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People often interact with groups (i.e., ensembles) during social interactions. Given that group-level information is important in navigating social environments, we expect perceptual sensitivity to aspects of groups that are relevant for personal threat as well as social belonging. Most ensemble perception research has focused on visual ensembles, with little research looking at auditory or vocal ensembles. Across four studies, we present evidence that (i) perceivers accurately extract the sex composition of a group from voices alone, (ii) judgments of threat increase concomitantly with the number of men, and (iii) listeners sense of belonging depends on the number of same-sex others in the group. This work advances our understanding of social cognition, interpersonal communication, and ensemble coding to include auditory information, and reveals peoples ability to extract relevant social information from brief exposures to vocalizing groups.

Laugh faces of humans play a key role in everyday social interactions as a pervasive tool of communication across contexts. Humans often vary the degree of mouth opening and teeth exposure when producing these facial expressions, which may depend on who their social partner is (e.g., their gender and age as well as their social relationship), serving this way different functions. Although it was found that laugh faces show evolutionary continuity across humans and non-human great apes according to the Principle of Maximum Parsimony, little is known about the function of laugh face variations from an evolutionary perspective. Hence, the present work examined the morphology of laugh faces in orangutan and chimpanzee dyadic play to test if they are modified with dependence on the playmate's characteristics (sex, age and social relationship). In total, we analysed over 600 facial expressions of 14 orangutans and 17 chimpanzees by coding the specific muscle activations (Action Units, i.e. AUs) contributing to these expressions, using OrangFACS and ChimpFACS, respectively. Our results suggest that age difference and, to a lesser extent, playmate sex influence laugh face morphology in both taxa, but in opposite ways. While the orangutans of our study seem to expose their upper teeth (with AU10) and to pull the mouth corners (with AU12) more towards weaker partners (younger and female), possibly to communicate non-hostility, the chimpanzees showed both upper and lower teeth exposure (with AU10 and AU16) more often when interacting with the stronger partners (older individuals), possibly to communicate submissiveness. These findings suggest that the ability of humans to modify laugh faces with dependence on social partner characteristics has most likely evolved from pre-existing traits, going back at least to the last common ancestor of today's great apes, including humans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent findings on chimpanzee infants' gestural development show that they use some gesture types flexibly and adjust them depending on their interaction partner and social context, suggesting that gestural communication is partly learnt and partly genetically determined. However, how gesture types are shaped by social and demographic factors remains unclear. We addressed this question by focusing on gesture type morphology and conducted a fined-grained analysis of gestural form during intraspecific social-play interactions in two captive groups of Western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla). We focused on the most frequent gesture types (beat chest, slap body, slap ground and touch body) produced by subadults (infants, juveniles and adolescents). We considered twelve morphological gesture characteristics (e.g., horizontal and vertical hand trajectories, fingers flexion and spread). Our multifactorial investigation shows that morphological characteristics of distinct gesture types can be shaped by social factors, namely signaller's sociodemographic characteristics (group and kinship), signaller's behavioural characteristics (body posture) and context-related characteristics (recipient's sex, attentional state and position in the signaller's visual field). We nurtured the lively debate concerning gesture origins by revealing the existence of "accents" in non-verbal communication and the highly variable adjustment of gestural form to different conspecifics and interactional characteristics, which supports the revised social negotiation hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interpersonal Distance (IPD) is defined as the physical distance that individuals maintain between themselves and others during social interactions. While literature has extensively focused on this everyday social behavior, how IPD changes throughout the lifespan remains an open question. In this study, 864 participants, aged 3–89 years, performed the Stop Distance Paradigm in their real-life environments, and we measured the distance they kept from both familiar and unfamiliar others during social interactions. We found that IPD not only differs based on the identity of the other person (familiar versus unfamiliar) but critically declines as a function of age, following two distinct non-linear trends for familiar and unfamiliar others. Moreover, behavioral variability also undergoes a lifetime development, with IPD becoming more stable as age increases. Overall, the present study suggests that IPD is a complex and acquired behavior that changes throughout the lifespan and varies according to individual and situational variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Empathy, a cornerstone of social interaction, involves shared representation, eliciting vicarious emotions. However, its influence on shared perceptual representations, particularly in foundational domains such as distance perception, remains unexplored. In this study, we introduce a novel adaptation of the empathy for pain task to investigate empathy's influence on distance perception. We also examine how two personality traits, trait empathy and alexithymia, modulate this relationship. Utilizing eye-tracking technology, we examine how attention allocation to different facial and bodily features affects empathy's impact on distance perception. Our findings indicate that empathy biases individuals to perceive targets as closer, with trait empathy reinforcing this effect and alexithymia attenuating it. Furthermore, we demonstrate that heightened attention to eyes and face correlates with perceiving targets as closer, while attention to hand shows the opposite trend. These results underscore the broader influence of empathy beyond shared emotions, revealing its capacity to alter perceptual processes. By elucidating the interplay between personality traits and visual inputs in shaping these alterations, our study offers valuable insights for future research exploring the role of shared representation in empathy across various perceptual domains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Positive human–animal interactions (HAIs) can be intrinsically rewarding and facilitate positive human–animal relationships. However, HAI paradigms vary across studies, and the influence of different interaction paradigms on the animal's response has been overlooked. We compared the behavioural responses of pigs (n = 28) individually tested with two types of gentle tactile interactions with a familiar human: 'free form (FF)' where the pig could voluntarily approach and interact as they normally would, and 'imposed contact (IC)' where the human imposed tactile contact on the pig according to a standardised protocol. Pigs did not differ in their level of engagement with the human between the two types of interactions. However, they differed in their behaviour as they explored the pen more during the FF test, while they emitted more low-pitched vocalisations (grunts) during the IC test. These differences can likely be imputed to the IC test differing to the pigs' habituation to human contact, which could have evoked greater attention to the human or triggered frustration due to violation of expectation. These findings highlight the influence of the predictability of the interaction or level of agency provided to the animal in HAI tests and relation to their previous experience of interacting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This meta-analysis investigates the effect of classic psychedelic drugs on empathy and focuses on cognitive and emotional empathy measured using the Multifaceted Empathy Test (MET). Empathy entails the ability to understand and share the feelings of another and is a significant component of social interaction. Several studies have examined the effects of psychedelic drugs such as LSD, psilocybin and ayahuasca on empathy, yet their overall effect has not been studied so far. In this meta-analysis, we reviewed data from studies up to November 2023 with the aim of examining the effects of various psychedelic drugs on empathic abilities broadly. Our findings suggest that classical psychedelics significantly enhance explicit and implicit emotional empathy without affecting measures of cognitive empathy. The results emphasize the need to continue testing the therapeutic potential of classic psychedelic drugs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of social interactions lies at the core of several disciplines such as psychiatry, psychology and ethology, just to name a few. In this context, understanding the temporal patterns underlying interactive behaviors is of crucial importance. Here, we employed T-pattern detection and analysis to study social interactions in ten pairs of Wistar rats tested in an Open-Field environment. We found four different categories of interactive behaviors. One of them was of particular interest to us because it consisted of behavioral events that, taken individually, should not underlie an interaction of any kind; however, they were included in T-patterns, which is suggestive of a dyadic temporal coordination in the behavioral expression of two individuals. Within this category, we described for the first time a new subcategory of apparent interaction patterns characterized by events that one of the two rats repeats only if previously produced by the partner (i.e., behavioral mirroring). These findings are discussed in functional terms for rodents and in light of our current understanding of social interactions in humans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Interpersonal Distance (IPD) is defined as the physical distance that individuals maintain between themselves and others during social interactions. While literature has extensively focused on this everyday social behavior, how IPD changes throughout the lifespan remains an open question. In this study, 864 participants, aged 3–89 years, performed the Stop Distance Paradigm in their real-life environments, and we measured the distance they kept from both familiar and unfamiliar others during social interactions. We found that IPD not only differs based on the identity of the other person (familiar versus unfamiliar) but critically declines as a function of age, following two distinct non-linear trends for familiar and unfamiliar others. Moreover, behavioral variability also undergoes a lifetime development, with IPD becoming more stable as age increases. Overall, the present study suggests that IPD is a complex and acquired behavior that changes throughout the lifespan and varies according to individual and situational variables.

