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Overimitation represents an early developing behavior implicated in the emergence of learning, affective, and social competences. Adult overimitation is heavily affected by contextual variables such as social ostracism, the experience of being ignored by others in a social context, an experience that threatens several psychological needs, inducing the urge to reaffiliate with a social group to restore the original state of well-being. Yet, the impact of social ostracism on overimitation in children remains unclear. This study explored how a face-to-face triadic inclusive/ostracizing ball-tossing game affects overimitation in predominantly White 3-year-old children (n = 43, 53.4% boys) and 5-year-old children (n = 43, 41.8% boys). Results showed that preschoolers are highly affected by social ostracism experiences, with both age groups displaying decreased positive emotionality and heightened negative emotionality when ostracized. Despite this continuity in the affective and behavioral reactions toward social exclusion, imitation fidelity is differently affected by first-person ostracism; the 3-year-olds imitated more when ostracized, whereas the 5-year-olds did so when included, signaling a developmental difference between the strategy repertoire at different ages. Overall, the current findings shed light on the social influences driving preschoolers' overimitation behaviors, emphasizing the importance of investigating social mechanisms underlying imitation and young children's social cognition development., (Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: The prevalence of depression is elevated in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) compared to the general population, yet the reasons for this disparity remain unclear. While social deficits central to ASD may contribute to depression, it is uncertain whether social interaction behavior themselves or individuals' introspection about their social behaviors are more impactful. Although the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and amygdala are frequently implicated in ASD, depression, and social functioning, it is unknown if these regions explain differences between ASD adults with and without co-occurring depression., Methods: The present study contrasted observed vs. subjective perception of autism symptoms and social performances assessed with both standardized measures and a lab task, in 65 sex-balanced (52.24% male) autistic young adults. We also quantified ACC and amygdala volume with 7-Tesla structural neuroimaging to examine correlations with depression and social functioning., Results: We found that ASD individuals with depression exhibited differences in subjective evaluations including heightened self-awareness of ASD symptoms, lower subjective satisfaction with social relations, and less perceived affiliation during the social interaction task, yet no differences in corresponding observed measures, compared to those without depression. Larger ACC volume was related to depression, greater self-awareness of ASD symptoms, and worse subjective satisfaction with social interactions. In contrast, amygdala volume, despite its association with clinician-rated ASD symptoms, was not related to depression., Limitations: Due to the cross-sectional nature of our study, we cannot determine the directionality of the observed relationships. Additionally, we included only individuals with an IQ over 60 to ensure participants could complete the social task, which excluded many on the autism spectrum. We also utilized self-reported depression indices instead of clinically diagnosed depression, which may limit the comprehensiveness of the findings., Conclusions: Our approach highlights the unique role of subjective perception of autism symptoms and social interactions, beyond the observable manifestation of social interaction in ASD, in contributing to depression, with the ACC playing a crucial role. These findings imply possible heterogeneity of ASD concerning co-occurring depression. Using neuroimaging, we were able to demarcate depressive phenotypes co-occurring alongside autistic phenotypes., Competing Interests: Competing interests The authors declare that they have no competing interests

Background: Good communication is consistently recognised as essential for effective complaint handling, while failures in communication correlate with risk of escalation. Nonetheless, communication in National Health Service complaint handling remains underexamined., Objectives: To examine complainants' lived experience of the complaints journey through (1) micro-analysis of their communication with National Health Service representatives; (2) their self-reported expectations and experiences throughout the complaints journey; to survey patient perceptions of the culture of the National Health Service; to develop 'Real Complaints' - an evidence-based communication training resource., Design: The project triangulates microlevel conversation analysis and discourse analysis of spoken and written complaints encounters with complainants' appraisals of those encounters in longitudinal case studies. This is underpinned by an audit of patient views of the cultural-institutional context of the National Health Service., Setting and Participants: Data were gathered in the complaints-handling services of two National Health Service trusts and a Patient Advocacy Service in Northern Ireland. Twenty-three complainants consented to longitudinal data collection and 58 to initial encounter recording; 115 members of the Patient Advocacy Service mailing list completed the cultural audit; 3 trust complaint handlers, 1 Patient Advocacy Service complaint handler and 2 trust complaints managers were interviewed., Data Sources: This yielded 1155 minutes of recorded calls, 113 written encounters, 36 diaries, 6 meetings, 23 interviews and 115 cultural audit responses collected over a period of 24 months., Results: Our analysis illuminates the dual nature of complaints: as personal expressions of dissatisfaction and as systemic critiques. The complaint experience is a dynamic journey with evolving narratives reflecting complainants' shifting perceptions, expectations and experiences of the 'system', both moment-by-moment and encounter-by-encounter in the overall journey. Key interpersonal priorities for complainants significantly affected complaint outcomes, most important of which was the need to be respected as a 'reasonable complainant'. Also key is the conversation analytic concept of affiliation, which involves taking a stance towards the event(s) being described that matches the complainant's stance. Use of affiliation by call handlers supported effective and efficient person-centred complaints handling, while absence of affiliation typically led to escalation of the scope, scale and emotional intensity of the complaint, sometimes to the point of an expressed intention to litigate (particularly in the case of written responses). Viewed holistically, successful complaints communication requires person-centredness, and affiliative interactions framed by shared expectations. These findings were applied in the development of Real Complaints Training and Guidance for spoken and written complaints communication., Limitations: The COVID pandemic significantly constrained trust participation, particularly the participation of front-line clinical staff, and one trust introduced 'telephone resolution' to which we were not given access. Additionally, calls viewed by staff as 'challenging' and ethnic minority communities are both under-represented in the final data set., Conclusions: Addressing the complainant's desire to be perceived as reasonable was revealed as crucial for fostering a more person-centred approach to handling complaints and addressing the gap between expectations and experience. This finding holds particular significance for recommendations, guidance and training relating to both spoken and written communication., Future Work: Direct extensions of the project include the piloting and evaluation of Real Complaints Training and further primary research involving communication between complainants and front-line service/clinical staff and complaint handling by ombudsman complaints investigators. An emerging question relates to social exclusion and access to complaints procedures., Study Registration: This study is registered as Research Registry: researchregistry5049., Funding: This award was funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Health and Social Care Delivery Research programme (NIHR award ref: NIHR127367) and is published in full in Health and Social Care Delivery Research Vol. 12, No. 33. See the NIHR Funding and Awards website for further award information.

