| 1. |
- Bernard, Mark, et al.
(författare)
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The subgroup problem : When can binding voting on extractions from a common pool resource overcome the tragedy of the commons?
- 2013
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Ingår i: Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization. - : Elsevier BV. - 0167-2681 .- 1879-1751. ; 91, s. 122-130
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Using a common pool resource game protocol with voting we examine experimentally how cooperation varies with the level at which (binding) votes are aggregated. Our results are broadly in line with theoretical predictions. When players can vote on the behavior of the whole group or when leaders from each group can vote for the group as a whole, extraction levels from the common resource pool are close to the social optimum. When players extract resources individually, there is substantial overextraction. When players vote in subgroups, there is initially less overextraction but it increases over time. This suggests that in order for binding voting to overcome the tragedy of the commons in social dilemmas, it should ideally affect the group as a whole.
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| 2. |
- Bernard, Mark, et al.
(författare)
-
The subgroup problem: When can binding voting on extractions from a common resource pool overcome the tragedy of the commons?
- 2013
-
Ingår i: Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization. - : Elsevier BV. - 0167-2681 .- 1879-1751. ; 91, s. 122-130
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Using a common pool resource game protocol with voting we examine experimentally how cooperation varies with the level at which (binding) votes are aggregated. Our results are broadly in line with theoretical predictions. When players can vote on the behavior of the whole group or when leaders from each group can vote for the group as a whole, extraction levels from the common resource pool are close to the social optimum. When players extract resources individually, there is substantial overextraction. When players vote in subgroups, there is initially less overextraction but it increases over time. This suggests that in order for binding voting to overcome the tragedy of the commons in social dilemmas, it should ideally affect the group as a whole.
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| 3. |
- Cordes, Christian, et al.
(författare)
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A Naturalistic Approach to the Theory of the Firm : The Role of Cooperation
- 2008
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Ingår i: Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization. - 0167-2681 .- 1879-1751. ; 68:1, s. 125-139
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- One reason why firms exist, this paper argues, is because they are suitable organizations within which cooperative production systems based on human social predispositions can evolve. In addition, we show how an entrepreneur, given these predispositions, can shape human behavior within a firm. To illustrate these processes, we will present a model that depicts how the biased transmission of cultural contents via social learning processes within the firm influence employees’ behavior and the performance of the firm. These biases can be traced back to evolved social predispositions. Humans lived in tribal scale social systems based on significant amounts of intra- and even intergroup cooperation for tens if not a few hundred thousand years before the first complex societies arose. Firms rest upon the social psychology originally evolved for tribal life. We also relate our conclusions to empirical evidenceon the performance and size of different kinds of organizations. Modern organizations have functions rather different from ancient tribes, leading to friction between our social predispositions and organization goals. Firms that manage to reduce this friction will tend to function better.
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| 4. |
- Cordes, Christian, et al.
(författare)
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How does opportunistic behavior influence firm size? : An evolutionary approach to organizational behavior
- 2011
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Ingår i: Journal of Institutional Economics. - 1744-1374 .- 1744-1382. ; :7, s. 1-21
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper relates firm size and opportunism by showing that, given certain behavioural dispositions of humans, the size of a profit-maximizing firm can be determined by cognitive aspects underlying firm-internal cultural transmission processes. We argue that what firms do better than markets – besides economizing on transaction costs – is to establish a cooperative regime among its employees that keeps in check opportunism. A model depicts the outstanding role of the entrepreneur or business leader in firm-internal socialization processes and the evolution of corporate cultures. We show that high opportunism-related costs are a reason for keeping firms’ size small.
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| 5. |
- Cownden, Daniel, et al.
(författare)
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A popular misapplication of evolutionary modeling to the study of human cooperation
- 2017
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Ingår i: Evolution and human behavior. - : Elsevier BV. - 1090-5138 .- 1879-0607. ; 38:3, s. 421-427
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- To examine the evolutionary basis of a behavior, an established approach (known as the phenotypic gambit) is to assume that the behavior is controlled by a single allele, the fitness effects of which are derived from a consideration of how the behavior interacts, via life-history, with other ecological factors. Here we contrast successful applications of this approach with several examples of an influential and superficially similar line of research on the evolutionary basis of human cooperation. A key difference is identified: in the latter line of research the focal behavior, cooperation, is abstractly defined in terms of immediate fitness costs and benefits. Selection is then assumed to act on strategies in an iterated social context for which fitness effects can be derived by aggregation of the abstractly defined immediate fitness effects over a lifetime. This approach creates a closed theoretical loop, rendering models incapable of making predictions or providing insight into the origin of human cooperation. We conclude with a discussion of how evolutionary approaches might be appropriately used in the study of human social behavior.
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| 6. |
- Cownden, Daniel, et al.
(författare)
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The implications of learning across perceptually and strategically distinct situations
- 2018
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Ingår i: Synthese. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0039-7857 .- 1573-0964. ; 195:2, s. 511-528
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Game theory is a formal approach to behavior that focuses on the strategic aspect of situations. The game theoretic approach originates in economics but has been embraced by scholars across disciplines, including many philosophers and biologists. This approach has an important weakness: the strategic aspect of a situation, which is its defining quality in game theory, is often not its most salient quality in human (or animal) cognition. Evidence from a wide range of experiments highlights this shortcoming. Previous theoretical and empirical work has sought to address this weakness by considering learning across an ensemble of multiple games simultaneously. Here we extend this framework, incorporating artificial neural networks, to allow for an investigation of the interaction between the perceptual and functional similarity of the games composing the larger ensemble. Using this framework, we conduct a theoretical investigation of a population that encounters both stag hunts and prisoner’s dilemmas, two situations that are strategically different but which may or may not be perceptually similar.
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| 7. |
- de Barra, Mícheál, et al.
(författare)
-
How feedback biases give ineffective medical treatments a good reputation.