Abstract In rural areas, neighborly relationships are complex, and farmers’ behaviors are largely influenced by neighborly interactions. The promotion of agricultural technologies should not overlook the social interactions between farmers. Based on survey data from farmers in Minqin, China, this paper explores the role of overall social interaction and its various dimensions in farmers’ adoption of water-saving irrigation technology, focusing on the testing of three interactive mechanisms during the technology adoption process. The goal is to provide scientific policy suggestions for government when promoting agricultural technologies. The results show the following: social interaction promotes the adoption of water-saving irrigation technology among farmers; among the four dimensions of social interaction, the depth and frequency of social interaction facilitate the adoption of these technologies; social interaction promotes technology adoption through endogenous interaction mechanism, situational interaction mechanism, and social norm mechanism, with situational interaction mechanism and social norm mechanism playing a more significant role; social interaction has a stronger impact on farmers with longer farming experience and higher irrigation costs. Therefore, the government should emphasize the important role of social interaction in the adoption of agricultural technologies and accelerate the diffusion of these technologies through fostering technical exchanges among farmers, cultivating demonstration households, and implementing differentiated promotion strategies.

Abstract Agreeableness, one of the five personality traits, is associated with socio-cognitive abilities. This study investigates how agreeableness impacts the perception of social interactions, while considering sex that might moderate this effect. Sixty-two young adults, preselected to ensure a wide range of agreeableness scores, underwent EEG recording while viewing images depicting real-world scenes of two people either engaged in a social interaction or acting independently. Behavioral results suggested a trend where higher agreeableness scores predicted better ability to detect social interactions primarily in males. ERP analysis showed that individuals with higher agreeableness exhibited stronger neural differentiation between social and non-social stimuli, observed in both females and males, and in the whole sample. This neural differentiation, occurring early in the processing timeline, was particularly extensive in males, and predictive of their performance. Three independent source analyses, conducted for the whole sample and for each sex, identified the engagement of right fronto-parietal regions for the ERP-agreeableness association. These findings enhance our understanding of how agreeableness shapes the neural mechanisms underlying social interaction detection and emphasize sex as an important factor in this dynamic. They also highlight the need for tailored approaches that consider personality traits and sex in clinical interventions targeting social impairments.

Abstract In modern human societies, social isolation acts as a negative factor for health and life quality. On the other hand, social interaction also has profound effects on animal and human, impacting aggressiveness, feeding and sleep, among many other behaviors. Here, we observe that in the fly Drosophila melanogaster these behavioral changes long-last even after social interaction has ceased, suggesting that the socialization experience triggers behavioral plasticity. These modified behaviors maintain similar levels for 24 h and persist up to 72 h, although showing a progressive decay. We also find that impairing long-term memory mechanisms either genetically or by anesthesia abolishes the expected behavioral changes in response to social interaction. Furthermore, we show that socialization increases CREB-dependent neuronal activity and synaptic plasticity in the mushroom body, the main insect memory center analogous to mammalian hippocampus. We propose that social interaction triggers socialization awareness, understood as long-lasting changes in behavior caused by experience with mechanistic similarities to long-term memory formation.

Abstract The study of social interactions lies at the core of several disciplines such as psychiatry, psychology and ethology, just to name a few. In this context, understanding the temporal patterns underlying interactive behaviors is of crucial importance. Here, we employed T-pattern detection and analysis to study social interactions in ten pairs of Wistar rats tested in an Open-Field environment. We found four different categories of interactive behaviors. One of them was of particular interest to us because it consisted of behavioral events that, taken individually, should not underlie an interaction of any kind; however, they were included in T-patterns, which is suggestive of a dyadic temporal coordination in the behavioral expression of two individuals. Within this category, we described for the first time a new subcategory of apparent interaction patterns characterized by events that one of the two rats repeats only if previously produced by the partner (i.e., behavioral mirroring). These findings are discussed in functional terms for rodents and in light of our current understanding of social interactions in humans.

Abstract Children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have difficulties in social interactions. Studying brain activity during social interactions is difficult with conventional artificial stimuli. This pioneering study examined the neural correlates of social perception in children with ADHD and matched controls using naturalistic stimuli. We presented 20 children with ADHD and 20 age-and-sex-matched controls with tailored movies featuring high- or low-level social interactions while recording electroencephalographic signals. Both groups exhibited synchronized gamma-band oscillations, but controls demonstrated greater inter-subject correlations. Additionally, the difference in inter-subject correlations between high- and low-interaction movies was significantly larger in controls compared to ADHD patients. Between 55 and 75 Hz comparing viewing high interaction movies with low interaction moves, controls had a significantly larger weighting in the right parietal lobe, while ADHD patients had a significantly smaller weighting in the left occipital lobe. These findings reveal distinct spatiotemporal neural signatures in social interaction processing among children with ADHD and controls using naturalistic stimuli. These neural markers offer potential for group differentiation and assessing intervention efficacy, advancing our understanding ADHD-related social interaction mechanisms.