Eye contact is an essential element of human interaction and direct eye gaze has been shown to have effects on a range of attentional and cognitive processes. Specifically, direct eye contact evokes a positive affective reaction. As such, it has been proposed that obstructed eye contact reduces emotional mimicry (i.e., the imitation of our counterpart’s emotions). So far, emotional mimicry research has used averted-gaze faces or unnaturally covered eyes (with black censor bars) to analyze the effect of eye contact on emotional mimicry. However, averted gaze can also signal disinterest/ disengagement and censor bars obscure eye-adjacent areas as well and hence impede emotion recognition. In the present study (N = 44), we used a more ecological valid approach by showing photos of actors who expressed either happiness, sadness, anger, or disgust while either wearing mirroring sunglasses that obstruct eye contact or clear glasses. The glasses covered only the direct eye region but not the brows, nose ridge, and cheeks. Our results confirm that participants were equally accurate in recognizing the emotions of their counterparts in both conditions (sunglasses vs. glasses). Further, in line with our hypotheses, participants felt closer to the targets and mimicked affiliative emotions more intensely when their counterparts wore glasses instead of sunglasses. For antagonistic emotions, we found the opposite pattern: Disgust mimicry, which was interpreted as an affective reaction rather than genuine mimicry, could be only found in the sunglasses condition. It may be that obstructed eye contact increased the negative impression of disgusted facial expressions and hence the negative feelings disgust faces evoked. The present study provides further evidence for the notion that eye contact is an important prerequisite for emotional mimicry and hence for smooth and satisfying social interactions.

Several theories propose that narcissism is rooted in affective contingencies. Given narcissists' focus on power, these contingencies should be strong in the power domain but not in the affiliation domain. We systematically investigated narcissists' contingencies and explored whether these contingencies might link narcissism to social behavior. In a multimethod longitudinal study, we assessed unidimensional narcissism levels as well as two main narcissistic strategies: Admiration and rivalry. We measured 209 participants' affective contingencies (i.e., affective responses to satisfying and frustrating experiences of power and affiliation) via self-reports (n = 207) and facial electromyography (fEMG, n = 201). In a 1-year follow-up, we observed participants' power- and affiliation-related behaviors in the laboratory (valid n = 123). Results indicated that narcissism was linked to increased affective reactivity to power, and this pattern was present for both admiration and rivalry. Narcissism was unrelated to affective reactivity to affiliation, with an important exception: Individuals with higher levels of narcissistic rivalry exhibited decreased reactivity toward satisfactions and increased reactivity toward frustrations of affiliation. Results were more robust for self-reported than for fEMG-indexed reactivity. Although overall narcissism and narcissistic admiration were related to power-related behaviors 1 year later, affective contingencies did not generally account for these links. These findings inform why narcissists have a relatively strong power motive and why some narcissists high in rivalry have a relatively weak affiliation motive. More broadly, these findings provide insight into the affective contingencies underlying personality traits and call for research on the contexts in which these contingencies guide behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this article is to discuss theoretical arguments concerning the idea that emotional mimicry is an intrinsic part of our social being and thus can be considered a social act. For this, we will first present the theoretical assumptions underlying the Emotional Mimicry as Social Regulator view. We then provide a brief overview of recent developments in emotional mimicry research and specifically discuss new developments regarding the role of emotional mimicry in actual interactions and relationships, and individual differences in emotional mimicry. We conclude with open questions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Laughter conveys important information that supports social communication and bonding. Research suggests that unique acoustic properties distinguish laughter that promotes affiliation from laughter that conveys dominance, but little is known about potential individual differences in laughter interpretation or contagion based on these specified social functions of laughter. Psychopathy is associated with both affiliative deficits (e.g., lack of empathy and impaired social bonding) and behaviors that assert social dominance (e.g., manipulativeness). Thus, relationships between psychopathic traits and impaired laughter interpretation or contagion could give insight into etiological pathways to psychopathy. Method: In two studies conducted with four independent samples (total N = 770), participants categorized laughter clips that varied in the degree of affiliation or dominance conveyed. Results: Participants overall drew rich and accurate social inferences from dominant and affiliative laughter and modulated their interest in joining in with laughter based on the type and degree of affiliation and dominance conveyed. However, individuals higher in psychopathic traits failed to distinguish between laughter types and did not modulate their level of engagement based on laughter features. Conclusions: The results suggest a potential mechanism that underlies the broader social difficulties associated with psychopathic traits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While there is an increasing focus on the use of online networks among autistic users, how autistic adults communicate in social networking sites remains underexplored. The article puts forward an argument for combining systematic observation of digital practices with analysis of evaluative language in order to provide a situated account of 'autistic sociality' in social media. Drawing on practice-based theories of social media affordances and discourse analysis research on online self-presentation and affiliation we show how autistic