- 2014
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Ingår i: Journal of medical Internet research. - : JMIR Publications Inc.. - 1438-8871. ; 16:8, s. e193-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BACKGROUND: Medical treatments with no direct effect (like homeopathy) or that cause harm (like bloodletting) are common across cultures and throughout history. How do such treatments spread and persist? Most medical treatments result in a range of outcomes: some people improve while others deteriorate. If the people who improve are more inclined to tell others about their experiences than the people who deteriorate, ineffective or even harmful treatments can maintain a good reputation.OBJECTIVE: The intent of this study was to test the hypothesis that positive outcomes are overrepresented in online medical product reviews, to examine if this reputational distortion is large enough to bias people's decisions, and to explore the implications of this bias for the cultural evolution of medical treatments.METHODS: We compared outcomes of weight loss treatments and fertility treatments in clinical trials to outcomes reported in 1901 reviews on Amazon. Then, in a series of experiments, we evaluated people's choice of weight loss diet after reading different reviews. Finally, a mathematical model was used to examine if this bias could result in less effective treatments having a better reputation than more effective treatments.RESULTS: Data are consistent with the hypothesis that people with better outcomes are more inclined to write reviews. After 6 months on the diet, 93% (64/69) of online reviewers reported a weight loss of 10 kg or more while just 27% (19/71) of clinical trial participants experienced this level of weight change. A similar positive distortion was found in fertility treatment reviews. In a series of experiments, we show that people are more inclined to begin a diet with many positive reviews, than a diet with reviews that are representative of the diet's true effect. A mathematical model of medical cultural evolution shows that the size of the positive distortion critically depends on the shape of the outcome distribution.CONCLUSIONS: Online reviews overestimate the benefits of medical treatments, probably because people with negative outcomes are less inclined to tell others about their experiences. This bias can enable ineffective medical treatments to maintain a good reputation.
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| 8. |
- Engström, Emma, PhD, 1982-, et al.
(författare)
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Comparing and modeling the use of online recommender systems
- 2024
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Ingår i: Computers in Human Behavior Reports. - : Elsevier BV. - 2451-9588. ; 15
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study explores a new way to model the adoption of AI, specifically online recommender systems. It aims to find factors that can explain the variation in usage in terms of differences between individuals and differences over technologies. We analyzed survey data from users of online platforms in the U.S. using a two-level structural equation model (SEM) (N = 1007). In this model, the dependent variable was the usage rate, which was defined as the share of time a person used a particular recommender system (e.g., “People You May Know”) when they use the platform (e.g., Facebook). The individual responses (within-systems level) were clustered in the 26 recommender systems (between-systems level). We hypothesized that three technology-specific factors, adapted from the Diffusion of Innovations (DOI) theory and the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology 2 (UTAUT2), could explain the variations in usage at both levels: perceived performance expectancy (PE), perceived effort expectancy (EE), and perceived hedonic motivation (HM). Our estimated model showed that usage was associated with PE and HM at the within-system level and only with PE at the between-system level. A considerable part of the variation in usage across the 26 systems could be explained by PE only (R2 = 0.30). The most important contribution to practitioners is that this study provides evidence for the idea that there are inherent, measurable differences across recommender technologies that affect their usage rates, and specifically it finds usefulness to be a key factor. This is potentially valuable for app developers and marketeers who look to promote the adoption of novel recommender systems. The main contribution to the literature is that it presents a proof-of-concept of a two-level model for AI adoption, conceptualizing it as an effect of both variations over users and variations over applications. This finding is potentially valuable for policymakers, as better predictive models might enable improved assessments of AI's social implications. In future studies, the two-level approach presented here could be applied to other forms of AI, such as voice assistants, chatbots, or Internet of Things (IoT).
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| 9. |
- Enquist, Magnus, et al.
(författare)
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One cultural parent makes no culture
- 2010
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Ingår i: Animal Behaviour. - : Elsevier BV. - 0003-3472 .- 1095-8282. ; 79:6, s. 1353-1362
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The ability to acquire knowledge and skills from others is widespread in animals and is commonly thought to be responsible for the behavioural traditions observed in many species. However, in spite of the extensive literature on theoretical analyses and empirical studies of social learning, little attention has been given to whether individuals acquire knowledge from a single individual or multiple models. Researchers commonly refer to instances of sons learning from fathers, or daughters from mothers, while theoreticians have constructed models of uniparental transmission, with little consideration of whether such restricted modes of transmission are actually feasible. We used mathematical models to demonstrate that the conditions under which learning from a single cultural parent can lead to stable culture are surprisingly restricted ( the same reasoning applies to a single social-learning event). Conversely, we demonstrate how learning from more than one cultural parent can establish culture, and find that cultural traits will reach a nonzero equilibrium in the population provided the product of the fidelity of social learning and the number of cultural parents exceeds 1. We discuss the implications of the analysis for interpreting various findings in the animal social-learning literature, as well as the unique features of human culture.
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| 10. |
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| 11. |
- Eriksson, Kimmo, 1967-, et al.
(författare)
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Appropriateness ratings of everyday behaviors in the United States now and 50 years ago
- 2023
-
Ingår i: Frontiers in Psychology. - : Frontiers Media S.A.. - 1664-1078. ; 14
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Introduction: A crucial aspect of social norms pertains to determining which behaviors are considered appropriate. Here we consider everyday behaviors. Some everyday behaviors are rated as more appropriate than others, and ratings of the appropriateness of a given behavior may vary over time. The objective of this study is to elucidate the reasons behind variation in appropriateness ratings of everyday behaviors in the United States. Our theory focuses on how the evaluation of the appropriateness of a behavior is influenced by its potential for externalities and internalities, and how this influence may cause a change in norms over time.Method: Employing a preregistered design, we asked American participants to rate 37 different everyday behaviors based on their appropriateness in a range of common situations, as well as their potential negative externalities (e.g., being loud, being aggressive, taking up space) and positive internalities (e.g., pleasurability). Changes over time were calculated as the difference between mean ratings obtained in this study and ratings of the same behavior in a similar study conducted 50 years ago.Results: As expected, overall appropriateness ratings of everyday behaviors are associated both with their externalities and their internalities, so that the least appropriate behaviors tend to have considerable potential for negative externalities and little potential for positive internalities. Moreover, behaviors that have considerable potential for negative externalities are perceived as less appropriate now than 50 years ago.Discussion: By describing how social norms for everyday behaviors depend on the externalities and internalities of behaviors, this study contributes to theories about the emergence and change of social norms.
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| 12. |
- Eriksson, Kimmo, et al.
