Social Flashcards
What is social psychology?
Taking cognition and putting it in its social context
- Scientific study of the reciprocal influence of the individual and their social context
What is the social aetiology of cognition?
Social learning theory, social roles theory
What is the social approach to methodology?
Discourse analysis, thematic analysis, setting cognition in context
Why is social psychology important?
People do not exist in a vacuum - cognition occurs in a natural context surrounded by people
Our most important functions are social - understanding humans as a species
The way people perceive their social groups - leading to discrimination (our psychological biases have real world consequences)
How is social psychology investigated? (4 methods)
1) Lab experiment
e.g. Milgram’s obedience studies
2) Observations
e.g. Lycett and Dunbar - male use of phones to show off/ status
3) Questionnaires
- More participants, but more likely to be biased
4) Interviews and focus groups
e.g. Campbell’s female aggression research
What are quantitative methods in social psychology research?
Experimental research - manipulate element of a situation and observe change in outcome
Correlational research - assesses the linear relationship between two continuous variables (does not equal causation)
What are qualitative methods in social psychology research?
Sources of data: interviews, archive reports and text, observations
Analytical methods:
Thematic analysis - pull out core themes in data
Discourse analysis - analysing communication of information between people
Grounded theory - let data create the themes, cluster statements into similar categories to create hierarchical structure of concepts in data
Quantitative compromise: content analysis - prespecify important themes, go through data and count every time something comes up
What is social learning theory?
Empiricist
Our behaviour is shaped by the social environment in which we have grown up and in which we operate
What is constructivism?
Qualitative
Important concepts that shape how we think are constructed in the social world and we internalise this
What is the standard social science model (blank slate)?
Not even Skinner thinks we are born as blank slates, nevertheless our social environment still shapes us
What are cognitive constraints and models?
Social behaviour driven by cognitive processing factors
What is evolutionary social psychology?
Looking at specific behaviours that enhance reproductive success and genetic underpinnings of behaviour are subsequently passed on to future generations
- Random variation
- Natural and sexual selection
What are criticisms of evolutionary social psychology?
Levels of explanation - proximate perspective (literal neural mechanism), ultimate perspective (evolutionary background to neural mechanism)
Biological determinism and the naturalistic fallacy, there can still be an over-reliance on western gender roles and a tendency to default to biology
What is the replication crisis?
75% of social psychology studies and 50% of cognitive studies in this project failed the replication test (inconsistency)
What are WEIRD samples?
Western educated industrial rich democratic samples - make up the majority of psychology samples
What is Tajfel’s minimal group paradigm?
Humans have a tendency to see their ingroup as an important part of their identity
- Humans can be sorted into groups for which paintings they prefer, and they wanted to maximise the success of the ingroup compared to the outgroup
What is Dunbar’s number?
150
Average size of hunter-gatherer society
Average number of Christmas cards
Average number of Facebook friends
- Thought that living socially was a major driving force in the evolution of the human brain
What did Berkman and Breslow find in their 20 year longitudinal study of health and social contact?
Controlling for health factors (smoking, alcohol, weight etc), those with fewest relationships were twice as likely to die
Why is social support important for our health?
- Social support protects against depression (esp for women)
- Providing social support may be more important than receiving it
- Camraderie protects against emotional burnout in firefighters
- Synchronised training creates higher pain tolerance in rowers
- Feeling happy reduces cortisol levels, therefore less stress and less directing of energy away from basic body systems
What does early trading and hunting show?
Trading - early homo sapiens trading shells for food
Hunting - social chasing methods of hunting
Shows advantages of a social brain
What did Sherif et al (1961) find out about group psychology?
Group divisions were spontaneous
Group conflict became intense and they were very loyal towards own group
Only when given a superordinate goal were they able to become one group (repairing the water supply for the camp) - for survival
Therefore, group psychology is important to humans, however the group is flexible
What did Newson et al (2018) find out about group psychology through Brazilian football fans?
Intergroup violence supports social cohesion
Fans of same team were very socially fused with each other
What human activity is seen as an equivalent for grooming in primates?
Gossip - humans spend 20% of waking time in conversation (should spend 42% of the time grooming if we were like other primates)
What did Dunbar (1993) find out about dining hall conversations?
Social relationships and personal experiences took up 70% of conversation time
Half of this was about third parties
Shows keeping track of social relationships to properly navigate your social world
What does informational conformity show us about human social learning/ reliance?