Twitter users rely on association, content persistence and editability in order to signal social engagement through different forms of interaction and alignment. We discuss how the proposed framework can provide a new perspective on communicative practices of autistic social media users and advance development of inclusive digital networking platforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental nonprofits (ENPOs) play vital roles in addressing environmental problems. To succeed, ENPOs must be adept at developing and maintaining successful partnerships with businesses, government agencies, and other NPOs. Even though evidence suggests ENPOs rely on these partnerships more than NPOs in other cause areas, however, relatively few empirical studies have focused on how they find success. This study explored what types of partnerships are common, what contributes to perceived success, and what communication tools ENPOs rely on. In addition to providing important descriptive information about the partners ENPOs value most, the results revealed that perceived success was closely linked to relational framing of conversations between partners, but not organizational features or homophily. Implications for ENPOs and future studies of NPO partnerships are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 2016 US Presidential Election, extreme right-wing communities have gained extensive popularity on YouTube, spreading discourses of white supremacy and conspiracy. This paper focuses on how methods drawn from Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) can be used to analyze this communication and contribute to research interests within the field of media and communication studies. SFL is a social semiotic model of language concerned with systematic analysis of language choices in terms of their social context. More specifically, this paper draws upon the Appraisal and Affiliation frameworks developed within SFL, in order to understand how patterns of evaluation are expressed in language and how these function in terms of aligning ambient audiences with particular values. YouTube videos and comments about the Notre Dame Cathedral Fire are used as a case study. The aim is to illustrate how this approach can offer an additional perspective on the issues of information disorder and hate speech that does not attempt to homogenize the multiple reasons why people engage in such hateful behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evolutionary models suggest that self-concept is a dynamic structure shaped jointly by interpersonal motivations and social challenges. Yet, empirical data assessing this claim are sparse. We examined this question in two studies. In study 1, participants (N = 386) generated spontaneous self-descriptions and filled out questionnaires assessing dominance and affiliation motivations. We found that self-descriptions categorized as communion or agency were associated with affiliation and dominance motivations, respectively. In study 2, participants (N = 360) underwent an inclusionary manipulation (exclusion, inclusion, popularity) and completed self-description and motivation measures. We found that exclusion (compared to inclusion/popularity) enhanced the salience of communion self-descriptions such that participants described themselves using more communion traits. Finally, in the popularity condition (compared to exclusion/inclusion), an enhanced positive association between salience of agency self-descriptions and dominance motivation was found. Our results support evolutionary models suggesting that self-concept organization shapes and is being shaped by social motivations to enhance interpersonal functioning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spirituality of Jesus, embedded within the literary contours of the Johannine narrative, is primarily grounded in a relationship of affiliation and friendship. It is a spirituality of abiding whose origins and goal lie in the unity of heart and mind that the Johannine Jesus as Son shares with the Father. This core relationship connotes not only the love that binds Jesus to God but is also the basis of the motif of sending and the divine authority over life and death which Jesus possesses in this Gospel. Jesus' spirituality is grounded in the abiding presence of the Spirit-Paraclete whom he bequeaths to the disciples. In handing over the Spirit to the gathered community through his death and resurrection, Jesus donates his own spirituality, ultimately drawing all creation into the divine circle of love. This spirituality is the result of the Spirit's presence, restoring human beings to their original, created identity as children and friends of God and empowering them for mission. While the dominant imagery is masculine there are also feminine images, particularly that of divine Wisdom, which provide a counterbalance and create an inclusive sense of appropriation and welcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sometimes a division has been made between expressions of knowledge and expressions of emotion, but in the actual instances of interaction, they are deeply intertwined. In this paper we investigate the relationship between these expressions through the notions of affiliation and epistemics. More specifically, we analyze the phenomenon of 'epistemic calibration' in response to tellings of personal experience, where recipients fine-tune the strength of their access claims and the degree of their generalizations to be in line with their epistemic statuses in relation to those of the tellers. Drawing on a dataset of Finnish quasi-natural conversations with neurotypical participants and participants diagnosed with Asperger syndrome, we explore how such calibration is done in practice. Our analysis points to different challenges in epistemic calibration, which, we argue, play an important role in influencing the hearing of these responses as less than fully affiliative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyzes a discourse semantic and corpus linguistic approach, or language as evidence, to examining written terrorist threatening communication. Topics discussed are patterns of lexicogrammatical features that discursively mark the violent extremist style and identity of an author, affiliation strategies and tactics employed as discursive incitement tactics, and manifestation and function of the appraisal signature of a terrorist in terrorist threat texts.