(författare)
-
Asymmetric equilibria in dynamic two-sided matching markets with independent preferences
- 2008
-
Ingår i: International Journal of Game Theory. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0020-7276 .- 1432-1270. ; 36, s. 421-440
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A fundamental fact in two-sided matching is that if amarket allows several stable outcomes, then one is optimal for all men in the sense that no man would prefer another stable outcome.We study a related phenomenon of asymmetric equilibria in a dynamic market where agents enter and search for a mate for at most n rounds before exiting again. Assuming independent preferences, we find that this game has multiple equilibria, some of which are highly asymmetric between sexes. We also investigate how the set of equilibria depends on a sex difference in the outside option of not being mated at all.
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| 13. |
- Eriksson, Kimmo, 1967-, et al.
(författare)
-
Author Correction : Perceptions of the appropriate response to norm violation in 57 societies (Nature Communications, (2021), 12, 1, (1481), 10.1038/s41467-021-21602-9)
- 2021
-
Ingår i: Nature Communications. - : Nature Research. - 2041-1723. ; 12:1
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The original version of this Article contained an error in the author affiliations. Cecilia Reyna was incorrectly associated with ‘Universidad Nacional de Córdoba (UNC). Facultad de Psicología (UNC), Ciudad Universitaria, Bv. de la Reforma esquina, Enfermera Gordillo s/n, Córdoba, Argentina.’ instead of the correct ‘Instituto de Investigaciones Psicológicas (IIPsi), Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), CABA, República Argentina.’ This has now been corrected in both the PDF and HTML versions of the Article. © The Author(s) 2021
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| 14. |
- Eriksson, Kimmo, 1967-, et al.
(författare)
-
Biases for acquiring information individually rather than socially
- 2009
-
Ingår i: Journal of Evolutionary Psychology. - 0737-4828. ; 7:4, s. 309-329
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We discuss theoretical and empirical arguments for a human bias to acquire information individually rather than socially. In particular, we argue that when other people can be observed, information collection is a public good and hence some of the individual variation in the choice between individual and social learning can be explained by variation in social value orientation. We conducted two experimental studies, based on the game Explore & Collect, to test the predictions that (1) socially and individually acquired information of equal objective value are treated differently, and (2) prosocial subjects tend to spend more effort than selfish subjects on individual acquiring of information. Both predictions were supported.
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| 15. |
- Eriksson, Kimmo, et al.
(författare)
-
Bidirectional associations between descriptive and injunctive norms
- 2015
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Ingår i: Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. - : Elsevier BV. - 0749-5978 .- 1095-9920. ; 129, s. 59-69
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Modern research on social norms makes an important distinction between descriptive norms (how people commonly behave) and injunctive norms (what one is morally obligated to do). Here we propose that this distinction is far from clear in the cognition of social norms. In a first study, using the implicit association test, the concepts of common and moral were found to be strongly associated. Some implications of this automatic common-moral association were investigated in a subsequent series of experiments: Our participants tended to make explicit inferences from descriptive norms to injunctive norms and vice versa; they tended to mix up descriptive and injunctive concepts in recall tasks; and frequency information influenced participants' own moral judgments. We conclude by discussing how the common-moral association could play a role in the dynamics of social norms.
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| 16. |
- Eriksson, Kimmo, et al.
(författare)
-
Costly punishment in the ultimatum game evokes moral concern, in particular when framed as payoff reduction
- 2017
-
Ingår i: Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. - : Elsevier BV. - 0022-1031 .- 1096-0465. ; 69, s. 59-64
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The ultimatum game is a common economic experiment in which some participants reject another's unfair offer of how to split some money, even though it leaves them both worse off. This costly behavior can be seen as enforcement of a fairness norm and has been labeled “altruistic punishment”, suggesting that it is a moral thing to do. But is this behavior viewed as moral by participants? Is it viewed as punishment? And are the payoff consequences of the behavior sufficient to determine the answers to these questions? To investigate this we framed costly punishment in two different ways: either as rejection of an offer (the standard ultimatum game framing) or as reduction of payoff. In a series of paid and hypothetical experiments we found that moral concerns about costly punishment depended on the framing. Specifically, the reduction frame elicited more moral concern about, and less use of, costly punishment than did the rejection frame. Several implications are discussed.
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| 17. |
- Eriksson, Kimmo, et al.
(författare)
-
Cultural Universals and Cultural Differences in Meta-Norms about Peer Punishment
- 2017
-
Ingår i: Management and Organization Review. - : Cambridge University Press (CUP). - 1740-8776 .- 1740-8784. ; 13:4, s. 851-870
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Violators of cooperation norms may be informally punished by their peers. How such norm enforcement is judged by others can be regarded as a meta-norm (i.e., a second-order norm). We examined whether meta-norms about peer punishment vary across cultures by having students in eight countries judge animations in which an agent who over-harvested a common resource was punished either by a single peer or by the entire peer group. Whether the punishment was retributive or restorative varied between two studies, and findings were largely consistent across these two types of punishment. Across all countries, punishment was judged as more appropriate when implemented by the entire peer group than by an individual. Differences between countries were revealed in judgments of punishers vs. non-punishers. Specifically, appraisals of punishers were relatively negative in three Western countries and Japan, and more neutral in Pakistan, UAE, Russia, and China, consistent with the influence of individualism, power distance, and/or indulgence. Our studies constitute a first step in mapping how meta-norms vary around the globe, demonstrating both cultural universals and cultural differences.
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| 18. |
- Eriksson, Kimmo, 1967-, et al.
(författare)
-
Domain-specific tightness : Why is Sweden perceived as tighter than the United States?
- 2022
-
Ingår i: Current Research in Ecological and Social Psychology. - : Elsevier BV. - 2666-6227. ; 3, s. 100049-100049
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The tightness of a society is defined as the strength of social norms and the degree of sanctioning within thesociety. However, a society’s tightness may vary across behavioral domains. A recent global survey found thatSweden is generally perceived as relatively tight, even though it is known to be very permissive with respectto sexual relations and gender roles. Here we examine perceptions of the tightness of Sweden and the UnitedStates in six other domains. We find that Sweden is perceived as tighter than the US specifically with respect tonorms about how people may talk about other groups and norms about considerate behavior in public. These domain-specific differences partially mediate the country difference in perceived overall tightness. In sum, this study demonstrates how domain-specific tightness may be measured and highlights the value of such measures to obtain a more nuanced picture of how tightness varies across countries
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| 19. |
- Eriksson, Kimmo, et al.
