Predicting Aggressive Tendencies by Visual Attention Bias Associated with Hostile Emotions

The goal of the current study is to clarify the relationship between social information processing (e.g., visual attention to cues of hostility, hostility attribution bias, and facial expression emotion labeling) and aggressive tendencies. Thirty adults were recruited in the eye-tracking study that measured various components in social information processing. Baseline aggressive tendencies were measured using the Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire (AQ). Visual attention towards hostile objects was measured as the proportion of eye gaze fixation duration on cues of hostility. Hostility attribution bias was measured with the rating results for emotions of characters in the images. The results show that the eye gaze duration on hostile characters was significantly inversely correlated with the AQ score and less eye contact with an angry face. The eye gaze duration on hostile object was not significantly associated with hostility attribution bias, although hostility attribution bias was significantly positively associated with the AQ score. Our findings suggest that eye gaze fixation time towards non-hostile cues may predict aggressive tendencies.     

Insights into Sexism: Male Status and Performance Moderates Female-Directed Hostile and Amicable Behaviour

Gender inequality and sexist behaviour is prevalent in almost all workplaces and rampant in online environments. Although there is much research dedicated to understanding sexist behaviour, we have almost no insight into what triggers this behaviour and the individuals that initiate it. Although social constructionist theory argues that sexism is a response towards women entering a male dominated arena, this perspective doesn’t explain why only a subset of males behave in this way. We argue that a clearer understanding of sexist behaviour can be gained through an evolutionary perspective that considers evolved differences in intra-sexual competition. We hypothesised that female-initiated disruption of a male hierarchy incites hostile behaviour from poor performing males who stand to lose the most status. To test this hypothesis, we used an online first-person shooter video game that removes signals of dominance but provides information on gender, individual performance, and skill. We show that lower-skilled players were more hostile towards a female-voiced teammate, especially when performing poorly. In contrast, lower-skilled players behaved submissively towards a male-voiced player in the identical scenario. This difference in gender-directed behaviour became more extreme with poorer focal-player performance. We suggest that low-status males increase female-directed hostility to minimize the loss of status as a consequence of hierarchical reconfiguration resulting from the entrance of a woman into the competitive arena. Higher-skilled players, in contrast, were more positive towards a female relative to a male teammate. As higher-skilled players have less to fear from hierarchical reorganization, we argue that these males behave more positively in an attempt to support and garner a female player’s attention. Our results provide the clearest picture of inter-sexual competition to date, highlighting the importance of considering an evolutionary perspective when exploring the factors that affect male hostility towards women.     

Implicitly Priming the Social Brain: Failure to Find Neural Effects

Humans have a fundamental need for social relationships. Rejection from social groups is especially detrimental, rendering the ability to detect threats to social relationships and respond in adaptive ways critical. Indeed, previous research has shown that experiencing social rejection alters the processing of subsequent social cues in a variety of socially affiliative and avoidant ways. Because social perception and cognition occurs spontaneously and automatically, detecting threats to social relationships may occur without conscious awareness or control. Here, we investigated the automaticity of social threat detection by examining how implicit primes affect neural responses to social stimuli. However, despite using a well-established implicit priming paradigm and large sample size, we failed to find any evidence that implicit primes induced changes at the neural level. That implicit primes influence behavior has been demonstrated repeatedly and across a variety of domains, and our goal is not to question these effects. Rather, we offer the present study as cautionary evidence that such a paradigm may not be amenable to scanning in an fMRI environment.     

Dynamic changes in social dominance and mPOA GnRH expression in male mice following social opportunity

Social competence - the ability of animals to dynamically adjust their social behavior dependent on the current social context – is fundamental to the successful establishment and maintenance of social relationships in group-living species. The social opportunity paradigm, where animals rapidly ascend a social hierarchy following the removal of more dominant individuals, is a well-established approach for studying the neural and neuroendocrine mechanisms underlying socially competent behavior. In the current study, we demonstrate that this paradigm can be successfully adapted for studying socially competent behavior in laboratory mice. Replicating our previous reports, we show that male laboratory mice housed in a semi-natural environment form stable linear social hierarchies. Novel to the current study, we find that subdominant male mice immediately respond to the removal of the alpha male from a hierarchy by initiating a dramatic increase in aggressive behavior towards more subordinate individuals. Consequently, subdominants assume the role of the alpha male. Analysis of brain gene expression in individuals 1 h following social ascent indicates elevated gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) mRNA levels in the medial preoptic area (mPOA) of the hypothalamus compared to individuals that do not experience a social opportunity. Moreover, hormonal analyses indicate that subdominant individuals have increased circulating plasma testosterone levels compared to subordinate individuals. Our findings demonstrate that male mice are able to dynamically and rapidly adjust both behavior and neuroendocrine function in response to changes in social context. Further, we establish the social opportunity paradigm as an ethologically relevant approach for studying social competence and behavioral plasticity in mammals.     