Simple Summary: Time-activity budgets describe how animals divide their day into various behaviours and activities, e.g., time spent foraging or resting. Activity budgets can serve as crucial indicators of energy intake and expenditure, providing better knowledge of a species' lifestyle. The conventional trend has been to explore group-level time-activity budgets; however, individuals may also vary in their time-activity budgets (e.g., one individual foraging more than another), with the influencing mechanisms still poorly understood. We propose that animal personality, a behavioural and cognitive profile that makes one individual different from another, may explain why individuals vary in their time-activity budgets. We used a multi-method approach comprised of behavioural observations and experiments to assess the personality traits of lion-tailed macaques. The observed traits were used to predict individual time-activity budgets, broadly categorised into food-related, active, and resting behaviours. We then discuss the significance of this novel approach in light of lion-tailed macaque ecology, conservation, and welfare. Time-activity budget, i.e., how a population or an individual divides their day into various behaviours and activities, is an important ecological aspect. Existing research primarily focused on group-level time-activity budgets, while individual variations have only been reported recently. However, little is known about how consistent inter-individual differences or personalities influence time-activity budgets. We examined the personalities of lion-tailed macaques (Macaca silenus) and investigated their influence on individual time-activity budgets. The resulting personality traits, namely persistence, sociability, affiliation, and anxiety, were used to predict the three broad categories of the time-activity budget—food-related, active, and resting behaviours. We found that persistence and sociability positively predicted the time spent being active. Food-related behaviours were positively predicted by persistence, while anxiety was found to influence them negatively. The time spent resting was negatively predicted by persistence. We did not find an effect of affiliation on the time-activity budgets. We discuss these findings in light of the ecology of lion-tailed macaques. Our study highlights the importance of a novel approach that uses animal personality traits as predictors of individual time-activity budgets and offers insights regarding the use of personality assessments in conservation and welfare activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indirect complaints, particularly situation-oriented and third-party-oriented, are a ubiquitous social action that speakers use to navigate trouble and build interpersonal relationships. Research has shown that affiliation constitutes the preferred response to this type of complaint and its absence can be treated as accountable. However, how different affiliative responses to complaints unveil existing and emergent relationship between participants has received limited attention. Drawing on interactional and interpersonal pragmatics, this study analyses how, in indirect complaints in Spanish, affiliation, nonaffiliation, disaffiliation, and selective affiliation reflect existing degrees of closeness between participants and affect their achievement of interactional intimacy. The data comes from phone conversations (from Talkbank) in Spanish between friends and relatives. The findings indicate that complainants recruit affiliation orienting to both the perceived degree of closeness in their existing relationships (e.g. claiming co-membership, common ground) and the interactional construction of intimacy through affective reciprocity. In the data, selective affiliation, a phenomenon where interactants co-complain but the elements with which they appear to affiliate trigger interactional misalignment, best illustrates this dual attention through subsequent interactional work. By exploring affiliative responses in complaining, this study contributes to the topic of complaints in Spanish and our understanding of how relationships are co-constructed in interaction. • This paper analyses indirect complaints in casual interactions in Spanish. • Affiliation is indexed and accomplished through markers of intimacy. • (Non) (dis)affiliation may index lower degrees of closeness. • Selective affiliation emerges when participants co-complain. • Intimacy is an interactional product accomplished through affiliation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In monogamous species, pair bonding leads to striking changes in social behavior and neural circuitry. We outline the cognitive building blocks of monogamous pair bonding in prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster), as well as opportunities afforded by the species to investigate diverse mechanisms underlying social experience-dependent plasticity and gain insights into the neurobiology of complex social behavior more generally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When people move together, as they dance, march or flirt, itincreases affiliation between them. But what about ‘movingtogether’ produces affiliation: the movements themselves, orthe social context of moving ‘together’? We instructed pairs ofparticipants to listen to music and move their arms or legsaccording to shapes appearing on screen. They either carriedout the same movements, or when one moved their arms theother moved their legs. They either saw shapes on one laptop,or each had their own laptop. Surprisingly, participants did notlike each other more if they carried out the same movements,but affiliation did increase if they danced looking at the samescreen. Rather than their movements, instructions, intentionsor perceptual experiences, here it is the social context of theactions that produces affiliation, a surprising finding that is noteasily accounted for by the dominant theories of mimicry andbehavioural synchrony.

Drawing on Conversation Analysis and Interactional Linguistics, we explore how interactants express in situ emotions that have been identified as negative – annoyance, anger, etc. – by displaying their stance and fishing for affiliation, and by (dis-)affiliating in response (Stivers 2008). Our entry point are lexical resources mobilized in this interactional process of emotion management: swearwords. Swearwords have received limited attention in interactional studies (Butler and Fritzgerald 2011; Hoey et al. 2021), but they are versatile resources in Italian talk-in-interaction. Grammatically, they are interjections, verbs, nouns, phrases, sentences, etc.; interactionally, they are found in turn-initial position, mid-turn, and turn-final position; they can be only a segment of a turn or occupy an entire turn. Our analysis reveals that swearwords are a) either used to reinforce the speaker’s stance, together with other elements (lexico-syntactical resources, facial expressions, changes in voice quality, etc.), and they are treated as fishing for affiliation; b) or they emerge as the main resource to display urgency and exasperation and are treated as directives. Using swearwords allow participants to build and shift to different interactional contexts: from jocular/playful situations (in the dinner) to serious and urgent scenarios (in the business meeting). Moreover, the target of the emotions (and the swearwords) can be either outside the interaction, in the context of tellings (reported stories), or complaint sequences; or inside the interaction, in the context of instruction sequences, where recipients need not only to affiliate but to respond. A sequential and situated analysis of swearwords shows how negative emotions emerge and are locally managed in interactants’ lexical choices, their stance projection and responses. Thus, we aim to contribute to understandings of how emotions enable interactants to achieve intersubjectivity (Haddington 2007), playing a major role in the ways we experience the world around us and display this knowledge and understanding to our surroundings.

