Erregers wider, da vornehmlich aus betroffenen
LÀndern Veröffentlichungen registriert werden können. Deutlich wird zudem eine
Zunahme internationaler Zusammenarbeiten zwischen den einzelnen LĂ€ndern und
Institutionen. Die Zahl der Kooperationsartikel steigern sich von eins (1983)
auf 83 (2008). Diese Kooperationen sind weit verzweigt und besonders prÀgnant
zwischen und ausgehend von den Nationen USA und Deutschland. Die
Zitationsanalysen verdeutlichen eine starke Resonanz der Publikationen aus den
USA. Dieses zeigt sich anhand höchster Werte bei den Gesamtzitationen
(105.986) und der Zitationsrate (27,9). Deutschland folgt an zweiter Stelle
und reprĂ€sentiert das stĂ€rkste europĂ€ische Land bezĂŒglich der
Borrelienforschung (958 Publikationen, 390 Institutionen, 20.342
Gesamtzitate). Die Fachzeitschriften âInfection and Immunityâ sowie âJournal
of Clinical Microbiologyâ erlangen die gröĂte Bedeutung hinsichtlich der Summe
an Publikationen (551; 361) und Anzahl der Zitate (18.388; 14.359). Wird
hingegen die wissenschaftliche Resonanz mit Hilfe der Zitationsrate gedeutet,
so stehen das âJournal of Immunologyâ (42,8) und âJournal of Infectious
Diseasesâ (41,3) im Vordergrund. Der produktivste Autor zum Thema B.
burgdorferi ist der amerikanische Professor Erol Fikrig mit 156 Publikationen
und 5.501 Zitaten, sein H-Index liegt bei 42 und die Zitationsrate bei 35. Der
Rheumatologe Allen Steere hingegen liefert nur 129 Veröffentlichungen, wird
allerdings hÀufiger zitiert (6.813) und prÀsentiert neben einer höheren
Zitationsrate (53) auch einen höheren H-Index (46). Seine Arbeiten haben
demnach ein höheres wissenschaftliches Ansehen und somit kann er als
bedeutendster Autor angesehen werden.The bacterium B. burgdorferi ranks among the family of spirochetes and causes
LB, a disease with various symptoms passed on by ticks. It was Willy
Burgdorfer who found the disease causing bacterium in 1981 and it has been in
the focus of research since. Until now the usual treatment strategy has been
the use of antibiotics. Vaccines have not been able to prevail so far.
Furthermore there are steadily new questions arising concerning the complex
biochemical processes that happen when the bacteria bypass the human immune
system as well as concerning the preference of certain organs (skin, joints,
heart, brain etc.) and the persistence of the bacteria in the tissue. The germ
has been spreading continuously to date, especially in most of the European
countries, the USA and parts of Asia. Therefore, the aim of this thesis was to
analyze the worldwide research on the bacterium B. burgdorferi. In this
process all publications on this topic from 1983 to 2008 that are listed in
scientific data bases were incorporated. Using the search keys âBorrelia
burgdorferiâ and âLyme Disease spirocheteâ 7001 publications could be found in
the WoS. These publications were analyzed more precisely with the help of the
WoS functions âAnalyze Resultsâ and âCitation Reportâ with regard to various
emphases such as year of publication, language, professional journals, forms
of appearance, institutions, countries, topics as well as citation and
authors. The first article listed in the WoS was published in 1983. Since
then, developments have shown positive growth trend with regard to the
publication ratio. Over 94% of the identified papers were published in
English, which demonstrates that scientific language shows a tendency to
English. The reasons for rising number of publications are varied and include
economic, technical, financial and medical aspects. The U.S. is taking in
relation to the investigation of B. burgdorferi a dominant role. They provide
the largest amount of publications on this topic, with 3.793 publications are
distributed to 980 institutions. The pathogen was discovered in the United
States and there is still a current health problem. The U.S., as a large
country with a large population (307 million), are a nation with high
traditional scientific output. This strong presence is also evident in many
other fields of research. Besides the U.S., a number of other European
countries (especially Germany, France, United Kingdom and Austria) and some
Far Eastern countries like Japan and China show active publication
participation with regard to the pathogen B. burgdorferi. This participation
reflects also the spreading of the pathogen. Significantly is also an increase
in international collaboration between countries and institutions. The number
of items increased cooperation from one (1983) to 83 (2008). International co-
operations are widely ramified, primarily between and initiated by the U.S.