Humans learn how to do things from each other, thus are important and valuable to each other in navigating ambiguousness in social reality
Therefore, are likely to conform to other people’s answers
e.g. How far a spot was moving - when answers said out loud, people’s answer got closer to the other answers (Sherif, 1936)
What is Rubin’s (1970) discrimination between loving and liking
Love is not simply lots of liking
What is Sternberg’s (1986) Triarchic model of love
1) Intimacy - closeness and understanding
2) Passion - physical or sexual attraction or romance
3) Commitment - the cognitive factors such as the decision to maintain the relationship
Just intimacy = liking
Just passion = infatuation
Just commitment = empty love
What is romantic, fatuous, companionate and consummate love? (Sternberg, 1986)
Romantic = intimacy + passion
Fatuous = passion + commitment
Companionate = intimacy + commitment
Consummate = intimacy + passion + commitment
What is passion?
An intense longing for union with the other (Hatfield and Walster, 1978)
Romantic passion is a motivational desire for intimacy (Carswell and Impett, 2021)
Passion is attributing arousal with a certain person
What did Dutton and Aron (1974) find out about misattribution of arousal?
Men who walked across a high rickety bridge rated a woman more attractive as those on a low stable bridge: heart beating faster was attributed to the woman
What are the three aspects of Hatfield and Sprecher’s (1986) Passionate love scale?
1) Cognitive - thinking about someone
2) Affective - attraction
3) Behavioural - maintaining physical closeness
What three independent systems of relationship behaviour does Fisher propose?
Neurotransmitters/hormones
1) Lust/sex drive - androgen (testosterone) mediated
2) Attraction (romantic love) - dopamine mediated (addiction model)
3) Attachment (long-term bonding) - oxytocin mediated
How does proximity affect who we are friends with? (Student accommodation and neighbouring seats study)
“I do not believe that friends are necessarily the people you like best, they are merely the people who got there first” - Sir Peter Ustinov
- In student accommodation, people with rooms next to each other were more likely to be friends (Festinger et al., 1950)
- Sitting in neighbouring seats in a class predicts friendships 1 year later (Back et al., 2008)
Are proximity friendships due to a mere exposure effect? (Foreign words and classroom visitor studies)
- Familiar fictitious foreign words rated more positive in meaning (Zajonc 1968)
- Students rate classroom visitors they see more often more positively (Moreland and Beach 1992)
How does similarity affect who we are friends with? (Student accommodation study)
Newcomb (1961) - students randomly assigned to dorms, and similarity of attitudes predicted friendship
Byrne and Clare (1974) - similarity in attitudes directly relates to liking/attraction
Tan & Singh (1995) - we also dislike people whose beliefs are different from ours
Is sharing positive or negative opinions more effective for friendship forming based on similarity? (Balance theory and social comparison theory)
- Bosson et al - sharing negative opinions may create bonding
Balance theory - Heider (1958), Newcomb (1961) - both liking something, both equal
Social comparison theory - Festinger (1954) - use other people as a basis for making judgements about yourself - similar others provide validation for one’s own beliefs
Is similarity a predictor for romantic attraction? (Blind date study and role of commitment)
Byrne et al (1970):
- Paired blind dates as either very similar or dissimilar
- Similarity strong predictor of attraction, but so was attractiveness
The role of similarity depends on how much commitment is desired:
- Similarity desired for committed relationships
- For flings - dissimilarity is preferred (Amodio and Showers, 2005)
How does reciprocity affect who we are friends with?
We like people who like us
Dittes and Kelley (1956) - experiment:
- Group discussion, followed by fake ‘approval ratings’ of each other
- Strongly affected their liking of group
Reciprocity can make up for absence of similarity
How does reciprocity of trust affect who we are friends with?
Collins and Miller (1994) Meta-analysis:
- Trust makes people like each other more
- Talking about personal matters creates trust and thus, liking
- Stronger for women than men, stronger for same-sex vs opposite sex pairings, level of disclosure did not make a difference
What is social exchange theory?
Relationships are based on a principle of rewards and costs in interactions - is the relationship profitable?
Simple standard : Outcome (profit) = Rewards - Costs (absolute measure)
But, people don’t just want profit, they want the best possible outcome
What is the comparison level in social exchange theory? (High and low)
CL = what we feel we deserve from relationships, specific to the individual, based on prior experience, learning, personality
High CL = expect relationships to be rewarding, low rewards unacceptable and disappointing
Low CL - expect relationships to be troublesome, low rewards are acceptable and tolerable (Bella Swan)
Relationships that meet or exceed expectations are more satisfying
What is the comparison level for alternative in social exchange theory?
CLalt = what we realistically expect we could get elsewhere:
- Includes other partners or no partner
- Standard against which we decide to stay or leave
What is the role of dependence in social exchange theory? (CLalt equations)
Dependence = degree to which we feel psychologically linked to our relationship, determines whether we are motivated to stay or leave
This is not solely based on whether or not we are happy (could economically rely on partner)
- Low CLalt - high dependence even when there is high cost
- Satisfaction = outcome - CL
- Dependence = outcome - CLalt
What is equity theory?