When consumers post questions online, who influences the content of the discussion more: the consumer posting the question or those who respond to the post? Analyses of data from real online discussion forums and four experiments show that early responses to a post tend to drive the content of the discussion as much as or more than the content of the initial query. Although advice seekers posting to online discussion forums often explicitly tell respondents which attributes are most important to them, the authors demonstrate that one common online posting goal, affiliation, makes respondents more likely to repeat attributes mentioned by previous respondents, even if those attributes are less important to the advice seeker or support a suboptimal choice given the advice seeker’s decision criteria. Firms “listening in” on social media should account for this systematic bias when making decisions on the basis of the discussion content.

When new material is added to classrooms, there is interest in knowing what changes this brings to the teaching-learning process. In an extra-hours science and mathematics learning project in India, observations were conducted to study how teachers and students interact when they enact the new material that show new ways of problem-solving or new knowledge. Teachers and students may not articulate through regular interviews their perceptions about the new learning experiences but these can be identified in classroom interactions. Alignment and disalignment are constructs in conversation analysis that help identify speakers' intention to cooperate or not support others' utterances. Through analysis of sequences of general moves by the teacher and stances evidenced in the interactions between teacher and students, it is possible to investigate the stances towards new knowledge in the classroom. This paper adds to the understanding of how teachers and students demonstrate subtle and specific differences with given learning material. These findings have implications for designing material as well as teacher education for introducing new material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowing a child’s affiliative feelings about a peer helps us understand child’s social behavior toward peers and can predict how a relationship between two children would continue. A picture-drawing task, in which a child draws himself or herself and a peer, is a potentially valid way to measure a child’s feelings of affiliation toward the peer. In this study, we established the validity of the picture-drawing task by testing two hypotheses: whether a child’s higher affiliation toward a peer would relate to a shorter distance between the drawn child and the drawn peer (Hypothesis a) and whether the child’s temporal variation of affiliation would relate to a change in the distance between two drawn figures across two time points (Hypothesis b). Forty-five children aged 3 to 6 attending the same nursery school in Japan drew pictures of themselves and a schoolmate. To determine who would draw whom in the picture-drawing task, we conducted a friend-nomination task and used social network analyses with such data to compute each child’s degree of affiliation toward every schoolmate. The analyses supported both hypotheses: the distance in the drawing was shorter when the children drew a high-affiliation peer than a low-affiliation peer, and the distance in the picture became longer as the child’s affiliation toward a peer decreased over time. Our results strengthen the validity of the picture-drawing task for measuring children’s affiliation toward a peer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Doctor-patient communication is pivotal for the delivery of effective health care, patient satisfaction and retention, and the development of patient loyalty to the provider. However, the interactional dynamics of loyalty in real-life communication are left underexplored. In this regard, this study aims to examine and analyze loyalty in naturally occurring routine chronic encounters. Based on audio-recordings collected in a state-run tier-three hospital in China, the study uses conversation analysis to examine the sequential placement of loyalty display and its interactional functions in different environments. The findings report two sequential environments where loyalty display emerges: the opening and closing phases. The findings also show that loyalty is mainly produced by the patient to display affiliation and commitment, indicate their preferred treatment options, and rekindle a disconnected relationship. This work contributes to a more nuanced understanding of loyalty display in service and institutional encounters. • Patient loyalty often occurs in medical openings and closings. • It displays affiliation and commitment. • It may suggest a particular treatment. • It may be provided to repair a relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pigs, as highly social animals, form stable hierarchies and different relationships to other members of their group. Pigs, mostly of very young ages, have been shown to use social learning to gather information about food locations and even extractive foraging techniques from various types of sources. The present study aims to investigate whether also adult pigs, living in a long-term stable kin-based sounder, use information of their group mates and, more specifically, whether this is based on their mates' rank or their relationship with them. The dominance order of 20 female semi-naturally housed Kune Kune pigs (aged between five to seven years) was established with dyadic hierarchy tests, where two pigs competed against each other over a monopolizable food source. Their affiliative relationships (i.e. friendships) towards each other were assessed based on observations during their daily lives. After finding suitable demonstrator dyads, differing in rank and/or relationship quality to the respective observer, six rounds of two-choice tests were conducted. Prior to each two-choice test, two demonstrators were positioned on each side of the observer and were allowed to feed from a trough with an assigned olfactory cue that provided additional information in the subsequent test. After two minutes, the observer pig was allowed to enter a test room and was given the choice between two food bowls, which were marked with the olfactory cues connected to the respective demonstrators. Results indicate that sows, irrespective of their own rank, preferred to pay attention to the relatively lower-ranking demonstrator during the exposure phase, possibly due to avoidance of the relatively higher-ranking demonstrator. Furthermore, the observers with higher sociability preferred to pay more attention to the demonstrators with whom they had better friendships. In the two-choice test, we found no significant effect of demonstrator rank or friendship. However, a left side bias in more sociable observers may point towards at least some social effects. Overall, the study provided evidence that not only dominance, but also socio-positive relationships between individuals affect the behaviour of domestic pigs. • Pigs avoid attention and close proximity towards the more dominant of two conspecifics. • Sociability of observers plays an important role in mediating this attention bias. • During observation, sociable pigs also show a bias towards the better friends. • Demonstrator rank or friendship did not influence decision in a subsequent two-choice test. • In pigs, the use of social information might be age dependent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In dialogue, speakers tend to imitate, or align with, a partner's language choices. Higher levels of alignment facilitate communication and can be elicited by affiliation goals. Since autistic children have interaction and communication