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Marketers commonly use consensus cues about others' behavioral choices ("best seller") or their attitudes ("top rated") when labeling products. This article suggests that the effectiveness of these types of cues may differ across cultures in ways that carry implications for marketing practice. Prior research shows that in contexts that give rise to an interdependent cultural self-construal, choices are often responsive to social expectations rather than personal preferences. We propose that, because interdependents expect such behavioral conformity, cues that convey consensus about others' choices may be less diagnostic and, thus, less persuasive than cues that convey consensus about others' attitudes. Five studies examining cultural self-construal in multiple ways, along with two cross-national industry datasets, offer evidence consistent with this reasoning, suggesting that, among interdependents, behavioral consensus cues can actually be less effective than attitudinal ones, reducing persuasion and willingness to pay. However, among independents, because attitudes are assumed to influence behavioral choices, whether the consensus cue is attitudinal or behavioral makes little difference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Antidoping policy regulates and punishes the use of substances that are listed on a Prohibited List (PL). These substances are colloquially known as 'performance-enhancing substances'. There is very little empirical evidence of enhancement for most of the substances on the PL raising the possibility that the perceived enhancement of performance experienced by an athlete is a placebo effect. A placebo effect is a response to an inert substance that is strongly influenced by psychological and social cues in the surrounding environment. It is our contention that, given the lack of proper empirical testing of the substances on the PL, it is in fact the appearance of a substance on the PL that has the strongest performance-enhancing effect in elite athletes. This disconnect between science and WADA's code raises the question of what we really object to: real performance enhancement achieved using substances on the PL or performance enhancement that occurs because WADA has told us that the substance will enhance performance by placing it on the PL? In this case, antidoping policy would punish those who believe the performance-enhancing myth at the heart of the PL thus leading to a deeply flawed policy that creates its own victims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From infancy, we spend considerable time absorbing social information from the external world. Social information processing, which starts with looking at facial expressions, affects behavior and cognition. Previous research has demonstrated that looking behaviors at social cues such as faces may differ in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) by using eye‐tracking studies with real photographs and movies. However, mixed results have been reported. In this study, we examined whether autistic traits in adults affected gaze behavior when participants viewed paintings. The eye‐tracking results indicate that gaze patterns change over time during a 20‐s free‐viewing task. Although the fixations were not influenced during the first 10 s of the viewing, autistic tendencies affected gaze behavior after the overview of the painting was completed: the higher the autism‐spectrum quotient scores, the shorter the fixation duration and the fewer the fixations on the facial areas of the paintings during the latter 10 s of viewing time. This result indicates that the atypical gaze behavior was more likely to be modulated by a generalized attentional process for endogenous orienting with reduced interest in social cues. Gaze patterns of viewing paintings may be used to predict autistic tendencies among people undiagnosed but suspected of having ASD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How situations are defined is a social process. This paper examines how users on YouTube make sense of the alleged sexual assault perpetrated by shock rocker Marilyn Manson in the 2007 “Heart Shaped‐Glasses (When the Heart Guides the Hand)” music video. Actor Evan Rachel Wood revealed in a 2022 documentary that she had been “essentially raped” by Manson in the video. Using qualitative media analysis, we collected and analyzed a total of 5466 user‐generated comments on YouTube posted in response to the “Heart‐Shaped Glasses” video after the publication of Wood's allegations. The research question that we explore is: How do users on YouTube understand the “Heart‐Shaped Glasses” video in light of Wood's allegations? Does the video depict a consensual simulated sex scene or is it documentation of a criminal sexual assault? Our analysis and findings reveal that users' interpretations of social cues provided in the video are subject to external forces of narration. Specifically, users draw explicitly and implicitly on both rape myths and on counter‐narratives stemming from the #MeToo movement to justify their support for Manson or for Wood, respectively. Media narratives about the “Heart‐Shaped Glasses” video and the user's orientation to the problem of sexual violence appear to be more salient social cues than the video footage itself in determining how commenters defined the video. These findings offer some insights specifically into how definitional processes, with respect to sexual violence, draw on socially established narratives, like rape myths or pro‐survivor activism. More generally, the findings provide a lens to consider how definitional processes operate in other kinds of situations in which the definition of actions recorded on video is contested. Video Abstract: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uo7qxmTwA‐U. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mate availability and social information can influence mating behaviour in both males and females. Social information obtained from conspecifics can influence mate choice, particularly shown by studies on mate choice copying. However, the role of directly observing conspecific mating on mating behaviour has been less explored. As such, whether conspecifics are copulating or not could inform 'observers' about the availability of mates, or even stimulate observers to mate themselves. Using Drosophila melanogaster, we tested whether exposure to the visual cue of a mating pair would increase the mating propensity of an observer pair (i.e., voyeur). We followed a factorial design where a male-female pair (voyeur flies) were placed together with or without visual access to another pair of flies (who were either mating or not mating). We found no evidence that mating latency or duration of mating were affected by whether voyeurs had visual access to a mating or non-mating pair. These results could be due to biological factors (e.g., use of other non-visual cues by flies to acquire information related to sex), or methodological limitations of our study (e.g., flies unable to watch other pairs). Generally, our results suggest that fruit flies do not use visual cues from conspecifics mating to adjust their own mating latency or mating duration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: With ageing there are changes in the ability to orient attention, which affect more endogenous than exogenous orienting. However, orienting attention by the gaze direction of others shares characteristics of both exogenous and endogenous attention and it is unclear how it is affected by ageing. Being able to orient attention by the gaze direction of others is important to establish successful social interactions (i.e., joint attention), and when gaze direction predicts where in the environment salient events occur, it helps to successfully navigate the environment. Methods: Here we investigated whether older individuals learn implicit regularities between the direction of eye gaze and a spatial location where salient events occur. We also assessed the association between orienting attention by the gaze of others and loneliness. Seventy older individuals completed the three-items UCLA loneliness scale and the gaze cueing task, in which gaze cues were non-predictive of target location (block 1), but unbeknownst to participants became predictive of the spatial location where the target appeared (block 2) and then, returned to being non-predictive (block 3). Results: Findings clearly show that older individuals are less able to orient attention by non-predictive gaze cues, but they successfully learn from environmental regularities implemented with direction of eye gaze. This learning biases attention as it enhances the gaze cueing effect even when the regularities are not present. Importantly, gaze cueing was not affected by self-reported loneliness. Discussion: These findings point to a training strategy to improve joint