People are motivated by self interest, but other people have options too - must be fair in order to get along
- People feel most comfortable when they get roughly what they deserve, no more and no less
- Concerned with fair distribution of rewards and costs
What are the three propositions of equity theory? (Equity vs equality)
1) Partners are concerned with fairness
2) Inequity causes distress
3) Partners will take steps to restore equity
- Partners have equal relative profit
- Don’t have to be same rewards, just same balance
Equality = give gift equal in value to what friend gave you
Equity = tally inputs into relationship (rides to work, social support) and give/do something in proportion to benefits received
What is the difference between business/casual relationships and close relationships? (Equity theory)
Clarks and Mills (1979) suggest casual/business relationships are based on exchange, but close relationships are communal (based on concern for other person, not expectation of reward)
Page et al (2019) childcare provision amongst Agta driven by reciprocity for friends, and need for kin
Are people are more likely to stick with the person in front of them than turn to other options?
Yes - online hookups often become long term
Campbell, 2002 - ‘emotions, not rational calculation, drive human behaviour’
Sampling issues with relationship research?
Most relationship research is white, heterosexual couples
What are the four factors determining who we love?
Proximity
Similarity
Reciprocity
Physical attraction
What did Walster et al (1966) find was the biggest predictor of liking someone in his Computer Dating paradigm?
How physically attractive other people rate them
What did Mathes (1975) find was the most important factor to liking someone after the fifth date?
Similarity
What is the halo effect associated with attractiveness?
- Greater overall liking
- More desirable character traits (e.g. sensitive, warm, intelligent)
- Higher evaluation of work performance
- More lenient treatment in the legal system (Downs & Lyons, 1991) - lighter sentencing
What positive life outcomes is attractiveness associated with?
- Higher income (Hamermesh & Biddle, 1994)
- Better mental health
- More social influence (Chaiken, 1979)
What is the Matching Hypothesis? (Berscheid & Walster)
- Attraction is also about how attractive the other person thinks they are
- Computer dating scenario
- Similarity of attractiveness > attractiveness
- Similarity more important for women than men
- Self-esteem? Balance?
What does the equality of physical attractiveness predict about length of relationship?
Different attractiveness - short
Equal attractiveness - long
How did attraction research change post-1980?
- Cultural work expanded
- Development of cognitive theories
- Beginnings of evolutionary psychology
Evidence for beauty being objective?
1) High level of agreement across cultures (Langlois et al, 2000)
2) Certain facial features are reliably associated with attractiveness (Cunningham, 1986)
3) Babies prefer attractive faces - spend more time looking at faces adults think are attractive
Evidence for beauty being subjective?
1) Different cultures “improve” beauty in different ways (Newman, 2000) e.g. face tattoos, neck rings
2) Different body types are judged to be more attractive in different parts of the world (Anderson et. al 1992)
3) Body type standards vary over time (Silverstein et al, 1986)
What did Tovee et al (2006) find about Zulu body preference?
Zulus in South Africa rated high BMI bodies as more attractive than Zulu migrants in the UK and than Black British people
What did Boothroyd et al (2016) find about TV consumption and body preference?
Nicaragua - very isolated community
No TV in village - highest attractiveness ratings for high BMI
TV 5 years ago - lower ratings
Capital city - even lower ratings
- Consumption of TV changes the type of body people see as attractive
What did Thornborrow et al (2017) conclude about mens’ body type preferences on women?
Men’s preferences for large buttocks and hips:
Men more interested in the body in motion - thinking of bodies in terms of sex
Women did not have the same approach
What did Thornborrow et al (2020) find out about men’s preference for their own muscularity?
Nicaragua and Uganda - much more spread out preference
UK - specific preference for muscularity
What evidence is there for an attraction to ‘averageness’? (Cognitive approach to attraction)
- Facial prototype formation and attraction to ‘averageness’
- Preference robust across adults
e.g. Rhodes et al, Langlois et al - However infants seem to prefer distinctiveness (adults do not)
e.g. Rhodes et al (2002): 6 month olds distinctiveness preference
Giffrey and Little (2013): 1 to 2 year olds distinctiveness preference
What are visual adaptation effects and what evidence is there for this?
A person developing a preference for faces they have more exposure to (present in adults and children):
- Mixed vs single sex schools (Saxton et al, 2010) - in single sex schools, men preferred masculine female faces and women preferred feminine male faces
- Story book experiments (Anzures et al, 2008) - children saw contracted or expanded faces, and children who saw contracted were more likely to pick contracted as their preference and vice versa
What evidence is there that averageness predicts attraction?