(författare)
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Generosity Pays : Selfish People Have Fewer Children and Earn Less Money
- 2020
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Ingår i: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. - : American Psychological Association (APA). - 0022-3514 .- 1939-1315. ; 118:3, s. 532-544
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Does selfishness pay in the long term? Previous research has indicated that being prosocial (or otherish) rather than selfish has positive consequences for psychological well-being, physical health, and relationships. Here we instead examine the consequences for individuals' incomes and number of children, as these are the currencies that matter most in theories that emphasize the power of self-interest, namely economics and evolutionary thinking. Drawing on both cross-sectional (Studies 1 and 2) and panel data (Studies 3 and 4), we find that prosocial individuals tend to have more children and higher income than selfish individuals. An additional survey (Study 5) of lay beliefs about how self-interest impacts income and fertility suggests one reason selfish people may persist in their behavior even though it leads to poorer outcomes: people generally expect selfish individuals to have higher incomes. Our findings have implications for lay decisions about the allocation of scarce resources, as well as for economic and evolutionary theories of human behavior.
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| 20. |
- Eriksson, Kimmo, 1967-, et al.
(författare)
-
Global sex differences in hygiene norms and their relation to sex equality
- 2022
-
Ingår i: PLOS Global Public Health. - : Public Library of Science (PLoS). - 2767-3375. ; 2:6
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Strict norms about hygiene may sometimes have health benefits but may also be a burden. Based on research in the United States, it has been suggested that women traditionally shoulder responsibility for hygiene standards and therefore tend to have stricter views on hygiene. However, there is little systematic research on sex differences in hygiene norms at the global scale. We set up two hypotheses: (1) Stricter hygiene norms among women than among men is a global phenomenon. (2) The size of this sex difference varies across nations with the level of sex equality. We examine these hypotheses using data from a recent international survey (N = 17,632). Participants in 56 countries were asked for their views of where it is not appropriate for people to spit and in which situations people should wash their hands. As a measure of sex equality, we use an existing country-level measure of attitudes to equality between the sexes, available for 49 nations in the study. Stricter hygiene norms among women than among men are observed almost everywhere, but there are a few exceptions (most notably Nigeria and Saudi Arabia). The size of the sex difference in hygiene norms varies strongly with the level of sex equality, but in a non-linear way. The sex difference is most pronounced in moderately egalitarian countries with the highest recorded difference being in Chile. In more egalitarian parts of the world, more sex equality is associated with a smaller sex difference in hygiene norms. In the less egalitarian parts of the world, the opposite relation holds. We offer an interpretation in terms of what different levels of sex equality mean for the content of sex roles.
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| 21. |
- Eriksson, Kimmo, et al.
(författare)
-
Group differences in broadness of values may drive dynamics of public opinion on moral issues
- 2015
-
Ingår i: Mathematical Social Sciences. - : Elsevier BV. - 0165-4896 .- 1879-3118. ; 77, s. 1-8
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Here we propose the idea that the success of an argument in favor of an issue position should depend on whether the argument resonates with the audience's values. Now consider two groups, one of which has a broader set of values than the other. We develop a mathematical model to investigate how this difference in broadness of values may drive a change on the population level towards positions in line with the more narrow set of values. The model is motivated by the empirical finding that conservative morality rests equally on moral foundations that are individualizing (harm and fairness) and binding (purity, authority, and ingroup), whereas liberal morality relies mainly on the individualizing moral foundations. The model then predicts that, under certain conditions, the whole population will tend to move towards positions on moral issues (e.g., same-sex marriage) that are supported by individualizing moral foundations.
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| 22. |
- Eriksson, Kimmo, 1967-, et al.
(författare)
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How does political discussion frequency impact political moral opinions? The moral argument theory of opinion dynamics
- 2022
-
Ingår i: Frontiers in Psychology. - : Frontiers Media SA. - 1664-1078. ; 13
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Discussions of political issues may influence people's opinions. Is there any systematic difference in opinions between those who discuss frequently and those who do not? We measured the association between self-reported discussion frequency and the probability of holding the more liberal opinion on moral issues, using data from the General Social Survey (81 issues, n = 4,395) and the American National Election Studies (27 issues, n = 17,653). This association looked different among liberals and among conservatives. Having more frequent discussions is associated with a higher probability of holding more liberal opinions among liberals, while there is little association between discussion frequency and opinions among conservatives. These findings can be explained by the moral argument theory, which is an account of the long-term liberalization of public opinion on moral issues as an outcome of repeated discussions. The key assumption of this theory is that opinions that are justified by the kinds of arguments that only conservatives accept have a disadvantage compared to opinions that are justified by the kinds of arguments that everyone accepts. Consistent with this theory, we find that the effect of discussion frequency is stronger for moral opinions that have a bigger argument advantage.
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| 23. |
- Eriksson, Kimmo, 1967-, et al.
(författare)
-
Hygiene Norms Across 56 Nations are Predicted by Self-Control Values and Disease Threat
- 2021
-
Ingår i: Current Research in Ecological and Social Psychology. - : Elsevier B.V.. - 2666-6227. ; 2
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Three major theories could potentially explain why hygiene norms vary across societies: tightness-looseness theory, disease threat theory, and theory of a civilizing process driven by how self-control is valued. We test these theories using data from a study of 56 countries across the globe, in which almost 20,000 participants reported their norms about spitting in six different contexts, hand washing in six different contexts, and tooth brushing. Participants also reported the perceived tightness of their society, whether they perceived diseases as a threat to their society, and their valuation of self-control. In support of the civilizing process, most of the norms in our study (including most hand washing norms and most spitting norms) were stricter in countries where self-control is valued more highly. A few norms did not follow this main pattern and these norms were instead stricter in countries where disease was perceived as a greater threat. Thus, while the theory of a civilizing process received the strongest support, our data indicate that some combination with the disease threat theory may be required to fully explain country-variation in hygiene norms.
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| 24. |
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| 25. |
- Eriksson, Kimmo, 1967-, et al.