Alternative mechanisms of nonindependent mate choice

Aspects of the environment, including the social environment, can contribute to intrapopulation variation in mating preferences. One example of the effect of social environment on mate preferences is mate choice copying; however, other types of socially influenced (nonindependent) choice might exist. We develop a list of such alternatives based on possible physiological or psychological mechanisms, evaluate the evidence distinguishing one from another and clarify some controversial aspects of mate choice copying. This framework reveals many ways in which one female's mate choice can influence that of another, and suggests a broader array of hypotheses about the selective forces acting on such mechanisms. Because nonindependent choice can occur in a variety of ways, it could be more important for understanding patterns of mate choice than current theory suggests. Copyright 2000 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.     

An investigation of antibody acyl hydrolysis catalysis using a large set of related haptens

An aspect of catalytic antibody research that receives little attention in the literature involves hapten systems that fail to elicit antibody catalysts despite a high affinity immune response and hapten designs that resemble those known to elicit catalysts. We have investigated a series of 12 phosphate and phosphonate haptens in a total of three animal systems. Dramatic and reproducible differences were observed in the catalytic activities of polyclonal antibodies elicited by the different haptens. A phosphate hapten with a phenyl ring on the side of the hapten opposite the linker elicited reproducibly high levels of polyclonal antibody catalytic activity. The other 11 haptens, most with benzyl groups on the side of the hapten opposite the linker, elicited immune responses in which catalytic activity was significantly weaker in terms of the level of observed catalytic activity, as well as frequency of elicited catalysts. Our results indicate that subtle features of transition state analogue hapten structure can have a dramatic and reproducible influence over the catalytic activity of elicited antibodies in related haptens. Whatever the explanation, subtle changes in mechanistic features due to altered leaving group ability/location or overall hapten flexibility, the comprehensive data presented here indicate that phenyl or 4-nitrophenyl leaving groups located opposite the hapten linker are to be preferred in order to elicit highly active antibody catalysts for acyl hydrolysis reactions.     

Mindfulness Enhances Episodic Memory Performance: Evidence from a Multimethod Investigation

Training in mindfulness, classically described as a receptive attentiveness to present events and experiences, has been shown to improve attention and working memory. Both are key to long-term memory formation, and the present three-study series used multiple methods to examine whether mindfulness would enhance episodic memory, a key form of long-term memory. In Study 1 (N = 143), a self-reported state of mindful attention predicted better recognition performance in the Remember-Know (R-K) paradigm. In Study 2 (N = 93), very brief training in a focused attention form of mindfulness also produced better recognition memory performance on the R-K task relative to a randomized, well-matched active control condition. Study 3 (N = 57) extended these findings by showing that relative to randomized active and inactive control conditions the effect of very brief mindfulness training generalized to free-recall memory performance. This study also found evidence for mediation of the mindfulness training—episodic memory relation by intrinsic motivation. These findings indicate that mindful attention can beneficially impact motivation and episodic memory, with potential implications for educational and occupational performance.     

Social Influences in Sequential Decision Making

People often make decisions in a social environment. The present work examines social influence on people’s decisions in a sequential decision-making situation. In the first experimental study, we implemented an information cascade paradigm, illustrating that people infer information from decisions of others and use this information to make their own decisions. We followed a cognitive modeling approach to elicit the weight people give to social as compared to private individual information. The proposed social influence model shows that participants overweight their own private information relative to social information, contrary to the normative Bayesian account. In our second study, we embedded the abstract decision problem of Study 1 in a medical decision-making problem. We examined whether in a medical situation people also take others’ authority into account in addition to the information that their decisions convey. The social influence model illustrates that people weight social information differentially according to the authority of other decision makers. The influence of authority was strongest when an authority''s decision contrasted with private information. Both studies illustrate how the social environment provides sources of information that people integrate differently for their decisions.     