- Zhao et al (2023)
- 682 students were photographed and took part in speed dating
- Averageness (and similarity) -> rated attractiveness
What is sexual selection and inter-sexual selection?
Sexual selection:
- Differential mating/reproduction
Inter-sexual selection:
- Opposite sex prefers some traits more than others increasing the frequency of those genes in the next generation (attractive/successful traits passed on, ‘attractive’ traits benefit the chooser)
- Choosing healthy genes in a partner will give a person healthy offspring
- e.g. averageness is associated with health? (Rhodes et al) ‘average’ people had a gene for more resistance to pathogens
What is monogamy, polygyny, polyandry and promiscuity? (human mating systems)
- Monogamy - one male, one female
- Polygyny - several females, one male
- Polyandry - several males, one female
- Promiscuity - no bonded relationships (chimps)
Are humans monogamous?
- ‘A history of mild polygyny?’
- ‘A monogamous species plagued by polygyny?’
- Serially monogamous?
- 17 women for every man - human genome - indicates polygyny
- Modest size dimorphism and intermediate testicular volume - the more males that females are mating with, the bigger the testicular volume due to sperm competition
- Sperm competition means some polyandry too
- Conclusion - Monogamish
What is anisogamy?
One reproductive cell being much bigger than the other
What is differential parental investment?
Any investment made in a particular offspring which contributes to its survival and fitness which comes at the cost of being able to invest in other offspring (Trivers, 1972)
How is obligate parental investment different in females vs males?
Female:
- Large gamete
- Mating
- Gestation
- Parturition
- Lactation
- Extended care beyond weaning
Male:
- Small gamete
- Mating
(Although both parents can provide extended care)
How do standards of mating partners differ between males and females? (Sexual strategies theory)
- Maternally biased parental investment
- Females = ‘limiting factor’
- Females possibly more careful about who they reproduce with as they have more to lose as they carry the child and are more involved with it through things like breastfeeding
- Bus and Schmitt (1993) - sexual strategies theory - sex that is limiting factor (women) should be more choosy, and men should compete
What are male and female priorities in short and long-term relationships?
Male:
Short term - proceptivity (person being interested back), fertility
Long term - youth, fertility, faithfulness
Female:
Short term - good genes (high quality child who will provide grandchildren)
Long term - resources/status, generosity
(Women consistently want a bit more than men)
What is most important in a procreative relationship between a man and woman?
Mutual attraction, dependable personality, health and intelligence
What are examples of fertility cues in women?
- Waist-hip ratio
(Singh et al, 1992)
Males favoured high waist-hip ratio
However, confounding waist-hip ratio with BMI - Femininity
(Law Smith et al, 2006) - Facial attractiveness
Could be due to oestrogen so could indicate fertility
However, it is hard to link facial femininity to underlying fertility
What is the handicap principle? (Zahavi, 1975)
Females prefer males with handicaps (mating characters that reduce survival chances) because handicaps are indicators of heritable viability (surviving despite the handicap)
e.g. having an extravagant tail means you are far from predators
How can parasite infestation be shown? (Hamilton and Zuk 1982)
Colouration in mandril’s nose is an indicator of health
Why is immunocompetence favoured in a partner? (Folstad and Karter 1996)
For more testosterone, a person needs a really good immune system so all body systems can work
What are attraction ‘universals’?
- Averageness
- Femininity in women
- Symmetry and health
How is symmetry a cue to health and why is this desired in a partner?
- The less healthy you are the more the environment assaults you and the less symmetric you are
- Jones et al (2001) - measured symmetry of 60 faces - symmetry predicted ‘apparent health’ and ‘skin patch health’
- Benefits:
Offspring inherit immunity to current pathogens and avoid infection
What did Kleisner at al (2023) find about attraction to faces based on symmetry, averageness and femininity?
1550 participants from 10 countries (uni/urban/semi-urban)
More feminised female faces looked more attractive
Weak to zero link between symmetry and attractiveness
Distinctiveness was rated less attractive
What are biological markets in non-humans? Examples?
- We all have embodied value in particular contexts
- Sticklebacks: Kraak and Bakker (1998) - male sticklebacks that are more red have a tendency to swim towards larger females who will lay more eggs as they are higher quality
- Zebra finches: Burley et al (1996) - males with red leg band (more attractive) mated more but nested less
What is relationship-specific investment inventory? (Biological markets in humans)
- Gangestad and Thornhill (1999):
- Men who had less body fluctuating asymmetry - they engaged in less relationship behaviours
How do lonely hearts ads fit with biological markets in humans?