Land transfer is essential for advancing moderate-scale agriculture, and the digital economy plays a key role in facilitating these transfers. Based on microdata from four rounds of the China Household Finance Survey spanning from 2013 to 2019, this study employs a Linear Probability Model (LPM) to examine the impact of digital economy on rural land transfer-out decisions. The results indicate that: (1) The development of the digital economy significantly increases the likelihood of rural households transferring land out. Specifically, for each unit increase in the digital economy index, the probability of a household transferring land out increases by 3.39%. These conclusions remain robust even after accounting for endogeneity and conducting robustness checks. (2) The digital economy facilitates rural land transfer-out by promoting non-agricultural employment and entrepreneurship among farmers, as well as enhancing online social interactions and information acquisition. (3) There are heterogeneous impacts due to different scales and transferees, variations in physical and human capital, as well as differences in village topographies. This study deepens the understanding of the digital economy's impact on land transfer decision-making and provides relevant policy references for facilitating land transfer and agricultural modernization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theories of embodied cognition suggest that a shared environment and ongoing sensorimotor interaction are central for interpersonal learning and engagement. To investigate the embodied, distributed and hence dynamically unfolding nature of social cognitive capacities, we present a novel laboratory-based coordination task: the BallGame. Our paradigm requires continuous sensing and acting between two players who jointly steer a virtual ball around obstacles towards as many targets as possible. By analysing highly resolved measures of movement coordination and gaming behaviour, game-concurrent experience ratings, semi-structured interviews, and personality questionnaires, we reveal contributions from different levels of observation on social experience. In particular, successful coordination (number of targets collected) and intermittent periods of high versus low movement coordination (variability of relation) emerged as prominent predictors of social experience. Importantly, having the same (but incomplete) view on the game environment strengthened interpersonal coordination, whereas complementary views enhanced engagement and tended to generate more complex interactive behaviour. Overall, we find evidence for a critical balance between similarity and synchrony on the one hand, and variability and difference on the other, for successful engagement in social interactions. Finally, following participant reports, we highlight how interpersonal experience emerges from specific histories of coordination that are closely related to the interaction context in both space and time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Suicidal thought and behavior (STB) is highly stigmatized and taboo. Prone to censorship, yet pervasive online, STB risk detection may be improved through development of uniquely insightful digital markers. Focusing on Sanctioned Suicide, an online pro-choice suicide forum, this work derived 17 egocentric network features to capture dynamics of social interaction and engagement within this uniquely uncensored community. Using network data generated from over 3.2 million unique interactions of N = 192 individuals, n = 48 of which were determined to be highest risk users (HRUs), a machine learning classification model was trained, validated, and tested to predict HRU status. Model prediction dynamics were analyzed using introspection techniques to uncover patterns in feature influence and highlight social phenomena. The model achieved a test AUC = 0.73 ([0.61, 0.85], 95% CI), suggesting that network-based socio-behavioral patterns of online interaction can signal for heightened suicide risk. Transitivity, density, and in-degree centrality were among the most important features driving this performance. Moreover, predicted HRUs tended to be targets of social exchanges with lesser frequency and possessed egocentric networks with "small world" network properties. Through the implementation of an underutilized method on an unlikely data source, findings support future incorporation of network-based social interaction features in descriptive, predictive, and preventative STB research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although mindreading is an important prerequisite for successful social interactions, the underlying mechanisms are still matter of debate. It is unclear, for example, if inferring others' and own mental states are distinct processes or are based on a common mechanism. Using an affect-induction experimental set-up with an acoustic heart rate feedback that addresses affective mindreading in self and others, we investigated if non-autistic study participants relied on similar information for self- and other-directed mindreading. We assumed that due to altered mindreading capacities in autism, mainly individuals with low autistic traits would focus on additional sensory cues, such as heart rate, to infer their own and their gambling partner's affective states. Our analyses showed that the interpretation of a heart rate signal differed in self- and other-directed mindreading trials. This effect was modulated by autistic traits suggesting that individuals with higher autistic traits might not have interpreted the heart rate feedback for gambling partner ratings and differentiated less between self- and other-directed mindreading trials. We discuss these results in the context of a common mechanism underlying self- and other-directed mindreading and hypothesize that the weighting of internal and external sensory information might contribute to how we make sense of our and others' mental states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have difficulties in social interactions. Studying brain activity during social interactions is difficult with conventional artificial stimuli. This pioneering study examined the neural correlates of social perception in children with ADHD and matched controls using naturalistic stimuli. We presented 20 children with ADHD and 20 age-and-sex-matched controls with tailored movies featuring high- or low-level social interactions while recording electroencephalographic signals. Both groups exhibited synchronized gamma-band oscillations, but controls demonstrated greater inter-subject correlations. Additionally, the difference in inter-subject correlations between high- and low-interaction movies was significantly larger in controls compared to ADHD patients. Between 55 and 75 Hz comparing viewing high interaction movies with low interaction moves, controls had a significantly larger weighting in the right parietal lobe, while ADHD patients had a significantly smaller weighting in the left occipital lobe. These findings reveal distinct spatiotemporal neural signatures in social interaction processing among children with ADHD and controls using naturalistic stimuli. These neural markers offer potential for group differentiation and assessing intervention efficacy, advancing our understanding ADHD-related social interaction mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Individual-based models of infectious disease dynamics commonly use network structures to represent human interactions. Network structures can vary in complexity, from single-layered with homogeneous mixing to multi-layered with clustering and layer-specific contact weights. Here we assessed policy-relevant consequences of network choice by simulating different network structures within an established individual-based model of SARS-CoV-2 dynamics. We determined the clustering coefficient of each network structure and compared this to several epidemiological outcomes, such as cumulative and peak infections. High-clustered networks estimate fewer cumulative infections and peak infections than less-clustered networks when transmission probabilities are equal. However, by altering transmission probabilities, we find that high-clustered networks can essentially recover the dynamics of low-clustered networks. We further assessed the effect of workplace closures as a layer-targeted intervention on epidemiological outcomes and found in this scenario a single-layered network provides a sufficient approximation of intervention effect relative to a multi-layered network when layer-specific contact weightings are equal. Overall, network structure choice within models should consider the knowledge of contact weights in different environments and pathogen mode of transmission to avoid over- or under-estimating disease