(författare)
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Moderators of the disapproval of peer punishment
- 2016
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Ingår i: Group Processes & Intergroup Relations. - : SAGE Publications. - 1368-4302 .- 1461-7188. ; 19:2, s. 152-168
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Recent studies have found disapproval of peer punishment of norm violations. This seems puzzling, given the potential benefits peer punishers contribute to the group. We suggest part of the answer is that peer punishers tend to come across as aggressive and as such may be viewed as more problematic than beneficial to have around. We used simple computer animations of geometric shapes to enact 15 precise variations of social sanctions against a norm violator. More than 1,800 subjects were recruited to watch an animation and judge the behavior and character of the animated agents. They also completed a trait aggression measure. Across the variations peer punishment was typically disapproved of, especially when severe or openly aggressive, and especially by subjects low on trait aggression. We conclude that there seems to be a social norm against peer punishment and that dislike of aggressiveness seems to be part of the reason why.
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| 26. |
- Eriksson, Kimmo, 1967-, et al.
(författare)
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Opinion Trends on Moral Issues in the United States and the United Kingdom Explained by the Applicability of Generally Accepted Arguments
- 2022
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Ingår i: International journal of public opinion research. - : OXFORD UNIV PRESS. - 0954-2892 .- 1471-6909. ; 34:1
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- According to a recent theory, public opinion on moral issues will trend toward opinions that are justified by generally acceptable kinds of arguments. Both in the United States and the United Kingdom, generally acceptable kinds of arguments include concerns about harm, violence, fairness, and liberty. The theory therefore predicts that these countries will exhibit similar opinion trends on moral issues. We test this prediction using polling data on 98 issues in the United States and 108 issues in the United Kingdom, with an overlap of 27 issues on which opinions have been polled in both countries. We find that moral opinion trends are well predicted by the applicability of generally acceptable kinds of arguments and that there is a remarkable similarity between opinion trends in the two countries. These findings lend support to the theory that generally acceptable kinds of arguments play a key role in driving opinion dynamics.
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| 27. |
- Eriksson, Kimmo, et al.
(författare)
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Optimal Expected Rank in a Two-Sided Secretary Problem
- 2007
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Ingår i: Operations Research. - : Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS). - 0030-364X .- 1526-5463. ; 55:5, s. 921-931
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In a two-sided version of the famous secretary problem, employers search for a secretary at the same time as secretaries search for an employer. Nobody accepts being put on hold, and nobody is willing to take part in more than N interviews. Preferences are independent, and agents seek to optimize the expected rank of the partner they obtain among the N potential partners. We find that in any subgame perfect equilibrium, the expected rank grows as the square root of N (whereas it tends to a constant in the original secretary problem). We also compute how much agents can gain by cooperation.
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| 28. |
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| 29. |
- Eriksson, Kimmo, 1967-, et al.
(författare)
-
Partner Search Heuristics in the Lab: : Stability of Matchings Under Various Preference Structures
- 2009
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Ingår i: Adaptive Behavior. - : SAGE Publications. - 1059-7123 .- 1741-2633. ; 17:6, s. 524-536
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- When agents search for partners, the outcome is a matching. K. Eriksson and O. Häggström (2008) defined a measure of instability of matchings and proved that under a certain partner search heuristic, outcomes are likely to have low instability. They also showed that with regards to stability, the preference structure known as common preferences lie somewhere in between the extreme cases of homotypic and antithetical preferences. Following up on this theoretical work, we let human subjects search for a good partner in a computer game where preferences were set to be either common, homotypic, or antithetical. We find that total search effort and instability of the outcome vary in the predicted ways with the preference structure and the number of agents. A set of simulations show that these results are consistent with a model where agents use a simple search heuristic with a slight possibility of error.
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| 30. |
- Eriksson, Kimmo, et al.
(författare)
-
Perceptions of the appropriate response to norm violation in 57 societies
- 2021
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Ingår i: Nature Communications. - : Nature Research. - 2041-1723. ; 12:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Norm enforcement may be important for resolving conflicts and promoting cooperation. However, little is known about how preferred responses to norm violations vary across cultures and across domains. In a preregistered study of 57 countries (using convenience samples of 22,863 students and non-students), we measured perceptions of the appropriateness of various responses to a violation of a cooperative norm and to atypical social behaviors. Our findings highlight both cultural universals and cultural variation. We find a universal negative relation between appropriateness ratings of norm violations and appropriateness ratings of responses in the form of confrontation, social ostracism and gossip. Moreover, we find the country variation in the appropriateness of sanctions to be consistent across different norm violations but not across different sanctions. Specifically, in those countries where use of physical confrontation and social ostracism is rated as less appropriate, gossip is rated as more appropriate. Little is known about peoples preferred responses to norm violations across countries. Here, in a study of 57 countries, the authors highlight cultural similarities and differences in peoples perception of the appropriateness of norm violations.
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| 31. |
- Eriksson, Kimmo, et al.
(författare)
-
Political double standards in reliance on moral foundations
- 2019
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Ingår i: Judgment and Decision Making. - : Cambridge University Press (CUP). - 1930-2975. ; 14:4, s. 440-454
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Prior research using the Moral Foundations Questionnaire (MFQ) has established that political ideology is associated with self-reported reliance on specific moral foundations in moral judgments of acts. MFQ items do not specify the agents involved in the acts, however. By specifying agents in MFQ items we revealed blatant political double standards. Conservatives thought that the same moral foundation was more relevant if victims were agents that they like (i.e., corporations and other conservatives) but less relevant when the same agents were perpetrators. Liberals showed the same pattern for agents that they like (i.e., news media and other liberals). A UK sample showed much weaker political double standards with respect to corporations and news media, consistent with feelings about corporations and news media being much less politicized in the UK than in the US. We discuss the implications for moral foundations theory.
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| 32. |
- Eriksson, Kimmo, 1967-, et al.
(författare)
-
Social learning may lead to population level conformity without individual level frequency bias
- 2017
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Ingår i: Scientific Reports. - : NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP. - 2045-2322. ; 7
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A requirement of culture, whether animal or human, is some degree of conformity of behavior within populations. Researchers of gene-culture coevolution have suggested that population level conformity may result from frequency-biased social learning: individuals sampling multiple role models and preferentially adopting the majority behavior in the sample. When learning from a single role model, frequency-bias is not possible. We show why a population-level trend, either conformist or anticonformist, may nonetheless be almost inevitable in a population of individuals that learn through social enhancement, that is, using observations of others' behavior to update their own probability of using a behavior in the future. The exact specification of individuals' updating rule determines the direction of the trend. These results offer a new interpretation of previous findings from simulations of social enhancement in combination with reinforcement learning, and demonstrate how results of dynamical models may strongly depend on seemingly innocuous choices of model specifications, and how important it is to obtain empirical data on which to base such choices.