- Explicit mate advertisements (lonely hearts ads) - women say less about themselves and more about what they want
- Older women make fewer requests and are less likely to say their age
What did Little et al (2001) find about more attractive females selecting partners?
More attractive females prefer more symmetric men
- People who think they are more attractive select more attractive partners
What are examples of ornamentation? (increasing attractiveness)
- Makeup - makes skin look healthier, makes you look younger
- Corset - waist to hip ratio
- High heels - exaggerates movement of a wider pelvis when you walk
What did Wohlraub et al (2009) find out about tattoos, dominance and attractiveness in men?
Didn’t make them appear more attractive to women, made them seem more dominant - male to male competition
What is sexual imprinting?
Parents influence mate preferences in many birds and mammals - the one that raised you influences your preference for mate.
What is assortative mating?
Individuals with similar phenotypes or genotypes mate with each other more frequently
Why might assortative mating happen?
Helps keep good gene-complexes together
Increases parents’ relatedness to their own children
What does age of parents predict? Why might this be?
- Age of parents you are exposed to when growing up predicts the age you find attractive
- People likely to have partners who look like that gender parent
- Could just be parent is a model of a nice person
- Mechanism - we spend more time looking at relatives (high exposure) - has an effect on what we think a person should look like later
- Imprinting is likely a byproduct of learning what faces look like and high exposure with parents, as it is the same with adoptive children - about learning not inherent genetics
What does ‘humans are sexually dimorphic’ mean?
The sexes are physically different
e.g. men being generally physically larger
What are examples of gender discrimination/disparities?
Gender pay gap = 15.5% overall and up to 55% in finance sector
Gender discrimination still seen in employment
Honour killings
Silent epidemic of male suicide
Trans and non-binary people fear expressing their gender identity
What is the difference between sex and gender?
Sex is biological (females make the bigger gametes, however definitions of sex have also been subject to cultural change), gender is social (psychological identity)
What are gender roles and what is gender identity?
- Gender roles - behaviours considered appropriate for males and females
- Gender identity - perception of oneself as male or female
What are essentialist and conditionalist aspects of gender?
Essentialist (inherent qualities of being a certain gender)
Conditionalist (the way in which you are male and female depends on context)
Why is sex not dichotomous? (Chromosomes)
1 in 400 livebirths show sex chromosome atypicalities
- X0 - Turner’s syndrome
- XXX
- XXY - Klinefelter’s syndrome
- XYY
Why is sex not dichotomous? (Hormones)
- Atypical hormone exposure in utero
- Congenital adrenal hyperplasia - excess testosterone
- Androgen insensitivity syndrome - body does not process testosterone
Keevil et al (2017) - over 4000 ppts - salivary testosterone - many men’s T levels are indistinguishable from ‘above average’ women - Controversial advantages in sport for women with high testosterone
- Higher average testosterone production for non-running sports compared to running sports
What did Joe et al (2015) find?
Sex differences in brain regions in 1400 brains
Why is gender not dichotomous?
- EHRC: 1.3% of UK population identify as gender variant (e.g. trans, non-binary, or agender)
- Nolan et al (2019) - review of gender diversity and gender-confirming surgery in the USA - estimated 0.39-2.7% of population are gender variant
How is Cohen’s D calculated for gender?
Cohen’s D = Male average - female average/ pooled standard deviation
+ value means men are higher
- value means women are higher
What do D scores do and what is the D score for gender difference?
D scores summarise overlap/ difference
D score for gender difference = 11
What are small, medium and large D effects?
Small = 0.2 (85% overlap)
Medium = 0.5 (67% overlap)
Large = 0.8 (52% overlap)
What characteristics have S, M and L D effects been found in? (Males > females)
Physical aggression (S)
Balloon task (S)
Individual contribution (S)
Task orientation of same-sex groups (S)
Autocratic leadership (S)
Emerging as task leader (S)
Task leadership behaviour (S)
Time on active task behaviour (M)
Equity of rewards (S)
What characteristics have S, M and L D effects been found in? (Females > males)
Positive social behaviour (M)
Smaller reward for self (S)
Social task performance (M)
Democratic leadership (S)
Influences by group pressure (S)
Visual decoding of emotion (S)
Visual and auditory decoding of emotion (L)
Face recognition (S)
Accuracy of facial expression (sending) (M)
Smiling (M)
Gazing (M)
Bodily expressiveness (M)
What are psychometric tests and why must they be reliable and valid?
Paper-and-pencil tests of beliefs, preferences, behaviours
They must be:
- Reliable - consistent in their measurement over time and measuring a single underlying construct
- Valid - test scores correlate with behavioural external criterion (concurrent or predictive)
What sex differences were found in psychometric tests?