impairments, we investigated whether a failure to display affiliative language imitation contributes to their conversational difficulties. We measured autistic children's lexical alignment with a partner, following an ostracism manipulation which induces affiliative motivation in typical adults and children. While autistic children demonstrated lexical alignment, we observed no affiliative influence on ostracised children's tendency to align, relative to controls. Our results suggest that increased language imitation—a potentially valuable form of social adaptation—is unavailable to autistic children, which may reflect their impaired affective understanding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This manuscript examines the reflexive relationship between social categories and actions proposed by Harvey Sacks. Using video recordings of interactions at a biannual hobbyist wargaming convention, I use ethnomethodological conversation analysis to investigate how individuals ascribe categories and actions to manage solidarity threats. Specifically, I demonstrate how members (re)characterize some action by proposing the category membership of the person seen to have done it and vice versa. Subsequently, I take up how these practices allow members to manage and mitigate threats to affiliation and solidarity. The analysis focuses on actions produced or received as indicating complainables, with their status as 'complaints' being a part of what members negotiate. Ultimately, I argue that this negotiation of categorization and action ascription may point to a potentially omnirelevant and transportable concern for interactants. • The reflexivity between category and action is both a members' problem and resource. • Members observe the action being done by who is doing it and vice versa. • They other- and self-ascribe actions/categories to navigate solidarity qua action. • Hobbyist boardgamers use game-local/'real life' categories to accomplish this. • This suggests category and action recognition may be omnirelevant members' concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A persistent identifier (PID) for research organizations represents another important piece of the puzzle to promote standardization in the scholarly publication process – especially considering the already established digital object identifier (DOI) for research outputs and the ORCID ID for researchers. The use of these PIDs enables automated data flows and guarantees the permanent linking of information objects. Furthermore, PIDs are fundamental components for the implementation of Open Science. For example, when analyzing publications and costs of the Open Access transformation at an institution, the application of a PID for research organizations is crucial.In order to learn more about the status quo of the use and dissemination of organizational identifiers in Germany, a "Survey on the Need for and Use of Organizational Identifiers at Universities and Non-University Research Institutions in Germany" was conducted among 548 research institutions in Germany in the period from July 13, 2020 to December 4, 2020 as part of the DFG-funded ORCID DE project. This survey constitutes the largest survey on organizational identifiers in Germany to date; it counts 183 participating institutions. Among other things, the survey included questions on the knowledge, distribution, and use of organizational identifiers at research institutions. In addition, requirements for organizational identifiers and their metadata (e. g., relations and granularity) were queried. The present paper provides a comprehensive overview of the results of the survey conducted as part of the aforementioned project and contributes to the advancement and an increased awareness of organizational identifiers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies have observed that asynchronous online interaction relies on sequence organization in the same way as spoken interaction, but that its sequential implicativeness might sometimes become looser. This means that advice-seeking may be followed by something other than advice, without it being treated as problematic. This study investigates such instances on Reddit, utilizing the Conversation Analytic concepts of affiliative stance and action alignment. The analysis led to two major observations. First, based on the affiliative stance, there are three ways of reacting to an advice-seeking post: accepting, negotiating, and denying the validity of the advice-seeking. Second, most responses that did not align with the action did align with the overall activity or another action made relevant by the preceding message. Based on the analysis, this article offers a system for classifying responses to advice-seeking that do not give advice. • In responses to advice-seeking, posters orient to structural alignment even when they do not provide a second pair part. • Posters either accept, negotiate, or deny the validity of advice-seeking in their subsequent messages. • Responses that accept the validity of advice-seeking take an affiliative or neutral stance towards it. • Responses that negotiate the validity of advice-seeking take either an affiliative or disaffiliative stance towards it. • Responses that deny the validity of advice-seeking take a disaffiliative stance towards it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has long been recognized that the patterning of social interactions within a group can give rise to a social structure that holds very different places for different individuals. Such within-group variation in sociality correlates with fitness proxies in fish, birds, and mammals. Broader integration of this research has been hampered by the lack of agreement on how to integrate information from a plethora of dyadic interactions into individual-level metrics. As a step towards standardization, we collected comparative data on affinitive and affiliative interactions from multiple groups each of five species of primates to assess whether the same aspects of sociality are measured by different metrics and indices. We calculated 16 different sociality metrics used in previous research and thought to represent three different sociality concepts. We assessed covariation of metrics within groups and then summarized covariation patterns across all 15 study groups, which varied in size from 5 to 41 adults. With some methodological and conceptual caveats, we found that the number of weak ties individuals formed within their groups represented a dimension of sociality that was largely independent from the overall number of ties as well as from the number and strength of the strong ties they formed. Metrics quantifying indirect connectedness exhibited strong covariation with strong tie metrics and thus failed to capture a third aspect of sociality. Future research linking affiliation and affinity to fitness or other individual level outcomes should quantify inter-individual variation in three aspects: the overall number of ties, the number of weak ties, and the number or strength of strong ties individuals form, after taking into account effects of social network density. Significance statement: In recent years, long-term studies of individually known animals have revealed strong correlations between individual social bonds and social integration, on the one hand, and reproductive success and survival on the other hand, suggesting strong natural selection on affiliative and affinitive behavior within groups. It proved difficult to generalize from these studies because they all measured sociality in slightly different ways. Analyzing covariation between 16 previously used metrics identified only three rather independent dimensions of variation. Thus, different studies have tapped into the same biological phenomenon. How individuals are weakly