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| 33. |
- Eriksson, Kimmo, et al.
(författare)
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Spontaneous associations and label framing have similar effects in the public goods game
- 2014
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Ingår i: Judgment and Decision Making. - : Cambridge University Press (CUP). - 1930-2975. ; 9:5, s. 360-372
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- It is known that presentation of a meaningful label (e. g., The Teamwork Game) can influence decisions in economic games. A common view is that such labels cue associations to preexisting mental models of situations, a process here called frame selection. In the absence of such cues, participants may still spontaneously associate a game with a preexisting frame. We used the public goods game to compare the effect of such spontaneous frame selection with the effect of label framing. Participants in a condition where the public goods game was labeled The Teamwork Game tended to contribute at the same level as participants who spontaneously associated the unlabeled game with teamwork, whereas those who did not associate the the unlabeled game with teamwork tended to make lower contributions. We conclude that neutrally described games may be subject to spontaneous frame selection effects comparable in size to the effects of label framing.
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| 34. |
- Eriksson, Kimmo, 1967-, et al.
(författare)
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The devil is in the details : Incorrect intuitions in optimal search
- 2010
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Ingår i: Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization. - : Elsevier BV. - 0167-2681 .- 1879-1751. ; 75:2, s. 338-347
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In the classic Secretary Problem it has been established that people tend to search somewhat less than is optimal, and a number of explanations have been suggested. Here we propose a new explanation, the Similar-But-Incorrect Intuitions Hypothesis, which says that suboptimal search behavior is to be expected because optimal strategies vary disproportionately with subtle details of the search problem setup, whereas people seem to entertain general intuitions about optimal search. We find support for this hypothesis in experiments on a new search problem, the Explore-and-Collect Problem, where the player collects utility from an option every time it is tried and options can be recalled. Although the optimal search effort in this problem is much smaller than for the Secretary Problem, people tend to search only marginally less. This is not predicted by previous explanations for suboptimal search.
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| 35. |
- Eriksson, Kimmo, 1967-, et al.
(författare)
-
The hard problem of cooperation
- 2012
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Ingår i: PLOS ONE. - : Public Library of Science (PLoS). - 1932-6203. ; 7:7, s. e40325-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Based on individual variation in cooperative inclinations, we define the “hard problem of cooperation” as that of achieving high levels of cooperation in a group of non-cooperative types. Can the hard problem be solved by institutions with monitoring and sanctions? In a laboratory experiment we find that the answer is affirmative if the institution is imposed on the group but negative if development of the institution is left to the group to vote on. In the experiment, participants were divided into groups of either cooperative types or non-cooperative types depending on their behavior in a public goods game. In these homogeneous groups they repeatedly played a public goods game regulated by an institution that incorporated several of the key properties identified by Ostrom: operational rules, monitoring, rewards, punishments, and (in one condition) change of rules. When change of rules was not possible and punishments were set to be high, groups of both types generally abided by operational rules demanding high contributions to the common good, and thereby achieved high levels of payoffs. Under less severe rules, both types of groups did worse but non-cooperative types did worst. Thus, non-cooperative groups profited the most from being governed by an institution demanding high contributions and employing high punishments. Nevertheless, in a condition where change of rules through voting was made possible, development of the institution in this direction was more often voted down in groups of non-cooperative types. We discuss the relevance of the hard problem and fit our results into a bigger picture of institutional and individual determinants of cooperative behavior.
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| 36. |
- Eriksson, Kimmo, et al.
(författare)
-
Three-dimensional stable matching with cyclic preferences
- 2006
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Ingår i: Mathematical Social Sciences. - : Elsevier BV. - 0165-4896 .- 1879-3118. ; 52:1, s. 77-87
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We consider stable three-dimensional matchings of three genders (3GSM). Alkan [Alkan, A., 1988. Nonexistence of stable threesome matchings. Mathematical Social Sciences 16, 207-209] showed that not all instances of 3GSM allow stable matchings. Boros et al. [Boros, E., Gurvich, V, Jaslar, S., Krasner, D., 2004. Stable matchings in three-sided systems with cyclic preferences. Discrete Mathematics 286, 1-10] showed that if preferences are cyclic, and the number of agents is limited to three of each gender, then a stable matching always exists. Here we extend this result to four agents of each gender. We also show that a number of well-known sufficient conditions for stability do not apply to cyclic 3GSM. Based on computer search, we formulate a conjecture on stability of "strongest link" 3GSM, which would imply stability of cyclic 3GSM.
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| 37. |
- Eriksson, Kimmo, et al.
(författare)
-
Ubiquity and efficiency of restrictions on informal punishment rights
- 2013
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Ingår i: Journal of Evolutionary Psychology. - 1789-2082 .- 1589-7397. ; 11:1, s. 17-34
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Over-punishment often occurs in anonymous peer-to-peer punishment in public goods game experiments where punishment is free for all. We report a public goods game experiment in which a condition where punishment rights were restricted to one other player per player yielded higher total welfare than a condition with unrestricted punishment. In the restricted punishment condition, there was much less punishment but high levels of cooperation were achieved nonetheless. This indicates that it may be beneficial to groups to restrict punishment rights. In a second study we presented respondents from many different countries with three scenarios constituting everyday social dilemmas of various kinds. Across countries, respondents tended to judge it as inappropriate for most involved parties to punish selfish individuals in the scenarios. Typically, only one party was judged to have the right to punish. Whereas much prior work has considered punishment as a public good that needs to be encouraged, these findings suggest that informal norms about sanctions tend to constrain punishment to certain individuals. Such norms may serve the function to harness the positive effects of punishment while containing the negative effects, and we suggest that they are likely to arise from learning.
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| 38. |
- Eriksson, Kimmo, et al.
(författare)
-
Using Models to Predict Cultural Evolution From Emotional Selection Mechanisms
- 2020
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Ingår i: Emotion Review. - : SAGE Publications. - 1754-0739 .- 1754-0747. ; 12:2, s. 79-92
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Cultural variants may spread by being more appealing, more memorable, or less offensive than other cultural variants. Empirical studies suggest that such emotional selection is a force to be reckoned with in cultural evolution. We present a research paradigm that is suitable for the study of emotional selection. It guides empirical research by directing attention to the circumstances under which emotions influence the likelihood that an individual will influence another individual to acquire a cultural variant. We present a modeling framework to translate such knowledge into specific and testable predictions of population-level change. A set of already analyzed basic cases can serve as a toolbox.