Male > female:
- Psychotocism (S)
Female > male
- Liberal sex role attitudes (M)
- Closeness to others (S)
- Self-disclosure (S)
- Anxiety (S)
- External Locus of control (S)
(Significant cross-cultural variation with this)
What is the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI)?
- Bem suggested that masculinity and femininity were two separate dimensions
- Lists of words were generated
- Raters asked to state whether they were more desirable in men or in women:
Women score higher than men on the femininity scale of the BSRI
While men score higher than women on the masculinity scale
What was a problem with the Bem Sex Role Inventory? (BSRI)
- People’s ratings of themselves as masculine or feminine don’t relate to their self-ratings on the rest of the scales
- Masculinity and femininity are not statistically independent
Others have argued that Bem’s scales measure something other than masculinity/ femininity: - Expressivity vs. Instrumentality (task orientation) (Spence 1974)
- Nurturance vs Dominance (Wiggins 1989)
- Communion vs Agency (Bakan 1966)
Why does BSRI not accurately capture sex and gender?
Both sex and gender exist on continua
Sex and gender are mosaic not monolithic
What different theories and approaches are there as to why gender differences exist in social behaviour?
- Cultural/social approaches:
- Social role theory
- Learning theory and Gender schema theory
- Biological approaches:
- Evolutionary arguments
- Biological development
What is the standard social science model of sex and gender (evolutionary psychologists)
Sex = irrelevant
Gender = learned and socially imposed
What is Social role theory of gender? (Eagly 1987)
Culturally imposed gendered division of labour leads to:
- Conformity to gender role expectations
- Sex typed skills and beliefs
leads to:
- Sex differences in behaviour
How strong is the division of labour? (Mead and Ember)
- Mead (1935) - sex and temperament - made claims that gender roles are purely cultural and can be inverted across different cultures, or both sexes feminine or both sexes masculine
- Ember (1981) - Asked if certain tasks were exclusively gendered in all cultures (Standard cross cultural sample)
Male exclusive = warfare, hunting etc
Female exclusive = principal care-taking of infants
Male predominant = herding, land clearing, building, butchery
Female predominant = Gathering, weaving, laundry
What did Haas et al (2020) find that contradicts Ember (1981)? (Sexual division of labour)
Burial evidence for female hunter in the Andes 9K YBP
Other evidence across the Americas in similar time range
What did Marlow find about foraging differences between the genders?
Men mostly dealt with large fauna, fowl and fish, whereas women dealt with small fauna, eggs, insects, shellfish and vegetables
What does biosocial reformulation propose? (Wood & Eagly, 2002)
Biological differences between the sexes have no direct link to gender differences in behaviour
Does the division of labour affect stereotypes and vice versa?
- Yes - stereotype threat and maths performance - telling girls that generally they are worse at maths makes their performance worse
- No - stereotypes have remained consistent over last 50 years despite change in division of labour
- No - children show sex differences in behaviour before they have stereotypes
What did Swim (1994) find about perceived and actual gender differences in behaviours?
Stereotype (perceived) was weaker than actual difference, therefore the stereotype cannot be the cause of behaviour
How are sex differences changing in egalitarian societies?
- Sex differences in impulsivity seem to be declining as we become more egalitarian
- Sex differences in some personality traits in egalitarian societies have become larger, not smaller
What did Schwartz et al (2009) find out about national gender equality?
National gender equality predicts bigger sex differences in benevolence/power values - because women change more.
What is Learning theory of sex differences in behaviour? (Mischel (1966)
What contradicts it?
Boys and girls are encouraged and rewarded for different behaviours
- Baby X studies - people treat a baby differently based on whether they think the baby is a boy or a girl
- BUT meta-analysis found no support for boys and girls being punished for different things, but found difference in sex-typed toys and chores - different training in skills or experiences as a result of their gender (Lytton and Romney 1991)
What did Bandura (1973) find about gender differences and what refutes this?
Social learning theory (Bandura 1973): emphasized importance of modelling - social learning instead of conditioning
- BUT
- Sex of model by sex of child interaction not found over 80 studies (Maccoby and Jacklin 1974) - child equally likely to copy either
- Imitation is found when model engages in sex-typical behaviour (Perry and Bussey 1979)
What did Perry & Bussey (1979) find about copying model choice behaviour based on gender?
Gendered copying when there was a medium to high preference, in chance condition the choice is equal - children observe patterns in the environment and fit themselves into that pattern
What is gender schema theory?
