Behavioral Science

Previous studies have shown clear cultural differences in how Japanese and American social network site (SNS) users interract with differing SNS platforms (see Barker and Ota, 2011; Fogg and Iizawa, 2008; Takahashi, 2010). In this study of 131 Japanese SNS users who use both Facebook and Mixi, self-disclosure, numbers of contacts, in-group numbers, and levels of perceived commitment on Mixi and Facebook were measured. The study found that such users showed a lower level of self disclosure, connected with fewer people and had fewer categories of contacts, and felt a higher degree of commitment on Mixi than on Facebook. It is suggested that these differences stem from differing responses to percieved relational mobility on each platform; Mixi being a socioecological environment which reflects low-relationally mobile Japanese society, and Facebook being a socioecological environment which reflects high relationally mobile North American social environments.

This paper focuses on the micro-blogging service Twitter, looking at source credibility for information shared in relation to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster in Japan. We look at the sources, credibility, and between-language differences in information shared in the month following the disaster. Messages were categorized by user, location, language, type, and credibility of information source. Tweets with reference to third-party information made up the bulk of messages sent, and it was also found that a majority of those sources were highly credible, including established institutions, traditional media outlets, and highly credible individuals. In general, profile anonymity proved to be correlated with a higher propensity to share information from low credibility sources. However, Japanese-language tweeters, while more likely to have anonymous profiles, referenced low-credibility sources less often than non-Japanese tweeters, suggesting proximity to the disaster mediating the degree of credibility of shared content.

Facebook’s global reach suggests good potential for recruiting research participants and collecting objective behavioral data for cross-cultural research. Previous literature suggests the usefulness of Facebook advertisements to recruit participants in single-country studies. However, Facebook advert use in multi-country studies has not yet been reported. Nor are there any reports about soliciting Facebook user data (via Facebook applications) using Facebook advertisements. This paper contributes to this gap in Internet research literature, reporting the effectiveness of Facebook advertisements to recruit participants, and solicit anonymized Facebook user data, in a 20-country study about privacy concern on Facebook. In 7 days, 399 Facebook users from 18 countries responded to country-targeted advertisements in 13 languages. Response rates (ratio of advert clicks to valid responses) per country varied from 0% up to 14%. Overall, two-thirds of countries’ response rates were below 5%. We conclude for multi-national studies, Facebook advertisements may have potential for simple participant recruitment for surveys, but have limitations for soliciting Facebook user data. For user data collection, methods such as Amazon Mechanical Turk and snowball sampling may be more effective, but can be limited in their international reach.

The investigation of prosocial behavior is of particular interest from an evolutionary perspective. Comparisons of prosociality across non-human animal species have, however, so far largely focused on primates, and their interpretation is hampered by the diversity of paradigms and procedures used. Here, we present the first systematic comparison of prosocial behavior across multiple species in a taxonomic group outside the primate order, namely the bird family Corvidae. We measured prosociality in eight corvid species, which vary in the expression of cooperative breeding and colonial nesting. We show that cooperative breeding is positively associated with prosocial behavior across species. Also, colonial nesting is associated with a stronger propensity for prosocial behavior, but only in males. The combined results of our study strongly suggest that both cooperative breeding and colonial nesting, which may both rely on heightened social tolerance at the nest, are likely evolutionary...

The study of group dynamics, which refers to changes in individual behaviors due to the actions of others within a group, became a popular topic in social psychology during the 1940s. It is studied using methods such as experiments, surveys, and statistical modeling. However, in the modern era group dynamics no longer receives much attention within social psychology. Instead, it is biologists who have produced new and interesting findings about group dynamics, through the application of various new data collection and statistical methods. In this article, we first provide a brief explanation of the history of research into group dynamics in social psychology and biology. We then examine three recent biological studies of cultural diffusion in depth, which were illustrative of the innovation found in current research into group dynamics. Finally, we discuss how the methods and theories developed in the biological field could be applied to social psychology research and propose a scheme that could help to encourage researchers in social psychology and biology to unite in new collaborative efforts.

Cumulative cultural evolution is what made humanity to thrive in various ecological and demographic environments. Solutions to the tasks that humans needed to solve could be mapped onto a task space which could take the form of either closed or open-ended fitness landscape, with the former being modeled more extensively than the latter in studies of cultural evolution. In this article, we modified a simulation by Arthur and Polak (2006) that modeled open-ended fitness landscape by using a computer simulation that builds logical circuits with circuits that were built in earlier trials. We used this simulation to clarify the nature of open-ended fitness landscape and to investigate whether the speed of accumulation of culture is increased by an increase in group size. The results indicated that group size increased the speed of accumulation but is limited than expected. Also, when two types of accumulation, invention and improvement, were distinguished the nature of the two differed. ...

Open-ended fitness landscape or architectural innovation is a key characteristic of combinatorial technological evolution. Though many have argued that this feature is important, many models were created in a closed fitness landscape. In this article, we modified a simulation by Arthur and Polak (2006) that used a computer simulation that builds logical circuits with circuits that were built in earlier trials. We used this simulation to investigate (1) whether the speed of innovation is increased by increasing group size and (2) if the nature of innovation would differ when innovation was separated by invention (new innovation that serves a purpose that never was used before) and improvement (already made innovation but is more efficient). The results indicated that indeed group size increases the speed of innovations but is limited than expected. Also, when innovation was separated with invention and improvement, the nature of the two differed. In improvement, the trajectory follow...

Sex differences in aspects of independent versus interdependent self-construal and depressive symptoms were surveyed among 5,320 students from 24 nations. Men were found to perceive themselves as more self-contained whereas women perceived themselves as more connected to others. No significant sex differences were found on two further dimensions of self-construal, or on a measure of depressive symptoms. Multilevel modeling was used to test the ability of a series of predictors derived from a social identity perspective and from evolutionary theory to moderate sex differences. Contrary to most prior studies of personality, sex differences in self-construal were larger in samples from nations scoring lower on the Gender Gap Index, and the Human Development Index. Sex differences were also greater in nations with higher pathogen prevalence, higher self-reported religiosity, and in nations with high reported avoidance of settings with strong norms. The findings are discussed in terms of...