burden and impact of interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Few studies have focused sufficiently on the intricate link between functional health and depression among older people aged 60 and above in India. Therefore, the current study investigates the association between functional health and depression among older Indian adults through the mediating role of social disengagement and loneliness and the moderating role of living arrangements using recent data from the Longitudinal Aging Study in India (LASI: 2017–2018). Composite International Diagnostic Interview-Short Form (CIDI-SF) for depression, the Activities of Daily Living (ADL) and Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL) for functional health, and the indoor/outdoor activities, visits, and religious events for social disengagement were used. The feelings of loneliness and living arrangements were measured using single-item questions and surveys/interviews of household members. Bivariate analysis, logistic regression, and a Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Model were adopted. The results show that older persons with functional health had 1.85 times higher odds of depression; similarly, those not engaging in social activities and experiencing loneliness were more likely to feel depressed. Living with someone was negatively linked to depression. A significant moderation by living arrangements in the functional health-depression relationship was also observed. The results also indicate significant mediating roles of social disengagement and loneliness, with 22.0% and 3.08% mediation effects, respectively. Therefore, this study recommends the provision of housing and social interaction among older people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gratitude is pivotal in promoting and maintaining prosocial interactions in human society. However, it is unclear whether the prosocial function of gratitude can be observed even in situations of uncertainty about whether one can provide benefits to others. Here, we examined whether gratitude promotes prosocial behavior in uncertain situations. Participants (N = 60) were randomly assigned to either a gratitude or neutral group. Following the emotion-induced manipulation, we examined whether participants would choose a non-unique resource when selecting one of four resources (one unique and three non-unique) to leave the choice to the follower. This represented an uncertain situation in which choosing a non-unique resource does not necessarily mean the follower will choose the unique one. Results showed that participants in the gratitude group were more likely to choose non-unique resources than those in the neutral group, suggesting that gratitude promotes prosocial behavior even in uncertain situations. Our findings indicate that gratitude is widely prevalent as a lubricant for interpersonal and cooperative relationships in human society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attention is often viewed as a mental spotlight, which can be scaled like a zoom lens at specific spatial locations and features a center-surround gradient. Here, we demonstrate a neural signature of attention spotlight in signal transmission along the visual hierarchy. fMRI background connectivity analysis was performed between retinotopic V1 and downstream areas to characterize the spatial distribution of inter-areal interaction under two attentional states. We found that, compared to diffused attention, focal attention sharpened the spatial gradient in the strength of the background connectivity. Dynamic causal modeling analysis further revealed the effect of attention in both the feedback and feedforward connectivity between V1 and extrastriate cortex. In a context which induced a strong effect of crowding, the effect of attention in the background connectivity profile diminished. Our findings reveal a context-dependent attention prioritization in information transmission via modulating the recurrent processing across the early stages in human visual cortex. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The global older adult population is increasing. Early detection and intervention through health check-ups are crucial for successful aging, as they play a significant role in identifying and addressing diseases. This study explored the relationship between the utilization of senior centers and the promotion of health check-ups. It utilized data from 10,097 individuals aged 65 years and above, sourced from the 2020 Elderly Survey in South Korea. The primary variable of interest was classified into two groups: those who utilized senior centers and those who did not. Subgroups were further categorized based on the frequency of usage and the presence of family members among senior centers users. Logistic regression analyses were conducted to assess the association between the utilization of senior centers and participation in health check-ups. Both men and women utilizing senior centers demonstrated a higher likelihood of participating in health check-ups compared with those who did not use senior centers. Participants visiting senior centers in a week exhibited a progressively higher likelihood of engaging in health check-ups compared with those who visited such senior centers zero times a week. Senior centers can serve as effective intervention methods to enhance health check-ups among older adults. Furthermore, this can contribute to fostering successful aging among older adults.

Abstract The educational burden from extracurricular tutoring class has become a pressing social issue in China. This study used data from the China family panel studies (CFPS) in 2014, 2016, and 2018 to empirically analyze the impact of Internet usage on children’s participation in extracurricular tutoring class. There are many factors that influence parents’ decisions to enroll their children in extracurricular tutoring class. These factors include family income status, the level of importance parents place on their children’s education, the marginal returns on educational investment, academic pressure, etc. However, in today’s digitalized society, the widespread use of the internet will also become an important influencing factor in parents’ decisions regarding educational investment. The study finds that, parents by using the Internet significantly increase the probability of enrolling their children in extracurricular tutoring class. Through mechanism regression analysis, it is concluded that internet usage has a positive influence on parents enrolling their children in extracurricular tutoring class by increasing the frequency of social interaction and raising parents’ educational expectations for their children. Based on the empirical results, the following policy suggestions were proposed: 1. Schools should establish a more comprehensive after-school education service system to improve the engagement of students in compulsory education; 2. The government can enhance the accessibility and optimization of educational resources by increasing investment in education, improving the quality of in-school education, and optimizing the management and supervision of extracurricular tutoring class. This ensures that students can access high-quality educational services.

Abstract Social decision-making is known to be influenced by predictive emotions or the perceived reciprocity of partners. However, the connection between emotion, decision-making, and contextual reciprocity remains less understood. Moreover, arguments suggest that emotional experiences within a social context can be better conceptualised as prosocial rather than basic emotions, necessitating the inclusion of two social dimensions: focus, the degree of an emotion's relevance to oneself or others, and dominance, the degree to which one feels in control of an emotion. For better representation, these dimensions should be considered alongside the interoceptive dimensions of valence and arousal. In an ultimatum game involving fair, moderate, and unfair offers, this online study measured the emotions of 476 participants using a multidimensional affective rating scale. Using unsupervised classification algorithms, we identified individual differences in decisions and emotional experiences. Certain individuals exhibited consistent levels of acceptance behaviours and emotions, while reciprocal individuals' acceptance behaviours and emotions followed external reward value structures. Furthermore, individuals with distinct emotional responses to partners exhibited unique economic responses to their emotions, with only the reciprocal group exhibiting sensitivity to dominance prediction errors. The study illustrates a context-specific model capable of subtyping populations engaged in social interaction and exhibiting heterogeneous mental states.