Attend to gender-typed information as schema develops
Is there a correlation between gender stereotype knowledge, sophistication of gender knowledge AND sex typed behaviours?
(Ruble and Martin 1998)
No
Children cannot necessarily verbalise gender permanence but still recognise gender stereotype patterns and stereotypes
What does perceiving the self as more sex-typed predict? Liben et al (2002)
Predicts later gender stereotyping in children - stereotyping flows from own gender
What is the role of the media on gender stereotypes?
Average TV watching:
- 4 y/o = 2 hours
- 12 y/o = 4 hours
Children’s characters are mostly male and still gender stereotyped
What was watching rap videos associated with? (Gender) (Bryant, 2008)
Negative views of women and the sexes’ relationship
What does evolutionary theory of gender differences propose? (Inter-sexual selection and intra- sexual competition)
Sexual selection = main focus
- Differential mating/ reproduction
- Inter-sexual selection: opposite sex prefers some traits more than others increasing the frequency of those genes in the next generation
- Intra-sexual competition: some traits make an individual a better competitor against members of their own sex
What is parental investment? (PI)
The sex which has lower PI tends to compete for mating access (x species)
- The sex which has the higher PI tends to be ‘choosy’ (selective)
- In most species, this leads to competitive males and choosy females
How does parental investment explain male stereotypes?
1) Males compete for females
2) Male reproductive success (RS) depends on number of sexual partners -> polygyny can benefit males
3) Polygyny -> competition for dominance/ resources
We see the legacy in men’s greater competitiveness, dominance striving, sensitivity to slight and aggression
How does parental investment explain female stereotypes?
1) Females more important to offspring survival - lactation
2) Females who avoid physical danger have higher reproductive success (RS)
3) Intra-female tensions need diverting safely and women need safety in numbers
4) Women more likely to engage in foraging than hunting
We see the legacy in women’s aversion to physical risk, low aggression, stronger social skills and greater use of democratic leadership, and a sex difference in spatial reasoning
What assumptions does parental investment effect on gender stereotypes have?
Key assumptions:
- Ancestral polygyny, (probably only true for a minority of men)
- Genetic inheritance
- Biological (ish) causation
What are sex-linked and sex-limited genes?
- Selection acts through genes
- Sex-linked gene - location on the X or Y chromosome (allosomes)
- Sex-limited gene - located on a different chromosome (autosomes), ‘turned on’ by the presence of sex hormone
- Most sex differences are sex limited
Because: - Y chromosome - small (30ish genes vs several thousand)
- Principally carries the SRY gene - manufacture of testes and inhibition of female reproductive organs
What is testosterone and what are levels affected by?
- An androgen released by testes
- Men - the sensitivity to testosterone is determined by the mother
- Organising effects: foetal production of T - 6 weeks (gest) - 3 months (post partum)
- Activating effects: T rises again at puberty
- However, impact depends upon T levels and number of receptors
- Testosterone primes learning of gendered behaviour
How does androgential syndrome support sex differences effects of testosterone?
Congenital adrenal hyperplasia/ adrenogenital syndrome
- Surge of adrenal testosterone in utero - caused by metabolic error and cortisol deficiency
- 1 in 15,000 births
- CAH boys - larger genitals and higher on aggression (Berenbaum and Resnick 1997)
- CAH females - external organs masculinised, corrected with surgery and cortisol
- Aged 4-19: male stereotyped energy expenditure, sex of playmates, interest in marriage, motherhood and child care, doll play, ‘tomboys’, visuospatial ability (however this is related to experience) (Erhadt 1975)
- Most have female gender identity
What does the majority of evidence point towards early T exposure predicting?
There is limited evidence for sex differences in infancy behaviour (Else-Quest et al, 2006)
- Early T exposure may predict later play typicality (Pasterski et al., 2015)
What does increased boy typical behaviour cause?
More penile growth in early months - early exposure to testosterone, priming boys for later in life
Who are the Batista boys?
- Family with a rare genetic disorder - XY foetuses under-exposed to T in utero
- 18 ‘boys’ raised unambiguously as girls
- At puberty, they all experiences release of T - grew beards, clitoris become penis, voices broke
- 17/18 had male identity, 16/17 had male gender role
Evidence for testosterone effects on gender differences
But, was it such an easy switch because it’s a common disorder in the area? Cultural expectations?
What is canalised development?
Genes create finite number of options for the environment to choose/ refine
How does the case of Bruce/Brenda/David Reimer support biosocial theory?
The penectomised twin
He lost his penis due to complications with circumcision
He was raised as a girl instead - socialisation and oestrogen treatment
Then later in life realised he was male and transitioned
Shows you can’t change someone’s gender identity for them
Diamond, 1982 - nature sets limits to sexual identity, and within these limits social forces interact and gender roles are formulated - a biosocial interaction theory
What can epigenetics tell us about gender differences?