connected within their group needs further attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The formation of selective social relationships is not a requirement of group living; sociality can be supported by motivation for social interaction in the absence of preferences for specific individuals, and by tolerance in place of social motivation. For species that form selective social relationships, these can be maintained by preference for familiar partners, as well as by avoidance of or aggression toward individuals outside of the social bond. In this review, we explore the roles that aggression, motivation, and tolerance play in the maintenance of selective affiliation. We focus on prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster) and meadow voles (Microtus pennsylvanicus) as rodent species that both exhibit the unusual tendency to form selective social relationships, but differ with regard to mating system. These species provide an opportunity to investigate the mechanisms that underlie social relationships, and to compare mechanisms supporting pair bonds with mates and same-sex peer relationships. We then relate this to the role of aggression in group composition in a comparative context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to trace the construction of affiliations and modes of belonging in Out of Place (1999) by Edward Said, in conjunction with his other works, that transgress real connections and present realities, and challenge the coherence of conventional notions of identity and detachment. It argues that Said reassesses his attachments and collective identity politics, not by rejecting his filiations but by finding a way to reconstruct or retrieve them. By thinking of Said and Darwish contrapuntally, this paper shows that Said works through these detachments, and moves between multiple identities to reconstruct a ‘filiative’ personal narrative which in turn contributes to the (re)- construction of a whole Palestinian national narrative. Building on Benedict Anderson’s concept of nationality, this paper illustrates that the national self emerges from the destabilisation of a unified, coherent subjectivity; it comes out of an “estrangement” and detachment from one’s self. Anderson explains that “nationality is necessarily an effect of the narratives we tell in the face of an incoherent sense of one’s self, a literal alienation from one’s self” (1991: 204). This detachment allows Said to open himself to the deeply disorganised state of his real history and origins, and to re- construct and form them to form in a historical experience, piecing together all the different narrative fragments to understand what really happened in Palestine in 1948 and beyond (Said, 1999: 6). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In contemporary world conditions, characterised by rapidly developing social processes, the problem of the study of civic identity as part of social identity is becoming increasingly relevant. The purpose of this paper is to describe the results of a cross‐sectional study of the factors of constructing the civic identity of residents of the Maktaaral district of Kazakhstan—an enclave in the territory of Uzbekistan. The study involved 350 people from Myrzakent, the administrative centre of the Maktaaral district. The scientific novelty of the study lies in highlighting the main indicators of civic identity that are inherent in citizens of Kazakhstan living in the Maktaaral district in isolation from the parent state. The practical significance of the study is to identify the features of constructing civic identity among residents of this enclave formation. It was found that their civic identity was formed at the level of citizenship, the level of civic consciousness, and the level of patriotism. It was concluded that the territorial isolation of enclaves does not significantly affect the construction of civic identity construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the wide range of theoretical explanations for human laughter, it is generally agreed to function, at least in part, as a social signal. We tested the hypothesis that laughter serves as a signal of group affiliation. Participants viewed a video clip depicting a confederate partner of unknown group affiliation displaying either a neutral expression, a smile, or laughter in response to a joke told at the expense of a member of the in-group or the out-group. Participants then decided whether to help the confederate in a fictional and incentivized economic game. When viewed in response to a joke told at the expense of the in-group member, participants were less likely to help after viewing the laughter clip in comparison to the neutral and smiling clips. However, when viewed in response to a joke told at the expense of the out-group member, participants were more likely to help after viewing the smiling clip in comparison to the neutral and laughter clips. Taken together, these findings suggest that laughter may serve to signal affiliation, albeit only among out-group members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article builds a broad theory to explain how people respond, both biologically and behaviorally, when targeted with incivility in organizations. Central to our theorizing is a multifaceted framework that yields four quadrants of target response: reciprocation, retreat, relationship repair, and recruitment of support. We advance the novel argument that these behaviors not only stem from biological change within the body but also stimulate such change. Behavioral responses that revolve around affiliation and produce positive social connections are most likely to bring biological benefits. However, social and cultural features of an organization can stand in the way of affiliation, especially for employees holding marginalized identities. When incivility persists over time and employees lack access to the resources needed to recover, we theorize, downstream consequences can include harms to their physical health. Like other aspects of organizational life, this biobehavioral theory of incivility response is anything but simple. But it may help explain how seemingly "small" insults can sometimes have large effects, ultimately undermining workforce well-being. It may also suggest novel sites for incivility intervention, focusing on the relational and inclusive side of work. The overarching goal of this article is to motivate new science on workplace incivility, new knowledge, and ultimately, new solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This investigation was initiated by the astonishment (surprise) at the apparent incongruity of a large copper tableware estate preserved by an Algerian institution in charge of managing unclaimed property (the Bayt al-mâl). Its results shed light on the ways in which the pots - and more broadly the utensils - used for communal meals were mobilised to form a society. We have highlighted the fact that, in addition to being able to form estates dedicated to a pious institution, the pots themselves could be these pious institutions (to which goods devoted to their cause could be devolved). Furthermore, the pious and charitable use that was made of them had in itself the force of law, it founded their legal status, as well as that of the social bodies that formed around these pious institutions. This enabled us to restore the civic dimension of the rights attached to these pots, whose collective use participated in the production of active social bodies. Indeed, these practices were the place and object of rallies, submissions and reciprocal obligations; they organised powers, affiliations, hierarchies and thresholds of insertion within these social bodies. In short, they were active modes of constructing the rights of belonging to political communities.