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| 39. |
- Eriksson, Kimmo, 1967-, et al.
(författare)
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When is it appropriate to reprimand a norm violation? : The roles of anger, behavioral consequences, violation severity, and social distance
- 2017
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Ingår i: Judgment and Decision Making. - : Society for Judgment and Decision making. - 1930-2975. ; 12:4, s. 396-407
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Experiments on economic games typically fail to find positive reputational effects of using peer punishment of selfish behavior in social dilemmas. Theorists had expected positive reputational effects because of the potentially beneficial consequences that punishment may have on norm violators’ behavior. Going beyond the game-theoretic paradigm, we used vignettes to study how various social factors influence approval ratings of a peer who reprimands a violator of a group-beneficial norm. We found that ratings declined when punishers showed anger, and this effect was mediated by perceived aggressiveness. Thus the same emotions that motivate peer punishers may make them come across as aggressive, to the detriment of their reputation. However, the negative effect of showing anger disappeared when the norm violation was sufficiently severe. Ratings of punishers were also influenced by social distance, such that it is less appropriate for a stranger than a friend to reprimand a violator. In sum, peer punisher ratings were very high for a friend reprimanding a severe norm violation, but particularly poor for a stranger showing anger at a mild norm violation. We found no effect on ratings of whether the reprimand had the beneficial consequence of changing the violator’s behavior. Our findings provide insight into how peer punishers can avoid negative reputational effects. They also point to the importance of going beyond economic games when studying peer punishment.
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| 40. |
- Eriksson, Lise, Docent, 1977-, et al.
(författare)
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The Liberal Social Values of Swedish Healthcare Providers in Women’s Healthcare: Implications for Clinical Encounters in a Diversified Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare
- 2022
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Ingår i: International Journal of Public Health. - : Frontiers Media S.A.. - 1661-8556 .- 1661-8564. ; 67, s. 1-9
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Objectives: Women’s healthcare is a potential source of cross-cultural conflicts.Diverging values between healthcare providers and patients challenges the provision ofculturally sensitive care and meeting migrant women’s needs. The aim is to investigatehealthcare providers’ values in relation to sexual and reproductive rights, gender equality,migration and religion in Swedish sexual and reproductive healthcare.Methods: A national cross-sectional study was carried out. The questionnaire wasdistributed through a non-probability sample to midwives or other nurses,gynaecologists and obstetricians, and hospital social workers (n = 1,041). Throughdescriptive statistics, we mapped their values, comparing healthcare provider data toexternal representative population survey data.Results: Healthcare providers in sexual and reproductive healthcare displayedhomogeneous liberal social values, being permissive towards sexual and reproductiverights and restrictive against gender-based violence. They were for gender equality,expressed low anti-immigrant sentiments, and had even more liberal values than theSwedish population and a demographically comparative sub-population.Conclusion: Individuals with very liberal values are selected to work in Swedish sexual andreproductive healthcare. Healthcare providers need self-reflexivity to avoid conflicts inclinical encounters in a diversified society.
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| 41. |
- Essén, Birgitta, 1961-, et al.
(författare)
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Assessing knowledge of migrant sexual reproductive health and rights : a national cross-sectional survey among health professionals in Sweden
- 2024
-
Ingår i: Frontiers in Sociology. - : Frontiers Media S.A.. - 2297-7775. ; 9
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Introduction: Despite the commitment of the Swedish government to ensuring equal access to Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights services for all citizens, shortcomings persist among the migrant population. In cases where healthcare providers lack sufficient knowledge or hold misconceptions and biases about these contentious issues, it can lead to the delivery of suboptimal care. Therefore, the objective of this study was to assess the level of knowledge of Swedish healthcare providers on global and Swedish migrant Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights.Methods: A national cross-sectional study was conducted using a questionnaire consisting of seven questions related to global and Swedish migrant Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights. The questionnaire was distributed among midwives, nurses, gynecologists and obstetricians, and hospital social workers (N = 731). The analysis was guided by the Factfulness framework developed by Hans Rosling to identify disparities between healthcare providers’ viewpoints and evidence-based knowledge.Results: There was an overall lack of knowledge among the health care providers on these issues. The highest correct responses were on the question on abandonment of female genital cutting/mutilation after migration (74%). The findings indicated that healthcare providers originating from Sweden, physicians, those with fewer years of clinical experience, and exhibiting more migrant-friendly attitudes, demonstrated a higher level of knowledge regarding global and Swedish migrant Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights.Conclusion: This study demonstrates that healthcare providers lacked knowledge of global and Swedish migrant Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights, which was almost uniformly distributed, except among those with more comprehensive and recent education. Contrary to expectations, healthcare professionals did not primarily rely on their education and experiences but were influenced by their personal values and opinions. The study underscores the importance of upgrading knowledge in Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights and encourages policymakers, professionals, and students to base their opinions on well-founded facts, particularly in the context of a diverse and globalized society.
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| 42. |
- Fogarty, Laurel, et al.
(författare)
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THE EVOLUTION OF TEACHING
- 2011
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Ingår i: Evolution. - : Wiley. - 0014-3820 .- 1558-5646. ; 65:10, s. 2760-2770
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Teaching, alongside imitation, is widely thought to underlie the success of humanity by allowing high-fidelity transmission of information, skills, and technology between individuals, facilitating both cumulative knowledge gain and normative culture. Yet, it remains a mystery why teaching should be widespread in human societies but extremely rare in other animals. We explore the evolution of teaching using simple genetic models in which a single tutor transmits adaptive information to a related pupil at a cost. Teaching is expected to evolve where its costs are outweighed by the inclusive fitness benefits that result from the tutor's relatives being more likely to acquire the valuable information. We find that teaching is not favored where the pupil can easily acquire the information on its own, or through copying others, or for difficult to learn traits, where teachers typically do not possess the information to pass on to relatives. This leads to a narrow range of traits for which teaching would be efficacious, which helps to explain the rarity of teaching in nature, its unusual distribution, and its highly specific nature. Further models that allow for cumulative cultural knowledge gain suggest that teaching evolved in humans because cumulative culture renders otherwise difficult-to-acquire valuable information available to teach.