attention in older individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Difficulties with (non-verbal) social communication, including facial expression processing, constitute a hallmark of autism. Intranasal administration of oxytocin has been considered a potential therapeutic option for improving social difficulties in autism, either by enhancing the salience of social cues or by reducing the social stress and anxiety experienced in social encounters. Methods: We recorded fMRI brain activity while presenting neutral, fearful and scrambled faces, to compare the neural face processing signature of autistic children (n = 58) with that of matched non-autistic controls (n = 38). Next, in the autistic children group, we implemented this fMRI face processing task in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, multiple-dose oxytocin clinical trial, to evaluate the impact of four-week repeated oxytocin administration (24 IU daily dose) on brain activity in face processing regions. Results: No significant diagnostic-group differences were identified between autistic versus non-autistic children with regard to neural face processing. Furthermore, no significant treatment effects were found in the oxytocin clinical trial. However, exploratory analyses (uncorrected for multiple comparisons) demonstrated decreases in brain activity in the left superior temporal sulcus (STS) and inferior frontal region in the oxytocin compared to the placebo group, and change-from-baseline analyses in the oxytocin group revealed significantly reduced neural activity in the core face-processing network (STS, inferior occipital, and posterior fusiform), as well as in amygdala and inferior frontal region. Conclusion: These findings suggest an attenuating effect of multiple-dose oxytocin administration on neural face processing, potentially supporting the anxiolytic account of oxytocin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The current study attempted to replicate the original findings regarding the effects of power posing on testosterone and cortisol levels, risk-taking behavior, and perceived power. We further extended the investigation by testing the effect of power posing on estradiol and progesterone levels. Methods: A sample of 92 young adults (30 males; 32 females taking oral contraceptives; and 30 females not taking oral contraceptives who were in their midluteal phase) were randomly assigned to high-power-pose or low-power-pose conditions and asked about their feelings of power. They completed a risk-taking task, and their neuroendocrine levels were measured both at baseline and following the power manipulation. Results: Power posing was not found to replicate the original results regarding effects on testosterone levels or feelings of power; however, our findings partially supported the original results regarding effects on cortisol levels and risk-taking. Among high-power posers, a decrease in cortisol levels was associated with risk tolerance. Power posing was not found to influence progesterone levels. However, among females taking oral contraceptives, high-power posing increased estradiol levels. Conclusions: These preliminary findings suggest that estradiol is influenced by short-term exposure to social cues under specific hormonal profiles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study seeks to understand how historical models of risk perception and protective action antecedents, as predicted by The Protective Action Decision Model (PADM), apply across micro‐regional differences in the context of Florida counties during the 2022 Hurricane Ian, and how these regional differences may lead to differences in reception, perception and response to information and evacuation warnings across the state. Two Florida communities (Southwest vs. Central and Eastern regions) with different typography, historical disaster experience, demographics and existing hazard adjustment programs were surveyed and compared. Results showed that, within the same hurricane event and broader geographic region (Florida), the two community locations differ in their reliance on information sources, social cues and prior hurricane experiences to inform risk perceptions and evacuation decisions. Additionally, different mediation patterns of risk perceptions were found between the antecedents and evacuation behaviours for the different community locations. The findings imply the importance to consider regional variations and to strategize messaging communicating risk and self‐protective behaviours accordingly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In formal educational settings, such as online university lectures, instructional videos often consist of PowerPoint slides accompanied by a video or audio explanation from the instructor. It has been assumed that the social cues provided by the instructor's video may facilitate affective processes and affect learning outcomes. Research on instructor presence in instructional videos has focused primarily on laboratory and online studies that are not embedded in the courses in which learners are enrolled. Therefore, we present three field studies examining instructor presence in instructional videos embedded in higher education courses to strengthen external validity (exam-relevant topic, > 30 min long, personally known instructor). The results of these studies show positive effects of a visible instructor compared to no visible instructor on some affective measures: social presence in Study 1 (n = 18, d =.85) and well-being in Study 3 (n = 38, d = 1.01), but not on others (well-being in Studies 1 & 2 (n = 53); motivation in Studies 1–3, social presence in Studies 2 & 3). They also show no effects on extraneous processing or learning outcomes (Studies 1–3). Thus, no general effect of instructor presence can be shown for instructional videos embedded in university courses in higher education, but there are also no detrimental effects. This leads to implications for future research, teaching, and design practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adolescents experience significant developmental changes during a time of heightened sensitivity to social cues, particularly rejection by peers, which can be especially overwhelming for those with elevated levels of social anxiety. Social evaluative decision‐making tasks have been useful in uncovering the neural correlates of information processing biases; however, linking youths' task‐based performance to individual differences in psychopathology (e.g., anxiety symptoms) has proven more elusive. Here, we address this weakness with drift diffusion modeling to decompose youths' performance on the social judgment paradigm (SJP) to determine if this approach is useful in discovering individual differences in anxiety symptoms, as well as puberty, age, and sex. A sample of 103 adolescents (55 males, Mage = 14.49, SD = 1.69) completed the SJP and self‐report measures of anxiety, as well as self‐ and parent‐reported measures of puberty. The decision threshold parameter, reflecting the amount of evidence needed to make a social evaluative decision, predicted youth self‐reported anxiety, above and beyond typical metrics of SJP performance. Our results highlight the potential advantage of parsing task performance according to the underlying cognitive processes. Future research would likely benefit from applying computational modeling approaches to social judgment tasks when attempting to uncover performance‐based individual differences in psychopathology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exploring and validating factors that may influence the trustworthiness of social robots is of great significance to improving the effect of human-robot interaction. The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of several design factors on people's perceptions of the trustworthiness of social robots. The research variables were social cues (ie, watching-eyes configuration, control configuration, and neutral configuration), head shape (ie, round head and rectangular head), body proportion (ie, low body proportion and high body proportion), and participant's gender (ie, male and female). Twelve static synthetic social robots were created and presented to the participants as digital pictures. A total of 175 participants took part in the experiment through the online survey via the convenience sampling method. The generated results were as follows: (1) The robots with round heads appear to be more trustworthy than those with rectangular heads. (2) Robots with high body proportion are considered to be more trustworthy than robots with low body proportion. (3) Minimal social cues and body proportion of robots also have a significant interaction effect on improving the trustworthiness of robots. In the watching-eyes configuration, high body proportion is considered more trustworthy than low body proportion. On one hand, the results of this study can provide a good reference for the appearance form of social robots in human-robot interaction to serve human beings, and on the other hand, it also lays a foundation for further exploring the influence of social cues elicited by a series of social robot appearances and social behaviors regarding the trustworthiness of social robots. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Co‐speech gesturing is an important modality in conversation, providing context and social cues. In character animation, appropriate and synchronised gestures add realism, and can make interactive agents more engaging. Historically, methods for automatically generating gestures were predominantly audio‐driven, exploiting the prosodic and speech‐related content that is encoded in the audio signal. In this paper we instead experiment with using Large‐Language Model (LLM) features for gesture generation that are extracted from text using Llama2. We compare against audio features, and explore combining the two modalities in both objective tests and a user study. Surprisingly, our results show that Llama2 features on their own perform significantly better than audio features and that including both modalities yields no significant difference to using Llama2 features in isolation. We demonstrate that the Llama2 based model can generate both beat and semantic gestures without any audio input, suggesting LLMs can provide rich encodings that are well suited for gesture generation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social media is a hotbed of interpersonal conflict and aggression. Platforms such as Twitter and Instagram are used by more than 62% of the global population, facilitating billions of user interactions every day. However, many of these exchanges involve hostile, insensitive, and antisocial behaviors. This raises the question: is empathy blunted on social media? Substantial evidence demonstrates that humans tend to behave more rudely in virtual settings, but considering the scarcity of physiological data collected under these circumstances, it remains unclear how the neural systems guiding social cognition and empathy may function differently in online interactions. We propose the "Virtual Disengagement Hypothesis," a conceptual framework to explain the prevalence of hostility online. It posits that interactions occurring on social media omit social cues that facilitate the assessment of a social partner's affective state, such as facial expressions and vocal tone, and thus fail to sufficiently recruit brain circuitry involved in empathy, such as the anterior cingulate cortex, insula, and prefrontal cortex. Additionally, interactions on social media occur asynchronously and in a "replayed" context, which may further limit recruitment of empathy systems. As a result of this diminished sensitivity to others' states, users may be predisposed to inconsiderate or outright antisocial behaviors. Given the massive and growing base of users on these platforms, we urge researchers to expand efforts that focus on neuroimaging in virtual settings with a particular emphasis on developing social media-relevant behavioral designs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Utilizing social cognitive theory, we suggest that leader influence tactics convey salient social cues to be incorporated into followers' self-efficacy evaluation, which shapes their engagement in organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). We contend that leader soft tactics enhance followers' self-efficacy and thereby foster their OCB, whereas leader hard tactics damage their self-efficacy and ultimately hamper their OCB. Further, we propose that organizational justice functions as a key boundary condition for these contentions, as the fair work environment makes social cues from these tactics salient. To test the hypotheses, we collected the data of 198 supervisor-subordinate dyads from various companies located in South Korea. As expected, soft tactics were positively related to self-efficacy, and their indirect effect on OCB toward individuals (i.e., OCBI) via self-efficacy was positive. In addition, the effect of soft tactics on self-efficacy and the indirect effect of soft tactics on OCBI via self-efficacy were stronger when organizational justice was higher. However, self-efficacy was not significantly related to OCB toward the organization (i.e., OCBO), and the indirect effect of soft tactics on OCBO via self-efficacy was not significant. Notably, hard tactics were not significantly related to self-efficacy, and organizational justice did not moderate this relationship. Further, the proposed indirect and conditional indirect effects of hard tactics were not significant. Overall, our research shows that soft tactics can be powerful tools for leaders to enhance followers' self-efficacy and, ultimately, foster their OCB, especially when organizational justice is established at work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) presents neurodevelopmental challenges in social interaction, communication, and restricted or repetitive patterns of behaviour. Common conditions of ASD may include difficulties in understanding social cues and engaging in conversations. With the spread of virtual and augmented reality technologies, there has been growing interest to develop game-based learning approaches for helping patients and reducing the impact of ASD. Thus, a virtual environment has been developed to be used in a system dedicated for the emotional training of patients with ASD to improve social interaction and develop appropriate emotional responses to real-life scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social attention, an important mechanism that orients people to social cues, is critical for the development of higher-ordered features of social cognition. Both endogenous (i.e. automatic and undirected) and exogenous (i.e. purposeful and directed) social attention is important for processing social features, yet there is limited work systematically addressing how different experimental manipulations modulate social attention. This study examined how endogenous and exogenous manipulations of a classic face inversion task influence ERP activity in adults (n = 71) and adolescent youth (n = 65). Results from Study 1 indicated a lack of task differences for P1 and N170 but a larger inversion effect for P3 when a social perceptual decision was required. Study 2 demonstrated developmental differences in the youth, such that youth and adults had opposite inversion effects for N170 and youth had no effect for the P3. These findings indicate that face perception neural markers are sensitive to exogenous decisions, with development still active in adolescence. This is important to consider when designing future studies, as task-based decisions may alter the neural responses to faces differentially by age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractVirtual reality exergames can create novel, ever-changing environments to encourage consistent exercise. This strength, however, has been underexplored in literature, which primarily focuses on three debates: indoor vs. outdoor, natural vs. artificial, and exercise-cued vs. non-exercise-cued environments. Existing studies mainly examine actual exercise outcomes, overlooking psychological and motivational aspects. This study bridges the gap by comparing all three environment types and measuring both psychological and exercise outcomes. A total of 167 university students participated in a 2 (number of players: single or multiple) by 3 (exercise environments: natural, artificial non-exercise-cued, artificial exercise-cued) experiment. Moderated mediation models show that highly biodiverse (i.e., virtual natural) and exercise-cued environments increase players’ vitality, self-efficacy, and future play intention more than virtual artificial settings through obligation to workout, particularly in the single-player condition. The same pattern occurred for players’ self-efficacy through pleasure in single-player conditions. Single player conditions allow environmental cues to be salient for increasing exercise motivation. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In video lectures, instructors naturally produce nonverbal behaviors, such as gestures, facial expressions, and gaze guidance. Instructors' pointing gestures can act as attentional cues, directing students' attention, while their positive facial expressions can act as social cues, eliciting students' positive social response. The current study examined whether an instructor's positive facial expressions weakened the benefits of the pointing gestures in video lectures. We designed an eye-tracking experiment, recruiting a total of 32 students. We found that when the instructor combined pointing gestures with positive facial expressions, students dwelled shorter on the slides and longer on the instructor, and showed lower learning performance. The results partially supported our hypotheses, suggesting that the effect of an instructor's pointing gestures on student learning could be influenced by the instructor's facial expressions in video lectures with slides. The findings offer valuable practical implications for enhancing the design of video lectures that feature an instructor alongside slides. Instructors should refrain from using attentional cues and positive-emotional social cues simultaneously to promote students' learning in video lectures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acquiring and exploiting memories of rewarding experiences is critical for survival. The spatial environment in which a rewarding stimulus is encountered regulates memory retrieval. The ventral hippocampus (vH) has been implicated in contextual memories involving rewarding stimuli such as food, social cues or drugs. Yet, the neuronal representations and circuits underlying contextual memories of socially rewarding stimuli are poorly understood. Here, using in vivo electrophysiological recordings, in vivo one-photon calcium imaging, and optogenetics during a social reward contextual conditioning paradigm in male mice, we show that vH neurons discriminate between contexts with neutral or acquired social reward value. The formation of context-discriminating vH neurons following learning was contingent upon the presence of unconditioned stimuli. Moreover, vH neurons showed distinct contextual representations during the retrieval of social reward compared to fear contextual memories. Finally, optogenetic inhibition of locus coeruleus (LC) projections in the vH selectively disrupted social reward contextual memory by impairing vH contextual representations. Collectively, our findings reveal that the vH integrates contextual and social reward information, with memory encoding of these representations supported by input from the LC. The neuronal mechanisms serving contextual memories of socially rewarding stimuli are unclear. Here the authors demonstrate that neurons in the ventral hippocampus of male mice discriminate between neutral and socially rewarding contexts, a process dependent on input from the locus coeruleus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Objectives: Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) face challenges in social communication due to difficulties in considering context, processing information, and interpreting social cues. This study aims to explore the neural processes related to pragmatic language communication in children with ASD and address the research question of how functional brain connectivity operates during complex pragmatic language tasks. Methods: We examined differences in brain functional connectivity between children with ASD and typically developing peers while they engaged in video recordings of spoken language tasks. We focused on two types of speech acts: semantic and pragmatic. Results: Our results showed differences between groups during the pragmatic and semantic language processing, indicating more idiosyncratic connectivity in children with ASD in the Left Somatomotor and Left Limbic networks, suggesting that these networks play a role in task-dependent functional connectivity. Additionally, these functional differences were mainly localized to the left hemisphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Human sexual dimorphism in physical strength manifests itself in men having a greater muscle mass than women, reflecting ancestral roles in competition, protection, and provisioning. Prenatal testosterone exposure, approximated via the second‐to‐fourth digit ratio (2D:4D), is linked to increased muscular strength in both sexes, indicating a developmental influence. Previous research has shown that both physical strength and 2D:4D have facial shape correlates, especially in men, but most studies have focused on Western populations and one trait. We therefore hypothesized a broader relationship between facial shape and both physical strength and 2D:4D. Materials and Methods: In this study, we quantified the association between facial shape, handgrip strength (HGS), and 2D:4D in a non‐Western Turkish sample (72 men, 55 women; Md = 22 y, SIR = 1.8 y) using two dimensional geometric morphometrics. Thirty‐eight somatometric and 32 semi‐landmarks were digitized on facial photographs taken in frontal view. Physical strength was assessed via handgrip strength (HGS), and the second digit length was divided by the fourth digit length to calculate 2D:4D. Results: Both HGS and 2D:4D were significantly associated with shape in both sexes, but only in men did they explain a significant amount of facial variation. Thin‐plates spline deformation grids and geometric morphometric morphs visualized the facial shape changes related to variations in handgrip strength, 2D:4D, and sexual dimorphism, enabling trait comparisons. Conclusion: This study contributes a comparative sample from the Middle East, which is indispensable to discern universalities from Western peculiarities. It provides evidence to better understand the biological basis of facial traits, which can potentially serve as increasingly relevant social cues in today's online and digital environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Perception of a picture is influenced by the social information and emotional value it carries for the viewer. There are still many unanswered questions about how social and emotional processing are related, but it is clear they involve overlapping brain areas and are cognitively interconnected. Yet studies of emotion processing using standardized picture datasets typically leave the social content in the pictures free to vary. In a few studies where the social content has been measured, it correlated with emotional arousal and valence. Here we tested the association between social and emotional content orthogonally, by selecting a similar number of pictures in four categories varying in presence of nonverbal social cues (e.g., gestures, facial expression, body language) and emotional content (neutral, negative). Across two studies, participants (N = 698 in total) provided three ratings for each picture: social relevance (defined as the self-reported use of social cues to understand the picture), valence, and arousal. Despite our best effort to balance the presence of social cues between negative and neutral pictures, ratings of social relevance were strongly associated with ratings of arousal and, to a lesser extent, with valence. These findings likely reflect the intertwined nature of social and emotional processing, which has implications for the neurobiology underlying them, how these systems develop, and how picture databases are used in research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The intention to include another person in an interaction (i.e., social intention) is known to influence the spatio-temporal characteristics of motor performances. However, the interplay between these kinematic variations and the social cues provided by eye gaze has not been properly assessed yet. In the present study, we tested whether limiting the access to eye gaze altered the motor-related effects of social intention on motor performances. In a dyadic interaction, the agents' task was to displace a dummy glass to a new position with the intention to fill it themselves (personal intention) or having it filled by the observers facing them (social intention). The observers performed their action only when they were able to identify a social intention in agents' action. The task was performed while having access to observers' eye gaze or not, through the manipulation of an occluder. Results showed an effect of social intention on agents' motor performances, that induced an amplification of the kinematic spatio-temporal parameters. Such amplification was smaller when the observers' eye gaze was not available. In this latter condition, the identification of the social intention in the observed actions was impaired. Altogether, the results suggest that the presence of eye gaze cues contributes significantly to the success of social interaction, by facilitating the expression and the understanding of social intentions through the kinematics of object-directed actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To bridge the knowledge gap relating to consumers' efforts to distinguish fake from authentic online reviews, this study explores the impact of different forms of address for P2P accommodation hosts (formal address vs. nickname) on consumers' perceptions of review authenticity. Through three experiments, the results revealed that using a host's nickname acted as a noteworthy social cue, notably enhancing consumers' perceptions of authenticity, confirming the mediating role of inferred relationship closeness. This study offers a fresh perspective on online review authenticity literature and reveals a new research direction for tourism and hospitality, i.e. the novel concept of "inferred relationship closeness." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ridgecrest, CA, experienced the Searles Valley earthquake sequence in 2019 and a "false" earthquake alert in 2020, providing a unique opportunity to examine the effects of earthquake experience on future responses to informational cues to action (i.e., earthquake alert), as well as reactions to a "false" alert. We conducted in-depth interviews with 41 residents using the protective action decision-making model as a theoretical framework. Interviewees reported a variety of environmental cues that signaled the onset of an earthquake, including sensing a foreshock, hearing the earth rumble, hearing objects fall to the floor and break, and observing unusual animal behavior. Fewer individuals received social cues to action. More individuals reported performing "drop, cover, and hold on," and fewer reported standing in a doorway in response to the 2020 alert than had done so in the prior 2019 earthquake. Several respondents reported maintaining protective actions well after the "false" alert was issued, and many waited more than 5 min before determining there was no threat present. Prior experience of the 2019 earthquake series affected perceptions of the earthquake alert and what actions to take; however, there was limited knowledge of how the ShakeAlert system worked to monitor, detect, and model earthquakes via earthquake early warning to persons at risk. Findings indicate there is a need for additional public education about ShakeAlert-powered earthquake early warning, including how far in advance one can expect to receive an alert, as well as the protective actions one should take and when to take them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A digital ethics of care (DEC) framework was initially developed with adolescents (11 to 18-years) to provide an infrastructure for understanding their digital social and emotional literacy, focusing on their ability to understand emotions and build respectful relationships online. In this study, we explore how that framework can be utilised with younger children aged 10 to 11-years-old. All children in class participated in a teacher-led lesson to develop skills and an understanding of interviewing. From this class, 18 children participated and interviewed each other in pairs. The interviews were conducted using a semi-structured approach consisting of question clusters framed around digital media use, wellbeing, social interactions online, empathy and kindness, and actions following negative behaviours. Using thematic analysis, four themes were developed: 1) recognising DEC in practice, 2) emotional consequences and coping with online adversity, 3) need for education on digital citizenship, and 4) developing a Digital Ethics of Care lesson. The results of the study led to the framework being refined. From this, a toolkit with lesson plans was created which was founded in the children's contributions and ideas for use by schools. Impact summary: Prior state of knowledge: Teachingdigital citizenship is an important part of education. However, children's moral decision-making can be constrained by a lack of social cues when using digital media. Children's digital empathy can be reduced because of the mediation of a screen. Novel contributions: A digital-ethics-of-care framework provides a novel, child-centred way to help educators appreciate how pedagogy can encourage respect, responsibility, empathy and care in moral decisions made by children. Practical implications: Founding digital citizenship education on the values associated with a digital-ethics-of-care is a useful tool. Listening to children's voices informs the priorities of that lesson planning and using a DEC framework offers a practical implementation through a story-based game. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Mate availability and social information can influence mating behaviour in both males and females. Social information obtained from conspecifics can influence mate choice, particularly shown by studies on mate choice copying. However, the role of directly observing conspecific mating on mating behaviour has been less explored. As such, whether conspecifics are copulating or not could inform ‘observers’ about the availability of mates, or even stimulate observers to mate themselves. Using Drosophila melanogaster, we tested whether exposure to the visual cue of a mating pair would increase the mating propensity of an observer pair (i.e., voyeur). We followed a factorial design where a male-female pair (voyeur flies) were placed together with or without visual access to another pair of flies (who were either mating or not mating). We found no evidence that mating latency or duration of mating were affected by whether voyeurs had visual access to a mating or non-mating pair. These results could be due to biological factors (e.g., use of other non-visual cues by flies to acquire information related to sex), or methodological limitations of our study (e.g., flies unable to watch other pairs). Generally, our results suggest that fruit flies do not use visual cues from conspecifics mating to adjust their own mating latency or mating duration.

English academic presentation (EAP) is an indispensable skill set of academic communication for university students. With the rapid development of desktop virtual reality (DVR), its application in language learning is worth exploring. The present study aimed to examine whether there is an improvement and difference in students' EAP by learning from the DVR with an in‐video pedagogical agent (PA) or an out‐of‐video PA. Adopting a between‐subject experimental design, a total of 64 students were randomly assigned to one of two group conditions depending on whether the PA was inside or outside the lecture video embedded in DVR. Participants' EAP performance, attention allocation and behavioural patterns were measured and analysed. As hypothesized, t‐tests, repeated ANOVA and lag sequence analysis showed that the participants who learned from the DVR with an out‐of‐video PA showed better learning performance, less attention allocation on content and more frequent behavioural patterns than those with an in‐video PA. Overall, our findings suggest that in a VR educational environment of video lectures, instructors should consider using an out‐of‐video PA to increase their social presence and improve students' learning experience. Practitioner notes What is already known about this topic EAP is an indispensable skill set of academic communication for university students. PA is an effective social cue in video lectures to promote learning. VR has been widely applied in language learning. What this paper adds Reveals the relationship between the PA's positioning and the learners' EAP performance and deepens the understanding of the PA's positioning in video lectures of a DVR learning environment. Provides empirical analysis of natural eye‐tracking during the video learning in DVR scene and EAP data during the experimental condition. Students who learned from the DVR with an out‐of‐video PA showed better learning performance, less attention allocation on content and more frequent behavioural patterns than those with an in‐video PA. Implications for practice and/or policy Designers are encouraged to use DVR with an out‐of‐video PA to enhance students' social presence and learning experience. What is already known about this topic EAP is an indispensable skill set of academic communication for university students. PA is an effective social cue in video lectures to promote learning. VR has been widely applied in language learning. What this paper adds Reveals the relationship between the PA's positioning and the learners' EAP performance and deepens the understanding of the PA's positioning in video lectures of a DVR learning environment. Provides empirical analysis of natural eye‐tracking during the video learning in DVR scene and EAP data during the experimental condition. Students who learned from the DVR with an out‐of‐video PA showed better learning performance, less attention allocation on content and more frequent behavioural patterns than those with an in‐video PA. Implications for practice and/or policy Designers are encouraged to use DVR with an out‐of‐video PA to enhance students' social presence and learning experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attention in social interactions is directed by social cues such as the face or eye region of an interaction partner. Several factors that influence these attentional biases have been identified in the past. However, most findings are based on paradigms with static stimuli and no interaction potential. Therefore, the current study investigated the influence of one of these factors, namely facial affect in natural social interactions using an evaluated