Due to changes in work structures, the boundaries of private life and office work are getting depleted. There are various factors that may impact the performance of an employee, and they need to be identified. As different people in a company may have different home environments (family size, marital status, electricity, Wi-Fi, dedicated laptop with required software to teleconnect, noise and other distractions based on location of home, etc.), the telework setting varies and conflicts may arise during work and home transitions, especially when the dominant needs of a person are not met. Acquired Needs Theory by David McClelland classifies our needs into Achievement, Affiliation and Power and this paper aims to study the conflicts (Home-to-Work conflict or HTWC and Work-to-Home conflict or WTHC) that may arise within individuals due to the variation in their dominant needs. Employees presently working from home were administered a questionnaire that comprised items to measure the dominant needs of individuals. The questionnaire also had items to gauge what kind of issues/conflicts employees face while teleworking, and their coping behaviour. Responses were collected on a 7-point Likert Scale. Control variables like the level of restrictions in going out due to pandemic were also considered. The study established that among all the control variables, the number of hours spent working and family type has significant impact on both the conflicts, WTHC and HTWC. Also, people with different dominant needs have different impacts on conflict outcomes. Changing work landscape requires an organisation’s responsiveness to understand the interaction of individual personalities with their work and how future telework can be made more effective. People with a high Achievement need may face more WTHCs and those with a high Affiliation need may face more HTWCs. As the Power need increases, the person may face fewer WTHC and HTWC. These insights can be used by the organisation to drive the need among individuals so that they remain inclusive and satisfied.

Here we employed the partner preference test (PPT) to examine how naked mole-rat non-breeding individuals of different behavioral phenotypes make social decisions. Naked mole-rats from six colonies were classified into three behavioral phenotypes (soldiers, dispersers, and workers) using a battery of behavioral tests. They then participated in a 3 h long PPT, where they could freely interact with a tethered familiar or tethered unfamiliar conspecific. By comparing the three behavioral phenotypes, we tested the hypothesis that the PPT can be used to interrogate social decision-making in this species, revealing individual differences in behavior that are consistent with discrete social phenotypes. We also tested whether a shorter, 10 min version of the paradigm is sufficient to capture group differences in behavior. Overall, soldiers had higher aggression scores toward unfamiliar conspecifics than both workers and dispersers at the 10 min and 3 h comparison times. At the 10 min comparison time, workers showed a stronger preference for the familiar animal’s chamber, as well as for investigating the familiar conspecific, compared to both dispersers and soldiers. At the 3 h time point, no phenotype differences were seen with chamber or investigation preference scores. Overall, all phenotypes spent more time in chambers with another animal vs. being alone. Use of the PPT in a comparative context has demonstrated that the test identifies species and group differences in affiliative and aggressive behavior toward familiar and unfamiliar animals, revealing individual differences in social decision-making and, importantly, capturing aspects of species-specific social organization seen in nature.

The formation of selective social relationships is not a requirement of group living; sociality can be supported by motivation for social interaction in the absence of preferences for specific individuals, and by tolerance in place of social motivation. For species that form selective social relationships, these can be maintained by preference for familiar partners, as well as by avoidance of or aggression toward individuals outside of the social bond. In this review, we explore the roles that aggression, motivation, and tolerance play in the maintenance of selective affiliation. We focus on prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster) and meadow voles (Microtus pennsylvanicus) as rodent species that both exhibit the unusual tendency to form selective social relationships, but differ with regard to mating system. These species provide an opportunity to investigate the mechanisms that underlie social relationships, and to compare mechanisms supporting pair bonds with mates and same-sex peer relationships. We then relate this to the role of aggression in group composition in a comparative context.

The college transition involves social challenges for students, including concerns about distance from family and hometown friends, and pressure to build a new social network on campus. Students who are successfully navigating these social challenges should be better adjusted on campus and feel more satisfied with the direction of their lives. We measured two expressions of relatedness in incoming, central US students' (N = 244; M age = 18.1 years; 78.6% women) autobiographical recollections of the college transition: (a) dispositional relatedness (DR) and tendencies to emphasize motivations for connecting with others; and (b) situational relatedness (SR) and reflections on successes and challenges within specific relationship domains. We hypothesized that both expressions of relatedness would be positively and distinctly associated with longitudinal reports of college adjustment (i.e., belonging) and subjective well-being (i.e., life satisfaction). We also hypothesized that changes in college adjustment would mediate associations between expressions of relatedness and well-being. Findings broadly supported expectations. Each expression of relatedness robustly predicted better student outcomes longitudinally. Further, improvements in college belonging and decreases in homesickness mediated the ties between situational relatedness and subjective well-being. We discuss the implications of these findings for the college transition and student support services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]