As robots become increasingly integrated into social economic interactions, it becomes crucial to understand how people perceive a robot's mind. It has been argued that minds are perceived along two dimensions: experience, i.e., the ability to feel, and agency, i.e., the ability to act and take responsibility for one's actions. However, the influence of these perceived dimensions on human–machine interactions, particularly those involving altruism and trust, remains unknown. We hypothesize that the perception of experience influences altruism, while the perception of agency influences trust. To test these hypotheses, we pair participants with bot partners in a dictator game (to measure altruism) and a trust game (to measure trust) while varying the bots' perceived experience and agency, either by manipulating the degree to which the bot resembles humans, or by manipulating the description of the bots' ability to feel and exercise self-control. The results demonstrate that the money transferred in the dictator game is influenced by the perceived experience, while the money transferred in the trust game is influenced by the perceived agency, thereby confirming our hypotheses. More broadly, our findings support the specificity of the mind hypothesis: Perceptions of different dimensions of the mind lead to different kinds of social behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The educational burden from extracurricular tutoring class has become a pressing social issue in China. This study used data from the China family panel studies (CFPS) in 2014, 2016, and 2018 to empirically analyze the impact of Internet usage on children's participation in extracurricular tutoring class. There are many factors that influence parents' decisions to enroll their children in extracurricular tutoring class. These factors include family income status, the level of importance parents place on their children's education, the marginal returns on educational investment, academic pressure, etc. However, in today's digitalized society, the widespread use of the internet will also become an important influencing factor in parents' decisions regarding educational investment. The study finds that, parents by using the Internet significantly increase the probability of enrolling their children in extracurricular tutoring class. Through mechanism regression analysis, it is concluded that internet usage has a positive influence on parents enrolling their children in extracurricular tutoring class by increasing the frequency of social interaction and raising parents' educational expectations for their children. Based on the empirical results, the following policy suggestions were proposed: 1. Schools should establish a more comprehensive after-school education service system to improve the engagement of students in compulsory education; 2. The government can enhance the accessibility and optimization of educational resources by increasing investment in education, improving the quality of in-school education, and optimizing the management and supervision of extracurricular tutoring class. This ensures that students can access high-quality educational services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human interaction is immersed in laughter; though genuine and posed laughter are acoustically distinct, they are both crucial socio-emotional signals. In this novel study, autistic and non-autistic adults explicitly rated the affective properties of genuine and posed laughter. Additionally, we explored whether their self-reported everyday experiences with laughter differ. Both groups could differentiate between these two types of laughter. However, autistic adults rated posed laughter as more authentic and emotionally arousing than non-autistic adults, perceiving it to be similar to genuine laughter. Autistic adults reported laughing less, deriving less enjoyment from laughter, and experiencing difficulty in understanding the social meaning of other people's laughter compared to non-autistic people. Despite these differences, autistic adults reported using laughter socially as often as non-autistic adults, leveraging it to mediate social contexts. Our findings suggest that autistic adults show subtle differences in their perception of laughter, which may be associated with their struggles in comprehending the social meaning of laughter, as well as their diminished frequency and enjoyment of laughter in everyday scenarios. By combining experimental evidence with first-person experiences, this study suggests that autistic adults likely employ different strategies to understand laughter in everyday contexts, potentially leaving them socially vulnerable in communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global older adult population is increasing. Early detection and intervention through health check-ups are crucial for successful aging, as they play a significant role in identifying and addressing diseases. This study explored the relationship between the utilization of senior centers and the promotion of health check-ups. It utilized data from 10,097 individuals aged 65 years and above, sourced from the 2020 Elderly Survey in South Korea. The primary variable of interest was classified into two groups: those who utilized senior centers and those who did not. Subgroups were further categorized based on the frequency of usage and the presence of family members among senior centers users. Logistic regression analyses were conducted to assess the association between the utilization of senior centers and participation in health check-ups. Both men and women utilizing senior centers demonstrated a higher likelihood of participating in health check-ups compared with those who did not use senior centers. Participants visiting senior centers in a week exhibited a progressively higher likelihood of engaging in health check-ups compared with those who visited such senior centers zero times a week. Senior centers can serve as effective intervention methods to enhance health check-ups among older adults. Furthermore, this can contribute to fostering successful aging among older adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social decision-making is known to be influenced by predictive emotions or the perceived reciprocity of partners. However, the connection between emotion, decision-making, and contextual reciprocity remains less understood. Moreover, arguments suggest that emotional experiences within a social context can be better conceptualised as prosocial rather than basic emotions, necessitating the inclusion of two social dimensions: focus, the degree of an emotion's relevance to oneself or others, and dominance, the degree to which one feels in control of an emotion. For better representation, these dimensions should be considered alongside the interoceptive dimensions of valence and arousal. In an ultimatum game involving fair, moderate, and unfair offers, this online study measured the emotions of 476 participants using a multidimensional affective rating scale. Using unsupervised classification algorithms, we identified individual differences in decisions and emotional experiences. Certain individuals exhibited consistent levels of acceptance behaviours and emotions, while reciprocal individuals' acceptance behaviours and emotions followed external reward value structures. Furthermore, individuals with distinct emotional responses to partners exhibited unique economic responses to their emotions, with only the reciprocal group exhibiting sensitivity to dominance prediction errors. The study illustrates a context-specific model capable of subtyping populations engaged in social interaction and exhibiting heterogeneous mental states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Humans' complex behavior, such as speech, music, or dance, requires us to coordinate our actions with external sounds as well as with social partners. The presence of a partner can influence individuals' synchronization, and, in turn, social connection with the partner may depend on the degree of synchronization. We manipulated the synchronization quality in intervention conditions to address the causal relationship between observed temporal synchrony and perceived social interaction. Pairs of musician and nonmusician participants first performed a turn-taking task consisting of alternating which partner tapped their melody in synchrony with a metronome (each tap generated the next tone in the melody). In two intervention conditions, participants attempted to synchronize their melodies simultaneously with their partner, either with normal auditory feedback (normal feedback) or randomly placed delayed feedback on 25% of melodic tones (delayed feedback). After each