It's all who you know: the evolution of socially cued anticipatory plasticity as a mating strategy

Selection has led to the evolution of a variety of different mating strategies, each adapted to different competitive challenges. But what happens if the competitive challenges depend on the social environment? Here we discuss and review examples of socially cued anticipatory plasticity: irreversible developmental tactics in which resource allocation during the juvenile stage is altered to develop an appropriate phenotype for the competitive or mate choice environment that an individual encounters when mature. There are numerous theoretical and empirical examinations of the role of the social environment on the strength and direction of selection. However, only a handful of empirical studies examine how the social environment affects juvenile allocation and whether such tactics are adaptive. The goal of this review is to synthesize current knowledge about socially cued anticipatory plasticity, including the sensory modalities that individuals use to predict the adult competitive and mating environment. We then outline the various factors that are necessary for the evolution of socially cued anticipatory plasticity and discuss how this can affect phenotypic evolution. We conclude by suggesting some directions that future studies should take in order to understand how social variation can alter selection and the evolution of development.     

The Two Faces of Social Interaction Reward in Animal Models of Drug Dependence

Drug dependence is a serious health and social problem. Social factors can modify vulnerability to developing drug dependence, acting as risk factors or protective factors. Whereas stress and peer environment that encourage substance use may increase drug taking, strong attachments between family members and peer environment that do not experience drug use may protect against drug taking and, ultimately, drug dependence. The rewarding effects of drug abuse and social interaction can be evaluated using animal models. In this review we focus on evaluating social interaction reward in the conditioned place preference paradigm. We give an overview of how social interaction, if made available within the drug context, may facilitate, promote and interact with the drug’s effects. However, social interaction, if offered alternatively outside the drug context, may have pronounced protective effects against drug abuse and relapse. We also address the importance of the weight difference parameter between the social partners in determining the positive or “agonistic” versus the hostile or “antagonistic” social interaction. We conclude that understanding social interaction reward and its subsequent effects on drug reward is sorely needed for therapeutic interventions against drug dependence.     

fMRI Study of Social Anxiety during Social Ostracism with and without Emotional Support

Social anxiety is characterized by an excessive fear of being embarrassed in social interactions or social performance situations. Emotional support can help to decrease or diminish social distress. Such support may play an important role at different points of social interaction. However, it is unclear how the beneficial effects of social support are represented in the brains of socially anxious individuals. To explore this, we used the same paradigm previously used to examine the effects of emotional support on social pain caused by exclusion. Undergraduates (n = 46) showing a wide range of social anxiety scores underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while participating in a Cyberball game. Participants were initially included and later excluded from the game. In the latter half of the session in which participants were excluded, they were provided with supportive messages. In line with our previous work, we found that social exclusion led to increased anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) activity, whereas emotional support led to increased left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) activity. Despite validation of the paradigm, social anxiety was not associated with increased ACC activity during social exclusion, or during perceived emotional support. Instead, fear of negative evaluation as assessed by the Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation (BFNE) scale showed positive associations with left DLPFC activation while receiving emotional support, compared to while being socially excluded. The more socially anxious an individual was, the greater was the left DLPFC activity increased during receipt of messages. This suggests that highly socially anxious people still have the ability to perceive social support, but that they are nevertheless susceptible to negative evaluation by others.     

Fish oils and aggression or hostility

Fish oils have long been known to protect the heart from ischemic heart disease and fatal arrhythmia. Recently they have also been suggested to protect the heart in a literal sense! Although not all reports on fish oils and psychiatric disorder support the latter notion, many of them claim that fish oils were effective. The point is that, different from currently prescribed psychiatric medicines, fish oils do not do harm to any part of the body. We have been working on the effects of fish oils on aggressive behavior and hostility. Unfortunately this area of research is not mature yet. The number of related papers is rather limited, so we will take aggression and/or hostility in a broader sense including oppositional behavior, violence etc. in this review. We found fourteen intervention studies checking the effects of fish oils on aggressive behavior. Eleven of them showed the aggression/hostility-controlling effects of fish oils one way or another. We did not try to summarize those effects by meta-analysis, because we thought that the methods of research were too heterogeneous. The mechanisms as to how fish oils affect aggression/hostility is not clear yet, but several possible mechanisms have been postulated. Among them, activation of the serotonergic neuron system is the most promising. The research area of fish oils and aggression/hostility is clearly important from the medical and social points of view.     