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| 43. |
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| 44. |
- Funcke, Alexander, et al.
(författare)
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Biased perception may trump rational intention: Most people think they are less corrupt than average
- 2015
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Ingår i: SSRN Electronic Journal. - : Elsevier BV. - 1556-5068.
-
Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- From a game theoretic point of view, a social norm can sometimes be considered as a Nash equilibrium in a coordination game. Here we point out a psychological reason why such a social norm might erode, even if it is beneficial and agents have rational intentions. The reason is a well-established bias in interpersonal perception, the better-than-average effect. Psychological research on this bias has mainly focused on skills and personality attributes, rather than normative behavior. In a series of online surveys, we demonstrate that the better-than-average effect applies also to judgments of the likelihood to engage in petty corruption, a very important domain of social norms. We conclude that this psychological bias may be a factor that contributes to the difficulty of establishing noncorruption.
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| 45. |
- Funcke, Alexander, 1982-
(författare)
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Mathematical models of social norms and petty corruption
- 2015
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Corruption is a problem all around the world, but the extent of the problem varies between countries and situations. In this thesis, I focus on how corruption levels can change when they are culturally determined. For this reason, I study the dynamics of the cultural underpinnings: social norms and conventions.The dissertation consists of six papers. In the first paper, I expand a common definition of social norms. The aim of the extension is to capture the fact that the scope of a social norm may be larger than just a single specific situation. I introduce a similarity measure and develop a mathematical model according to which all situations' social norms are interconnected, and affect each other, but those situations that are most similar and most recent have the greatest normative effect on a current situation. Given this model I test the effect of bringing about norm change by temporarily dismantling institutions and then reestablishing them.In the second paper, I show in a mathematical model how it is possible to design fine and reward mechanisms that make it superfluous for individuals to form beliefs about how others will act. Through this mechanism, it should be possible to circumvent the problem that norm change typically will be successful only if it is synchronized across a large part of the population.In the third paper, I and my co-authors, first conducted a survey. The results of which demonstrate that there is a general tendency among people to consider themselves to be less prone to corrupt behavior than the average person. Such an "everyone-is-better-than-average" effect is a well-established phenomenon in social psychology but not previously demonstrated in the corruption domain. We then show in a mathematical model that such systematic biases in estimation of own versus others' corruption make it more difficult to achieve norm change in the direction of less corruption.In the fourth and fifth paper we again consider the "everyone-is-better-than-average" effect and see how in certain value based groups the effect can be reversed. This changes the insight from the third paper slightly.The last paper considers a classic question of how a collective can succeed in collective action when it is risky to be among the first individuals to act. I and my co-author investigate how the collective can benefit from access to a set of signal acts that signal an individual's level of commitment to the collective cause. The problem is modeled as a threshold model where an individual's inclination to conduct a specific act depends on the previous commitment level in the population.
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| 46. |
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| 47. |
- Gruber, Thibaud, et al.
(författare)
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Wild Chimpanzees Rely on Cultural Knowledge to Solve an ExperimentalHoney Acquisition Task
- 2009
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Ingår i: Current Biology. - : Elsevier BV. - 0960-9822 .- 1879-0445. ; 19, s. 1806-1810
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Population and group-specific behavioral differences have been taken as evidence for animal cultures [1–10], a notion that remains controversial. Skeptics argue that ecological or genetic factors, rather than social learning, provide a more parsimonious explanation [11–14]. Work with captive chimpanzees has addressed this criticism by showing that experimentally created traditions can be transmitted through social learning [15–17]. Recent fieldwork further suggests that ecological and genetic factors are insufficient to explain the behavioral differences seen between communities, but the data are only observational [18, 19]. Here, we present the results of a field experiment [20, 21] that compared the performance of chimpanzees (P. t. schweinfurthii) from two Ugandan communities, Kanyawara and Sonso, on an identical task in the physical domain—extracting honey from holes drilled into horizontal logs. Kanyawara chimpanzees, who occasionally use sticks to acquire honey [4], spontaneously manufactured sticks to extract the experimentally provided honey. In contrast, Sonso chimpanzees, who possess a considerable leaf technology but no food related stick use [4, 22], relied on their fingers, but some also produced leaf sponges to access the honey. Our results indicate that, when genetic and environmental factors are controlled, wild chimpanzees rely on their cultural knowledge to solve a novel task.
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| 48. |
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| 49. |
- Jansson, Fredrik, et al.
(författare)
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Modeling the Evolution of Creoles
- 2015
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Ingår i: Language Dynamics and Change. - : Brill. - 2210-5824 .- 2210-5832. ; 5:1, s. 1-51
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Various theories have been proposed regarding the origin of creole languages. Describing a process where only the end result is documented involves several methodological difficulties. In this paper we try to address some of the issues by using a novel mathematical model together with detailed empirical data on the origin and structure of Mauritian Creole. Our main focus is on whether Mauritian Creole may have originated only from a mutual desire to communicate, without a target language or prestige bias. Our conclusions are affirmative. With a confirmation bias towards learning from successful communication, the model predicts Mauritian Creole better than any of the input languages, including the lexifier French, thus providing a compelling and specific hypothetical model of how creoles emerge. The results also show that it may be possible for a creole to develop quickly after first contact, and that it was created mostly from material found in the input languages, but without inheriting their morphology.
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| 50. |
- Jansson, Fredrik, 1981-, et al.
(författare)
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Modelling the Evolution of Creoles
-
Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Various theories have been proposed regarding the origin of creole languages. Describing a process where only the end result is documented involves dealing with several methodological difficulties. In this paper we try to deal with some of the issues by using a novel mathematical model together with detailed empirical data on the origin and structure of Mauritian Creole. Our main focus is on whetherMauritian Creole may have been created only from a mutual desire to communicate, without a target language or prestige bias. Our conclusions are affirmative. With a confirmation bias towards learning from successful communication, the model predicts Mauritian Creole better than any of the input languages, including the lexifier French, thus providing a compelling and specific hypothetical model of how creoles are created. The results also show that it may be possible for a creole to develop quickly after first contact, and that it was created mostly from material found in the input languages, but without inheriting their morphology.
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