intervention, the turn-taking condition was repeated, and participants completed a questionnaire about connectedness, relationship, and feeling of synchronization with their partner. Results showed that partners' mean asynchronies were more negative following the delayed feedback intervention. In addition, nonmusician partners' tapping variability was larger following the delayed feedback intervention when they had the delayed feedback intervention first. Ratings of connectedness, relationship, and feeling of synchronization with their partner were reduced for all participants after the delayed feedback Intervention. We modeled participants' synchronization performance in the post-intervention turn-taking conditions using delay-coupling oscillator models. Reductions in synchronization performance after delayed feedback intervention were reflected in reduced coupling strength. These findings suggest that turn-taking synchronization performance and social connectedness are altered following short interventions that disrupt synchronization with a partner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although oxytocin (OT) plays a role in bonding between heterospecifics and conspecifics, the effects of OT on the formation of such interspecific social behavior have only been investigated between humans and dogs (Canis familiaris). In this study, for comparative evaluation of the effects of OT between dog–human and cat–human social interaction, we investigated the effects of exogenous OT on the behavior of domestic cats (Felis silvestris catus) toward humans. We intranasally administered OT or saline to 30 cats using a nebulizer and recorded their behavior (gaze, touch, vocalization, and proximity). The results showed an interaction between the administration condition and sex for gaze duration. Post hoc analyses revealed a significant increase in gaze in the OT condition in male cats but not in females. There were no significant differences in gaze toward owners and strangers in any condition or sex. The male-specific OT-mediated increase in gaze toward humans observed in this study differs from previous research on dogs wherein such effects were observed only in females. These findings suggest an overall effect of exogenous OT on cats' social relationship with humans as well as the possibility of different mechanisms between cat–human and dog–human relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self-identification as a victim of violence may lead to increased negative emotions and stress and thus, may change both structure and function of the underlying neural network(s). In a trans-diagnostic sample of individuals who identified themselves as victims of violence and a matched control group with no prior exposure to violence, we employed a social exclusion paradigm, the Cyberball task, to stimulate the re-experience of stress. Participants were partially excluded in the ball-tossing game without prior knowledge. We analyzed group differences in brain activity and functional connectivity during exclusion versus inclusion in exclusion-related regions. The victim group showed increased anger and stress levels during all conditions. Activation patterns during the task did not differ between groups but an enhanced functional connectivity between the IFG and the right vmPFC distinguished victims from controls during exclusion. This effect was driven by aberrant connectivity in victims during inclusion rather than exclusion, indicating that victimization affects emotional responses and inclusion-related brain connectivity rather than exclusion-related brain activity or connectivity. Victims may respond differently to the social context itself. Enhanced negative emotions and connectivity deviations during social inclusion may depict altered social processing and may thus affect social interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human hemoglobin (Hb) is the preferred iron source of Staphylococcus aureus. This pathogenic bacterium exploits a sophisticated protein machinery called Iron-regulated surface determinant (Isd) system to bind Hb, extract and internalize heme, and finally degrade it to complete iron acquisition. IsdB, the surface exposed Hb receptor, is a proven virulence factor of S. aureus and the inhibition of its interaction with Hb can be pursued as a strategy to develop new classes of antimicrobials. To identify small molecules able to disrupt IsdB:Hb protein–protein interactions (PPIs), we carried out a structure-based virtual screening campaign and developed an ad hoc immunoassay to screen the retrieved set of commercially available compounds. Saturation-transfer difference (STD) NMR was applied to verify specific interactions of a sub-set of molecules, chosen based on their efficacy in reducing the amount of Hb bound to IsdB. Among molecules for which direct binding was verified, the best hit was submitted to ITC analysis to measure the binding affinity to Hb, which was found to be in the low micromolar range. The results demonstrate the viability of the proposed in silico/in vitro experimental pipeline to discover and test IsdB:Hb PPI inhibitors. The identified lead compound will be the starting point for future SAR and molecule optimization campaigns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Autistic Children often struggle with social interaction and communication, studies have found that many of them prefer to interact with objects than people. However, there is a lack of research exploring the specific characteristics and factors involved in interactions within families with autistic children where objects are the center of the interaction. This paper describes the process and findings of a diary study exploring how young autistic children interact with their families through objects in natural scenarios. A one-week diary study was conducted with six families with young autistic children. Diary videos were recorded onsite and coded later according to a social interaction behavior scheme with corresponding diary entries. Qualitative data analysis was conducted to reveal possible patterns. Results revealed ongoing difficulties in establishing and maintaining family interaction and identified influential factors of object-centered family interaction. The most prevalent pattern observed was parents taking the lead in interactions, followed by the child's confirmation response. Remarkably, daily necessities emerged as potential physical mediums for enhancing family interactions, opening avenues for exploring tangible designs in human–computer interaction. These findings offer valuable implications for future research and the development of innovative designs that promote enriching interactions for autistic children and their families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pandemics caused by pathogens that originate in wildlife highlight the importance of understanding the behavioral ecology of disease outbreaks at human-wildlife interfaces. Specifically, the relative effects of human-wildlife and wildlife-wildlife interactions on disease outbreaks among wildlife populations in urban and peri-urban environments remain unclear. We used social network analysis and epidemiological Susceptible-Infected-Recovered models to simulate zooanthroponotic outbreaks, through wild animals' joint propensities to co-interact with humans, and their social grooming of conspecifics. On 10 groups of macaques (Macaca spp.) in peri-urban environments in Asia, we collected behavioral data using event sampling of human-macaque interactions within the same time and space, and focal sampling of macaques' social interactions with conspecifics and overall anthropogenic exposure. Model-predicted outbreak sizes were related to structural features of macaques' networks. For all three species, and for both anthropogenic (co-interactions) and social (grooming) contexts, outbreak sizes were positively correlated to the network centrality of first-infected macaques. Across host species and contexts, the above effects were stronger through macaques' human co-interaction networks than through their grooming networks, particularly for rhesus and bonnet macaques. Long-tailed macaques appeared to show intraspecific variation in these effects. Our findings suggest that among wildlife in anthropogenically-impacted environments, the structure of their aggregations around anthropogenic factors makes them more vulnerable to zooanthroponotic outbreaks than their social structure. The global features of these networks that influence disease outbreaks, and their underlying socio-ecological covariates, need further investigation. Animals that consistently interact with both humans and their conspecifics are important targets for disease control.