A Moment of Mindfulness: Computer-Mediated Mindfulness Practice Increases State Mindfulness

Three studies investigated the use of a 5-minute, computer-mediated mindfulness practice in increasing levels of state mindfulness. In Study 1, 54 high school students completed the computer-mediated mindfulness practice in a lab setting and Toronto Mindfulness Scale (TMS) scores were measured before and after the practice. In Study 2 (N = 90) and Study 3 (N = 61), the mindfulness practice was tested with an entirely online sample to test the delivery of the 5-minute mindfulness practice via the internet. In Study 2 and 3, we found a significant increase in TMS scores in the mindful condition, but not in the control condition. These findings highlight the impact of a brief, mindfulness practice for single-session, computer-mediated use to increase mindfulness as a state.     

Is Play Behavior Sexually Dimorphic in Monogamous Species?

Monogamy is a relatively rare social system in mammals, occurring only in about 3% of mammalian species. Monogamous species are characterized by the formation of pair‐bonds, biparental care, and a very low level of sexual dimorphism. Whereas in most polygynous species males engage in more rough‐and‐tumble play than females, we predicted that males and females of monogamous species would have similar, or monomorphic, play behavior. In this study, we focused on two monogamous species: coppery titi monkeys (Callicebus cupreus) and prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster). We documented the development of play behavior in both species, and quantified different types of play behavior. We did not find any sex differences in either species in the frequencies and types of play. However, we did find sex differences in the choice of play partner in titi monkeys: female offspring spent a higher proportion of time playing with their father, while male offspring played equally with their mother and father. It is possible that rough‐and‐tumble play behavior is monomorphic in many monogamous mammals, perhaps reflecting differences from polygynous species in the effects of exposure to early androgens or in the estrogen receptor distribution. However, more subtle differences in monomorphic play behavior, such as choice of partner, may still exist.     

An experimental analysis of social interaction in the common marmoset (Callithrix jacchus jacchus)

Adult and juvenile common marmosets were introduced to unfamiliar conspecifics individually and in whole groups. In introductions using animals of the same sex, adults were mutually hostile unless they were related or socially familiar; juveniles behaved submissively to adults and little aggression was observed between juveniles. In introductions using animals of the opposite sex, males of all ages solicited females but females did not reciprocate. When whole groups were introduced, in two experiments most of the elder group members behaved aggressively and younger animals did not interact frequently; but in a third experiment, in which the adult males were related, little aggression was observed and younger animals behaved amicably. It is argued that the behavioral reactions shown by individual marmosets are related to territorial hostility and that the behavior of juveniles to adults may aid assimilation of younger animals into new groups.     

Does cooperation mean kinship between spatially discrete ant nests?

Eusociality is one of the most complex forms of social organization, characterized by cooperative and reproductive units termed colonies. Altruistic behavior of workers within colonies is explained by inclusive fitness, with indirect fitness benefits accrued by helping kin. Members of a social insect colony are expected to be more closely related to one another than they are to other conspecifics. In many social insects, the colony can extend to multiple socially connected but spatially separate nests (polydomy). Social connections, such as trails between nests, promote cooperation and resource exchange, and we predict that workers from socially connected nests will have higher internest relatedness than those from socially unconnected, and noncooperating, nests. We measure social connections, resource exchange, and internest genetic relatedness in the polydomous wood ant Formica lugubris to test whether (1) socially connected but spatially separate nests cooperate, and (2) high internest relatedness is the underlying driver of this cooperation. Our results show that socially connected nests exhibit movement of workers and resources, which suggests they do cooperate, whereas unconnected nests do not. However, we find no difference in internest genetic relatedness between socially connected and unconnected nest pairs, both show high kinship. Our results suggest that neighboring pairs of connected nests show a social and cooperative distinction, but no genetic distinction. We hypothesize that the loss of a social connection may initiate ecological divergence within colonies. Genetic divergence between neighboring nests may build up only later, as a consequence rather than a cause of colony separation.     