eye-tracking setup. In a sample of 35 female participants, we examined how individuals' gaze behavior responds to changes in the facial affect of an interaction partner trained in affectmodulation. Our goal was to analyze the effects on attention to facial features and to investigate their temporal dynamics in a natural social interaction. The study results, obtained fromboth aggregated and dynamic analyses, indicate that facial affect has only subtle influences on gaze behavior during social interactions. In a sample with high measurement precision, these findings highlight the difficulties of capturing the subtleties of social attention in more naturalistic settings. The methodology used in this study serves as a foundation for future research on social attention differences in more ecologically valid scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the information centre hypothesis (ICH), colonial species use social information in roosts to locate ephemeral resources. Validating the ICH necessitates showing that uninformed individuals follow informed ones to the new resource. However, following behaviour may not be essential when individuals have a good memory of the resources' locations. For instance, Egyptian fruit bats forage on spatially predictable trees, but some bear fruit at unpredictable times. These circumstances suggest an alternative ICH pathway in which bats learn when fruits emerge from social cues in the roost but then use spatial memory to locate them without following conspecifics. Here, using an unique field manipulation and high-frequency tracking data, we test for this alternative pathway: we introduced bats smeared with the fruit odour of the unpredictably fruiting Ficus sycomorus trees to the roost, when they bore no fruits, and then tracked the movement of conspecifics exposed to the manipulated social cue. As predicted, bats visited the F. sycomorus trees with significantly higher probabilities than during routine foraging trips (of >200 bats). Our results show how the integration of spatial memory and social cues leads to efficient resource tracking and highlight the value of using large movement datasets and field experiments in behavioural ecology. This article is part of the theme issue 'The spatial–social interface: a theoretical and empirical integration'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explore motivations for the use and non-use of headphones while hiking. In order to understand why people bring, or don't bring, headphones while hiking we analyzed 247 written responses to the question "why do you prefer to bring (or not bring) headphones when hiking?" We study headphones, rather than other forms of interactive computing like mobile phones, because headphone use and non-use splits survey respondents nearly in half with 51.5% stating that they do prefer to bring headphones while hiking and 48.5% stating that they do not. Those who bring headphones did so to enhance their hike by listening to music or other audio and to avoid social interaction. Those who do not bring headphones do so to fully enjoy the sounds of nature, to invite social interaction and to increase safety. Our results suggest that within the context of hiking as constructed in the United States, use and non-use decisions are motivated by shaping the intended hiking experience, social factors and safety. We view these motivations for non-use not as obstacles to be overcome in the proliferation of technology into hiking, but as nuanced themes to be considered as part of understanding technology in the broader context of hiking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examined the properties in orienting visual attention that are triggered by social cues (eye gaze or pointing finger) and nonsocial cues (an arrow). Particularly, we investigated whether the mental state of others would be modulated by any social cue. We presented an occluder between the cue and target to manipulate the mental state of an agent in cues (i.e., whether the agent is aware of the target). For Experiment 1, the reaction time (RT) to detect the target was prolonged when the target side was occluded only in the gaze‐cue condition, but not for the arrow or the pointing finger. For Experiment 2, the RT of a discrimination task, which demanded greater cognitive demand, was not prolonged for any cue type. These results suggest that the mental state attribution for the agency of the cue, which is affected by an occluder, is specific to the gaze cue, and suggest that it is under top‐down control that requires cognitive resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intransitive gestures are expressive and symbolic, whereas pantomimes are object-related actions. These gestures convey different meanings depending on whether they are directed toward (TB) or away from the body (AB). TB gestures express mental states (intransitive) or hygiene/nutritional activities (pantomime), while AB gestures modify the behaviour of the observer (intransitive) or demonstrate tool use with an object (pantomime). A substantial body of literature suggests that females exhibit stronger social cue processing compared to males. Considering the social significance of gestures, this study aimed to explore the physiological gender differences in the observation of AB and TB gestures. Pupil dilation and High Frequency Heart Rate Variability (HF-HRV) were measured in 54 participants (27 female) while observing TB and AB gestures. The Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) and the Vicarious Distress Questionnaire (VDQ) were used to assess social-emotional processes. Results showed greater pupil dilation in females for TB gestures, but no significant gender differences for HF-HRV. Males showed a significant correlation between increased pupil dilation to both TB and AB gestures and empathy levels (IRI). The support scale of the VDQ correlated significantly with TB gestures in males. These findings provide insight into the neurobiological basis of gender differences in perceiving social gestures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT: Context: Tobacco addiction is an important public health problem. Among several theories of addiction proposed, PRIME theory of motivation is found to be a comprehensive one to synthesise prevention strategies. Aims: This case study was conducted on the basis of PRIME theory to explain smokeless tobacco (SLT) addiction patterns among slum dwelling female residents of Cuttack district, Odisha. Settings and Design: Cuttack district of Odisha state and Qualitative synthesis. Methods and Material: Qualitative semistructured face-to-face interviews and framework analysis techniques were employed. The study was conducted over a period of 2 months between February 2020 and March 2020. Face-to-face interviews of 26 participants of Dasha Sahi slum using a semistructured questionnaire assessing responses based on five main themes including P, Plans; R, Responses; I, Impulses And Inhibitory Forces; M, Motives; and E, Evaluations of the said theory. Statistical Analysis Used: Verbatim transcripts were analysed using thematic framework analysis. Results: A majority of the participants were multiple SLT product users, and they did not have an immediate plan to quit. Most of the participants showed strong emotional attachment with these products and considered them the only source of pleasure (want) in a life full of miseries. The words "Tobacco" and "Nicotine" were medical jargons for them. Though they were aware of the harmful effects, they had a positive evaluative belief about its use because of cognitive dissonance. Most of them were habitual users living in an environment full of physical and social cues. Conclusions: This case study is well in line with the PRIME theory in explaining the addictive behaviour; a comprehensive multi-strategic approach was formulated for inculcating quitting behaviour among this disadvantaged section of the population as suggested by the proposer of this theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the results of an experiment that was designed to explore whether users assigned an ethnic identity to the Misty II robot based on the robot's voice accent, place of origin, and given name. To explore this topic a 2 × 3 within subject study was run which consisted of a humanoid robot speaking with a male or female gendered voice and using three different voice accents (Chinese, American, Mexican). Using participants who identified as American, the results indicated that users were able to identify the gender and ethnic identity of the Misty II robot with a high degree of accuracy based on a minimum set of social cues. However, the version of Misty II presenting with an American ethnicity was more accurately identified than a robot presenting with cues signaling a Mexican or Chinese ethnicity. Implications of the results for the design of human-robot interfaces