The strategies for social interaction between strangers differ from those between acquaintances, whereas the differences in neural basis of social interaction have not been fully elucidated. In this study, we examined the geometrical properties of interpersonal neural networks in pairs of strangers and acquaintances during antiphase joint tapping. Dual electroencephalogram (EEG) of 29 channels per participant was measured from 14 strangers and 13 acquaintance pairs.Intra-brain synchronizations were calculated using the weighted phase lag index (wPLI) for intra-brain electrode combinations, and inter-brain synchronizations were calculated using the phase locking value (PLV) for inter-brain electrode combinations in the theta, alpha, and beta frequency bands. For each participant pair, electrode combinations with larger wPLI/PLV than their surrogates were defined as the edges of the neural networks. We calculated global efficiency, local efficiency, and modularity derived from graph theory for the combined intra- and inter-brain networks of each pair. In the theta band networks, stranger pairs showed larger local efficiency than acquaintance pairs, indicating that the two brains of stranger pairs were more densely connected. Hence, weak social ties require extensive social interactions and result in high efficiency of information transfer between neighbors in neural network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We use longitudinal social network data from the Framingham Heart Study to examine the extent to which alcohol consumption is influenced by the network structure. We assess the spread of alcohol use in a three-state SIS-type model, classifying individuals as abstainers, moderate drinkers, and heavy drinkers. We find that the use of three-states improves on the more canonical two-state classification, as the data show that all three states are highly stable and have different social dynamics. We show that when modelling the spread of alcohol use, it is important to model the topology of social interactions by incorporating the network structure. The population is not homogeneously mixed, and clustering is high with abstainers and heavy drinkers. We find that both abstainers and heavy drinkers have a strong influence on their social environment; for every heavy drinker and abstainer connection, the probability of a moderate drinker adopting their drinking behaviour increases by 40 % and 18 % , respectively. We also find that abstinent connections have a significant positive effect on heavy drinkers quitting drinking. Using simulations, we find that while both are effective, increasing the influence of abstainers appears to be the more effective intervention compared to reducing the influence of heavy drinkers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interpersonal space (IPS) refers to the area surrounding the body in which we engage in social interactions while maintaining our comfort. Numerous previous studies have reported the psychological and physiological changes associated with the proximity of two people engaged in face-to-face interaction. Currently, there is limited knowledge about how the relative position between two socially intimate individuals affects their psychological and physiological states. This research measured the subjective discomfort and electrocardiographic responses of participants when standing static at various relative positions. The highest discomfort, lowest heart rate, and highest heart rate variability (HRV; parasympathetic activity index) were observed when the friend stood in the face-to-face position. Interestingly, heart rate also decreased when the friend stood on the right side, although HRV did not change. We interpreted the results as suggesting that the presence of a familiar person elicits the electrocardiographic responses associated with an increase in parasympathetic activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human interactions create social networks forming the backbone of societies. Individuals adjust their opinions by exchanging information through social interactions. Two recurrent questions are whether social structures promote opinion polarisation or consensus and whether polarisation can be avoided, particularly on social media. In this paper, we hypothesise that not only network structure but also the timings of social interactions regulate the emergence of opinion clusters. We devise a temporal version of the Deffuant opinion model where pairwise social interactions follow temporal patterns. Individuals may self-organise into a multi-partisan society due to network clustering promoting the reinforcement of local opinions. Burstiness has a similar effect and is alone sufficient to refrain the population from consensus and polarisation by also promoting the reinforcement of local opinions. The diversity of opinions in socially clustered networks thus increases with burstiness, particularly, and counter-intuitively, when individuals have low tolerance and prefer to adjust to similar peers. The emergent opinion landscape is well-balanced regarding groups' size, with relatively short differences between groups, and a small fraction of extremists. We argue that polarisation is more likely to emerge in social media than offline social networks because of the relatively low social clustering observed online, despite the observed online burstiness being sufficient to promote more diversity than would be expected offline. Increasing the variance of burst activation times, e.g. by being less active on social media, could be a venue to reduce polarisation. Furthermore, strengthening online social networks by increasing social redundancy, i.e. triangles, may also promote diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dysfunctional fear responses in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may be partly explained by an inability to effectively extinguish fear responses elicited by trauma-related cues. However, only a subset of individuals exposed to traumatic stress develop PTSD. Therefore, studying fear extinction deficits in animal models of individual differences could help identify neural substrates underlying vulnerability or resilience to the effects of stress. We used a rat model of social defeat in which rats segregate into passively and actively coping rats. In previous work, we showed that passively coping rats exhibit disruptions in social interaction whereas actively coping rats do not display behaviors differently from controls, indicating their resilience. Here, adult male rats exposed to 7 days of social defeat were tested for fear extinction, retention of extinction, and persistence of retention using contextual fear and ethologically-relevant fear tests. Passively coping rats exhibited elevated freezing in response to the previously extinguished context. Analyses of cFos expressing cells across select brain regions showed high correlations within dorsal hippocampal subregions, while passively coping rats had high correlations between the dorsal hippocampus CA1 and the central and basolateral subregions of the amygdala. Importantly, although control and actively coping rats showed similar levels of behavioral extinction, there was little similarity between activated structures, suggesting stress resilience in response to chronic social defeat involves an adaptive differential recruitment of brain circuits to successfully extinguish fear memories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interpersonal touch is an essential component of human non-verbal communication, facilitating social affiliation and bonding. With the widespread use of digital interfaces and online platforms in all realms of human interactions, there are fewer opportunities for communicating through touch. Popular online platforms that virtually simulate human interactions rely primarily on visual and auditory modalities, providing limited or no capacity for the exchange of tactile cues. Previous studies of virtual interactions have explored the simulation of social touch using haptic devices, but little is known about how the visual representation of interpersonal touch is perceived and integrated into a virtual social experience. In two studies we examined how the exchange of virtual touch mediated by simulated 3-dimensional human characters, or avatars, within an online virtual environment influenced affiliation towards an unfamiliar interaction partner. Surprisingly, the exchange of virtual touch negatively affected the perceived closeness and affiliation to the partner and the social evaluation of the interaction but did not affect the level of physiological arousal during the interaction. These results indicate that the visual representation of social touch is sufficient to virtually communicate touch-related cues that impact social affiliation, but the influence of touch may be dependent on the interaction context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Individuals with severe depressive symptoms present diminished facial expressions compared to healthy individuals. This reduced facial expression, which occurs