and Germany. The citation analysis demonstrates the significant scientific
response of the American publications. This is shown by the highest values for
total citations (105.986) and the citation rate (27,9). Germany ranks second
and represents the strongest European country with regard to the Borrelia
Research (958 publications, 390 institutions, 20.342 total citations). The
journals âInfection and Immunityâ and âJournal of Clinical Microbiologyâ are
the most important ones regarding number of articles (551; 361) and citations
(18.388; 14.359). However, analyzing scientific response with the help of the
citation rate the âJournal of Immunologyâ (42,8) and âJournal of Infectious
Diseasesâ (41,3) are the most prominent. The most productive author on the
topic B. burgdorferi is the American professor Erol Fikrig with 156
publications and 5.501 citations. His H-index amounts to 42 and his citation
rate to 35. The rheumatologist Allen Steere, on the contrary, only has 129
publications but is cited more often (6.813) and shows in addition to a higher
citation rate (53) also a higher H-index (46). Therefore, his studies have a
higher scientific reputation and he can be seen as the most significant author
in this field
Soziale Bewertung von Flugzeugen : das Projekt Airbus A380
Zweck â Dieser Vortrag untersucht die sozialen Auswirkungen von Flugzeugen oder Flugzeugprojekten mit einem Lebenszyklusansatz am Beispiel des Programms Airbus A380. ---
Methodik â Soziale Auswirkungen werden analysiert, indem eine Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) basierend auf den "Guidelines for Social Life Cycle Assessment for Products" des Umweltprogramms der Vereinten Nationen (UNEP) und der Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) durchgefĂŒhrt wird. Stakeholder und Unterkategorien werden ausgewĂ€hlt und Daten werden mit qualitativen Interviews und Webrecherchen gesammelt. Eine FolgenabschĂ€tzung wird mit der Subcategory Assessment Method (SAM) durchgefĂŒhrt. Die Ergebnisse werden interpretiert und verallgemeinert. ---
Ergebnisse â WĂ€hrend seiner Lebensdauer hat ein Flugzeug oder Flugzeugprogramm Auswirkungen auf verschiedene Interessensgruppen. Die Lebenszyklusphase "Rohstoffgewinnung" könnte zu Menschenrechtsverletzungen fĂŒhren, aber auch lokale Gemeinschaften in der NĂ€he der wichtigsten ProduktionsstĂ€tten sind mit sozialen Auswirkungen konfrontiert, sowohl positiv als auch negativ. Die wirtschaftliche Bedeutung des Luftfahrtsektors beeinflusst die Gesellschaft, politische EntscheidungstrĂ€ger, lokale Gemeinschaften und Arbeitnehmer. All dies zeigte sich auch im A380-Programm. ---
Grenzen der Anwendbarkeit â Die DatenverfĂŒgbarkeit schrĂ€nkte die Untersuchung teilweise ein. Das Projekt deckt nicht alle Lebenszyklusphasen und Interessensgruppen ab. Stattdessen liegt der Fokus auf ausgewĂ€hlten Phasen und Gruppen. ---
Bedeutung in der Praxis â Die Studie kann EntscheidungstrĂ€gern in der Luftfahrt helfen, ein Produkt bereitzustellen, das das Wohlergehen seiner Interessensgruppen verbessert. ---
Soziale Bedeutung â Die DurchfĂŒhrung einer S-LCA in der Luftfahrt rĂŒckt die sozialen Implikationen des Flugzeugprogramms in den Fokus und bietet eine Grundlage fĂŒr eine allgemeine Diskussion ĂŒber seine soziale Nachhaltigkeit. ---
OriginalitĂ€t â Dies scheint die erste Arbeit zum Thema S-LCA eines Flugzeugs oder Flugzeugprogramms zu sein
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