are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What do seabirds perceive about the world? How do they do so? And how do they use the information available to them to make foraging decisions? Social cues provide seabirds with information about the location of prey. This can, of course, be passive and not involve higher‐order cognitive processes (e.g. simple conspecific or heterospecific attraction). However, seabirds display many behaviours that promote learning and the transmission of information between individuals: the vast majority of seabirds are colonial living, have an extended juvenile phase that affords them time to learn, routinely form intra‐ and interspecific associations, and can flexibly deploy a combination of foraging tactics. It is worth evaluating their foraging interactions in light of this. This review describes how seabirds use social information both at the colony and at sea to forage, and discusses the variation that exists both across species and amongst individuals. It is clear that social interactions are a critical and beneficial component of seabird foraging, with most of the variation concerning the way and extent to which social information is used, rather than whether it is used. While it may seem counterintuitive that large groups of potential competitors congregating at a patch can result in foraging gains, such aggregations can alter species dynamics in ways that promote coexistence. This review explores how competitive interference at a patch can be mitigated by behavioural modifications and niche segregation. Utilising others for foraging success (e.g. via social cues and facilitation at a patch) is likely to make population declines particularly damaging to seabirds if the quantity or quality of their social foraging interactions is reduced. Environmental changes have the potential to disrupt their social networks and thus, how these species obtain food and transfer information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although it is not disputed that cognitive training can affect similar domains (near transfer) such as similar working memory tasks, it is still hotly debated whether they advance seemingly different domains (far transfer), such as social skills improvement. This study aimed to investigate the possibility of far transfer in enhancing social-communication and adaptive behavior skills using a computerized cognitive training program (CCTP) in adolescents with intellectual disabilities (ID). The two research participants aged 14 & 16 conducted a 16-week home-based CCTP using CogniFit for 2-4 days a week, at 20 minutes a day. After the 16-week CCTP, an adjusted 4-week CCTP based on CogniFit activities and on added social cues was followed. The participants underwent pre and post assessments for examining far transfer skills using a) the Test of Pragmatic Language-2, b) the Social Skills Improvement System Rating Scale, and c) the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales II. The results showed that this intervention program can benefit adolescents with ID in social-communication and adaptive skills, which can function as an important driver of cognitive development and academic outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Relationships between adult females are fundamental to understanding diversity in animal social systems. While cooperative relationships between kin are known to promote fitness benefits, the proximate mechanisms underlying this are not well understood. Here we show that when related female house mice (Mus musculus domesticus) cooperate to rear young communally, those with higher endogenous oxytocin levels have more egalitarian and successful cooperative relationships. Sisters with higher oxytocin concentrations in the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) of the hypothalamus weaned significantly more offspring, had lower reproductive skew and spent more equal proportions of time in the nest. By contrast, PVN oxytocin was unrelated to the number of weaned offspring produced in the absence of cooperation, and did not vary in response to manipulation of nest site availability or social cues of outgroup competition. By linking fitness consequences of cooperation with oxytocin, our findings have broad implications for understanding the evolution of egalitarian social relationships. Fitness consequences of communal breeding suggest a role for oxytocin in the evolution of egalitarian social relationships - cooperating sisters with higher hypothalamic oxytocin levels have more equal and greater combined reproductive success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the research was to reveal the discriminant functions of cognitive biases and social information processing processes in distinguishing between different levels of decision-making competence among pre-university education teachers. The research sample consisted of 254 male and female teachers from primary and preparatory schools in Ismailia Governorate, to whom the "DACOBS" cognitive biases scale prepared by (Gaag, Schütz, Napel, Landa, Delespaul, Bak, Tschacher & Hert, 2013) and translated by the researcher, the decision-making competence scale (prepared by the researcher), and the social information processing scale (prepared by the researcher) were applied. The results had shown to development of a set of discriminant functions for decision-making efficiency and its various dimensions (resistance to framing - recognition of social norms - under/over confidence - consistency in risk perception - application of decision rules - resistance to sunk cost) through the dimensions of different cognitive biases (beliefs inflexability - jumping to conclusions - attention to threats - external attribution - social cognition problems - self-cognitive problems - avoidance behavior), and social information processing processes (interpretation of social cues - clarification and selection of goals - construction and activation of behavioral response), and all the discriminant functions inferred through discriminant analysis had good statistical significance. Some recommendations were presented in light of the obtained results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent work on misinformation has indicated a role for social and group-based factors in shaping people's beliefs on factual matters, suggesting that communicators might be able to leverage social cues in messages aimed at promoting more accurate beliefs. To test this possibility, we conducted an online experiment (N = 605) to assess whether partisan in-group cues across several factual claims are effective in either promoting more accurate beliefs independently or in reinforcing the effect of fact-checking messages. Results reveal that while factual messages consistently promote accurate beliefs, partisan in-group cues have neither a direct effect in promoting greater belief accuracy nor moderate the influence of factual messages. We discuss the implications of the results for theory and offer some practical implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: A healthy diet is essential for preventing chronic disease and promoting overall health. Translating one's intention to eat healthy into actual behaviour has, however, proven difficult with a range of internal and contextual factors identified as driving eating behaviour. Design: We leverage Temporal Self‐Regulation Theory to examine these momentary determinants' direct and moderating effects on the intention–behaviour relation with Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA). Methods: Eighty‐seven healthy participants (mage = 24.1 years; 59 women, 28 men) reported, 5 times daily for 10 weekdays, their intentions to stick to a self‐set dietary restriction goal for the next 3 hr, the goal congruency of their eating behaviour in the past 3 hr, and a range of factors potentially influencing food intake, such as stress, emotions and environmental eating cues. Results: Two‐part multilevel modelling revealed that craving, availability of goal‐incongruent foods, social eating cues, giving in to other temptations and weaker momentary intentions directly increased the risk and severity of goal‐incongruent intake within the next 3 hr. Social cues, stress and craving further influence behaviour through altering intention implementation. Conclusions: Results imply that people regularly fail to implement intentions for 3‐hr periods and that a range of factors influences this, both directly and by disrupting intentional processes. While for some barriers, fostering strong intentions throughout the day could be beneficial, others require different strategies for dietary adherence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Bullshitting involves communicating with little to no regard for truth, established knowledge, or genuine evidence in a way that helps people impress, persuade, influence, or confuse others, or to embellish or