in most depressive patients could impair social relationships. The current study sought to investigate whether pictures with social interaction cues could elicit different modulations of facial expressions and mood states in individuals with depressive symptoms compared to healthy individuals. A total of 85 individuals were divided into depressive and non-depressive groups based on their beck depression inventory scores. Participants viewed pictures containing neutral (objects), affiliative (people interacting socially), and control (people not interacting) scenes. Electromyographic signals were collected during the entire period of visualization of the blocks, and emotional questionnaires were evaluated after each block to assess sociability and altruism (prosocial states). In non-depressed individuals, affiliative pictures increased the activity of the zygomatic muscle compared to both neutral and control pictures and reduced fear of rejection compared to neutral pictures. During the visualization of the affiliative block, zygomatic major muscle activation was higher and fear of rejection was lower in the non-depressive individuals than in the depressive. These effects reflected the low expressions of smiling and sociability to affiliative pictures in depressive individuals. These findings highlight the importance of smiling and prosocial states in social interactions, especially in these individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interpreting gaze behavior is essential in evaluating interaction partners, yet the 'semantics of gaze' in dynamic interactions are still poorly understood. We aimed to comprehensively investigate effects of gaze behavior patterns in different conversation contexts, using a two-step, qualitative-quantitative procedure. Participants watched video clips of single persons listening to autobiographic narrations by another (invisible) person. The listener's gaze behavior was manipulated in terms of gaze direction, frequency and direction of gaze shifts, and blink frequency; emotional context was manipulated through the valence of the narration (neutral/negative). In Experiment 1 (qualitative-exploratory), participants freely described which states and traits they attributed to the listener in each condition, allowing us to identify relevant aspects of person perception and to construct distinct rating scales that were implemented in Experiment 2 (quantitative-confirmatory). Results revealed systematic and differential meanings ascribed to the listener's gaze behavior. For example, rapid blinking and fast gaze shifts were rated more negatively (e.g., restless and unnatural) than slower gaze behavior; downward gaze was evaluated more favorably (e.g., empathetic) than other gaze aversion types, especially in the emotionally negative context. Overall, our study contributes to a more systematic understanding of flexible gaze semantics in social interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Yawning is undeniably contagious and hard to resist. Interestingly, in our species, even the mere sound of a yawn can trigger this contagious response, especially when the yawner is someone familiar. Together with humans, one other mammal species is known to produce loud and distinct vocalisations while yawning, Theropithecus gelada. Geladas are known for their complex social interactions and rich vocal communication, making them intriguing subjects for studying yawning behaviour. To explore the contagious effect of yawn sounds on geladas, we conducted playback experiments in a zoo-housed colony with animals living in two groups. We exposed them to yawn sounds (Test) or affiliative grunts (Control) produced by males from either their own group or the other one. The results were remarkable, as simply hearing yawn sounds led to yawn contagion in geladas, with multiple responses observed when the yawns came from members of their own group. This finding adds a significant contribution to the research on mimicry and behavioural contagion in primates. Moreover, it raises intriguing questions about the involvement of sensory modalities beyond visual perception in these phenomena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Breathwork may offer simple tools for stress resilience. We conducted the largest parallel randomised-controlled trial on breathwork to date (NCT05676658) wherein 400 participants on the research platform Prolific were randomised, in blocks of 2 via remote software, to coherent breathing at ~ 5.5 breaths/min or a matched attention-placebo at 12 breaths/min, for ~ 10 min/day over 4 weeks. Participants were blinded to their allocated interventions, both of which were paced with equal inhalation:exhalation ratios. There were no differences on credibility and expectancy of benefit between conditions. At the primary timepoint post-intervention for the primary outcome subjective stress, there was no significant group by time interaction (F(1,377) = 0.089, p = 0.765, ηp2 < 0.001) nor main effect of group (F = 0.002, p = 0.961, ηp2 < 0.001), however there was a significant main effect of time (F = 72.1, p < 0.001, ηp2 = 0.161). Similar results were found at 1-month follow-up for stress and for secondary outcomes of anxiety, depression and wellbeing. There were overall improvements on these mental health and wellbeing outcomes from baseline to post-intervention and follow-up across both groups, yet the magnitude of this improvement was not different between arms. Accordingly, we found no measurable effect of coherent breathing over and above a well-designed breathwork placebo at improving mental health and wellbeing. Methodological considerations and recommendations for robust future research are discussed. Funder: Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship Fund, Tokyo, Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study evaluates the scale-free network assumption commonly used in COVID-19 epidemiology, using empirical social network data from SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant molecular local clusters in Houston, Texas. We constructed genome-informed social networks from contact and co-residence data, tested them for scale-free power-law distributions that imply highly connected hubs, and compared them to alternative models (exponential, log-normal, power-law with exponential cutoff, and Weibull) that suggest more evenly distributed network connections. Although the power-law model failed the goodness of fit test, after incorporating social network ties, the power-law model was at least as good as, if not better than, the alternatives, implying the presence of both hub and non-hub mechanisms in local SARS-CoV-2 transmission. These findings enhance our understanding of the complex social interactions that drive SARS-CoV-2 transmission, thereby informing more effective public health interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The migration of Twitter users to Mastodon following Elon Musk's acquisition presents a unique opportunity to study collective behavior and gain insights into the drivers of coordinated behavior in online media. We analyzed the social network and the public conversations of about 75,000 migrated users and observed that the temporal trace of their migrations is compatible with a phenomenon of social influence, as described by a compartmental epidemic model of information diffusion. Drawing from prior research on behavioral change, we delved into the factors that account for variations of the effectiveness of the influence process across different Twitter communities. Communities in which the influence process unfolded more rapidly exhibit lower density of social connections, higher levels of signaled commitment to migrating, and more emphasis on shared identity and exchange of factual knowledge in the community discussion. These factors account collectively for 57% of the variance in the observed data. Our results highlight the joint importance of network structure, commitment, and psycho-linguistic aspects of social interactions in characterizing grassroots collective action, and contribute to deepen our understanding of the mechanisms that drive processes of behavior change of online groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Depression during sensitive periods of social development may have consequences that extend well beyond mental health, and far into adulthood. This study compared the social functioning of adults with adolescent-onset depression (ages 10-20) to those with adult-onset depression (ages 21+). Participants were 3,360 adults (67.2% female; ages 42 ± 15) who had experienced major depression. Adult functional outcomes were marital status, divorce, number of children, years of education, employment status, household income, dependency on welfare, and obesity. Participants with depression during adolescence were less likely to get married, have children, and more likely to have lower household incomes. Depression during adolescence may be associated with broader functional outcomes that impact individuals and society, and may be mitigated through intervention and effective policy.