Evolved priors for ethnolinguistic categorization: A case study from the Quechua–Aymara boundary in the Peruvian Altiplano

Ethnic categories uniquely structure human social worlds. People readily form stereotypes about these, and other social categories, but it is unclear whether certain dimensions are privileged for making predictions about strangers when information is limited. If humans have been living in culturally-structured groups for much of their evolutionary history, we might expect them to have adaptations for prioritizing ethno-linguistic cues as a basis for making predictions about others. We provide a strong test of this possibility through a series of studies in a field context along the Quechua–Aymara linguistic boundary in the Peruvian Altiplano where the language boundary is not particularly socially meaningful. We find evidence of such psychological priors among children and adults at this site by showing that their age, and the social categories’ novelty affect participants’ reliance on ethno-linguistic inductive inferences (i.e. one-to-many predictions). Studies 1–3 show that participants make more ethno-linguistic inferences when the social categories are more removed from their real-world context. Additionally, in Study 4 when the category is marked with acoustic cues of language use, young children rely heavily on ethno-linguistic predictions, even though adults do not.     

The Association between State Attachment Security and State Mindfulness

Recent research suggests that attachment and mindfulness are related, though the nature of this association is unclear. Here we present two studies examining whether there is a causal relationship between state attachment and state mindfulness. Study 1 investigated the effects of experimentally increasing state mindfulness on state attachment security. State mindfulness was successfully enhanced, but this led to no change in state attachment security. Study 2 investigated the effects of experimentally enhancing state attachment security on state mindfulness. State attachment security was successfully enhanced, but this did not lead to any change in state mindfulness. These findings suggest that there is not a direct, immediate causal relationship between state attachment and state mindfulness as a result of brief experimental manipulations. Future research should examine these associations in longer term interventions.     

Cardiovascular Response to Interpersonal Provocation and Mental Arithmetic among High and Low Hostile Young Adult Males

To examine the relation between hostility and cardiovascular reactivity to stress, 42 undergraduate men were categorized into high and low hostile groups based on responses to the Cook Medley Hostility Scale. Participants engaged in two laboratory tasks: a Cognitive Task (mental arithmetic) and a Social Task (confrontation role-play). Cardiovascular measures of heart rate and blood pressure were obtained throughout rest and task periods and participants provided ratings of state anger and forgiveness following task completion. Results revealed that low hostile participants exhibited greater systolic blood pressure (SBP) responses to both tasks than high hostile participants (p < .05), but no significant group differences were observed for heart rate or diastolic blood pressure. High hostile men reported greater state anger during resting conditions and less forgiveness following completion of tasks than low-hostile counterparts, but neither of these findings moderated the relation between hostility and SBP reactivity. Higher ratings of forgiveness were associated with lower SBP reactivity. These findings show that hostility is not always associated with exaggerated cardiovascular reactivity to stress, and the influence of various moderating factors should be considered in elucidating this relation.     

Social Interaction with an “Unidentified Moving Object” Elicits A-Not-B Error in Domestic Dogs

Mechanical “unidentified moving objects” (UMO’s) are useful for controlled investigations into features of social interaction that generate cooperativeness and positive social affiliation in domestic dogs (Canis familiaris). We hypothesized that, if a UMO interacted socially with a dog, the UMO would become associated with certain social cues and would subsequently affect dog behaviour. We assigned dogs to a Human, Social UMO or Non-Social UMO partner. In the Human and Social UMO conditions, the partner interacted with the dog cooperatively whereas the Non-Social UMO partner was unresponsive to the dog’s actions. We then tested dogs with their partner in a Piagetian A-not-B error paradigm, predicting that the Human and Social UMO partners would be more likely to elicit A-not-B errors in dogs than the Non-Social UMO partner. Five trials were conducted in which the dog watched its partner hide a ball behind one of two screens (A or B). As predicted, dogs in the Human and Social UMO conditions were more likely to search for the ball behind the A screen during B trials than dogs in the Non-Social UMO condition. These results reveal that the unfamiliar partner’s social responsiveness leads rapidly to accepting information communicated by the partner. This study has generated a better understanding of crucial features of agents that promote dog social behaviour, which will facilitate the programming of robots for various cooperative tasks.