explain things in an area in which their obligations to provide opinions exceed their actual knowledge in those domains. Put another way, bullshitting encompasses a set of rhetorical strategies employed to help a person sound like they know what they are talking about when they really do not. Although bullshit can be useful to individual bullshitters as a persuasive tool, it can have considerable negative consequences for learning, memory, attitudes, opinions, and beliefs about what is believed to be true. Deeper understanding of the conditions under which bullshitting and general bullibility (i.e., consistent failure to discern bullshit from nonbullshit despite social cues signaling something is bullshit) are likely to emerge should position observers with a more successful vantage point to detect this deceptive behavior in others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In human communication, people often turn and gaze at a specific person in a crowd to signal their intention to interact with them. Similarly, it has been proposed that robots should also use social cues such as facing their human interaction partner during human–robot interaction tasks. This study introduces an initiatively interactive pose control (IPC) framework that allows a robot to face its task-relevant human interaction partner and proactively use this social cue while carrying out desired actions based on the ongoing task state. The IPC framework integrates a task planning module and a 3D identity recognition module. The task planning module can generate task states that include information about the desired human interaction partner's name and the expected actions of robots, including social cues. The 3D identity recognition module implemented in the IPC framework can identify potential human interaction partners and estimate their pose in relation to the robot. The relative pose serves as the control parameter for orienting the robot toward the selected human interaction partner. The experimental results show that the IPC framework achieves a relative pose estimation error ranging from 0.04 to 6.56 degrees, which signifies a substantial enhancement compared to traditional sound source localization methods. Moreover, experiments also demonstrate that the robot can proactively turn toward the interaction partner and execute expected actions using the IPC framework. In conclusion, this paper introduces a new protocol for interactive pose control, enabling robots to actively select their human interaction partners and exhibit social cues and associated interaction actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A crucial feature underpinning labour platforms that attract vast numbers of workers globally are artificial intelligence and algorithmic systems that perform labour management roles. Research in human-machine communication (HMC) suggests that technologies endowed with human social cues are perceived as distinct 'social actors', evoking responses from users or prompting users to seek responses from them. Drawing from the perspectives of Filipino platform workers in the ride-hailing and delivery sectors that interact with AI systems, this commentary highlights key dimensions of daily communicative experiences between location-based workers and their apps that oscillate around the competing experiences of visibility and opacity, (dis)trust, and care and surveillance. I argue that workers' experiences reflect their expectations of equitable and 'humane' labour management that yield important governance implications and call for rethinking the design of algorithms and artificial intelligence systems that underpin labour platforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study adopted survey design to examine the influence of gender and birth order on pupils' with autism spectrum disorder. It was guided by two research questions and two null hypotheses. A sample of sixty (60) primary 4 pupils' with autism spectrum disorder was selected from public primary schools using census approach. One instrument titled "Autism Spectrum Disorder Questionnaire (ASDQ) was used for data collection. The reliability of the questionnaire established using Cronbach Alpha reliability method which range from .84 to .86. The hypotheses were tested using Independent t-test for hypothesis one and One Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) for hypothesis two. Both were tested at .05 level of significance. The findings of the study revealed that gender, birth order significantly influence pupils' with autism spectrum disorder. It therefore concluded that autism spectrum disorder of primary schools pupils depend on their gender differences as well as different in birth orders. Based on the findings and conclusion of this study, it was recommended amongst others that intervention strategies such as teaching the pupils with autism spectrum disorder skills for interacting with others, understanding social cues, and building relationships should be tailored accordingly since the influence of gender and birth order on ASD vary based on individual characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractSocial cues play a critical role in the exchange of information during patient–physician communication. Although previous research has recognized the impact of social cues on patients’ perceptions and behaviors in mobile medical consultations, little is known about how different combinations of social cues affect the interactions. Employing a within-subject factorial design experiment, this study examined the effects of three social cues—empathic cues, interactivity cues, and social validation—on patients’ perceptions of interactivity, social presence, and trust. A total of 103 participants was recruited. The results revealed the various significant impacts of empathic cues, interactivity cues, and social validation on perceived interactivity, and social validation affected trust, as well as the relationships among these perceptions. The findings suggested strategies for integrating various social cues to enhance patients’ positive perceptions, offering potential benefits to patient–physician communication in mobile medical platforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When searching for a partner, people often rely on social cues to determine partners’ suitability, finding those who attract attention from others particularly appealing. While people continue to evaluate their partners beyond relationship initiation, existing research has predominantly concentrated on the effects of observing others’ choices during the stage of partner selection, neglecting to consider whether viewing others’ attention toward current partners yields similar effects or instead elicits defensive devaluation. In three experiments, we exposed Israeli participants to situations where their partners received unsolicited flirtatious advances, utilizing visualization, virtual reality, and recall techniques. Participants then rated their desire for their partner and mate retention efforts. Results indicated that attention to partners led to decreased desire for them, subsequently predicting reduced relationship investment. These findings suggest that witnessing current partners receiving attention holds a different meaning than observing potential partners in a similar situation, making salient the risk of losing the partner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most habitats host diverse bacterial communities, offering opportunities for inter-species interactions. While competition might often dominate such interactions, little is known about whether bacteria can sense competitors and mount adequate responses. The competition sensing hypothesis proposes that bacteria can use cues such as nutrient stress and cell damage to prepare for battle. Here, we tested this hypothesis by measuring transcriptome changes in Pseudomonas aeruginosa exposed to the supernatant of its competitor Burkholderia cenocepacia. We found that P. aeruginosa exhibited significant growth-medium-dependent transcriptome changes in response to competition. In an iron-rich medium, P. aeruginosa upregulated genes encoding the type-VI secretion system and the siderophore pyoverdine, whereas genes encoding phenazine toxins and hydrogen cyanide were upregulated under iron-limited conditions. Moreover, general stress response and quorum sensing regulators were upregulated upon supernatant exposure. Altogether, our results reveal nuanced competitive responses of P. aeruginosa when confronted with B. cenocepacia supernatant, integrating both environmental and social cues. Transcriptomic data show that the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa reacts to secreted compounds from its competitor Burkholderia cenocepacia by upregulating a set of competitive traits that vary as a function of iron availability in the medium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]