Combines social and biological approaches
- More sophisticated than biosocial approach
- Genes and environment interaction
- Canalised development - genes create finite number of options for the environment to ‘choose’/ refine
What did Hines et al (2016) find out about CAH?
- Pre-natal T affects response to information on toy ‘gender typicality’
- CAH females made far fewer gendered choices
- Early testosterone gives initial affinity for gender-typed behaviour
What is aggression?
‘Any form of behaviour directed toward the goal of harming or injuring another living being who is motivated to avoid such treatment’ (Baron and Richardson 1994)
- Intention
- Harm (includes emotional distress)
- Motivation to avoid
How is observation used to study aggression?
- Mainly done with children
- Ecologically valid
- Time consuming
- Ethics of observing aggression?
How are lab experiments used to study aggression?
- E.g. Think they’re giving someone an electric shock or ‘negative ratings’
- Point subtraction paradigm
- Ecological validity?
How are self-report questionnaires used to study aggression?
- Relies on memory/honesty
- Large samples possible
- Validity?
How does the Buss & Perry Aggression Questionnaire measure physical and verbal aggression and hostility?
“Given enough provocation, I may hit another person” - physical
“I often find myself disagreeing with people” - verbal
“When people are especially nice, I wonder what they want” - hostility
How does the Conflict Tactics Scale measure aggression?
Asks people to report incidents of:
- Shouting
- Hitting
- Striking with a blunt implement etc…
- Real evidence
- Ethical issues of admitting to illegal activities
- Many physical, few verbal, does not include sexual violence
What is direct and indirect aggression?
- Direct aggression - the aggressor is identifiable and can be counter-attacked
- Indirect aggression - the aggressor remains hidden (e.g. spreading rumours)
What is instrumental and expressive aggression?
- Instrumental - aggression in order to achieve a goal
- Expressive - aggression as expression of internal state ‘When impelling forces cannot be contained by inhibitory forces’ (Driscoll, 2006)
What is the psychoanalytic theory of expressive aggression?
- ID, ego and superego - weak ego
- Develop superego (moral compass) over time - If this is weak, the ID takes over
- If there is weak ego it cannot handle the conflict between superego and ID and aggression comes out
What is Thanatos theory? (Sabina Spielrein)?
- Drive requires discharge through catharsis (purging) - ID drives you to destruction
What evidence supports that catharsis does not work?
- Shock giving (after ‘attack’) leads to increases -not decreases - in subsequent punitiveness (Berkowitz 1965)
- Aggression increases in US football players over the course of the season (Patterson 1974)
- Spectator hostility increases during match (Russell 1983)
- Catharsis beliefs may be harmful
What is frustration-aggression theory? (Dollard et al. 1939)
Frustration is the interference with a goal response that leads to a reward
- Aggression always results from frustration
- Frustration does not always lead to aggression
Level of aggression depends on:
- Whether aggression will end the frustration i.e. is instrumental (Buss 1966)
- Whether some subsequent account of the frustration is offered, e.g. apology (Obuchi et al. 1989) - less likely to get aggression then
- ‘Common sense’ argument - frustrations produce aggressive actions because they are unpleasant (Berkowitz, 1989)
What environmental factors could increase aggression?
- Violence peaks when temp is highest
- Misattribution of arousal?
- However also more chance for big groups of people to congregate if there is no rain or cold
- Berkowitz (1989) - all unpleasant stimuli increase negative effect, but context and higher order of cognition adjust chances of aggression
What is Cognitive Neo-Associationist Theory? (Berkowitz, 1993)
Aversive (unpleasant) event: frustration but also heat, pain etc ->
Unspecific negative affect with two possible behavioural reactions: fight or flight ->
Either:
- Aggressive cues or memories? Quick and unconcious association with negative effect - rudimentary anger, activation of associative aggressive network and aggressive response
- Fear cues or memories? Quick and unconcious association with negative effect - rudimentary fear, activation of associative fear network and flight/fear response
What is the social learning theory of aggression?
1) Operant conditioning
2) Modelling
e.g. child aggressing towards mother after she has been nagging him to stop watching TV - child’s aggression reinforced
Positive reinforcement - still watching TV
Negative reinforcement - nagging has stopped
What did Bandura and MacDonald (1963) find out about modelling vs reinforcement?
- Group 1 - observe adult model making moral judgments
- Group 2 - child’s own responses reinforced
- Group 3 - no feedback (control)
Group 1 made more mature judgments at post-test than Groups 2 and 3 - Modelling»_space; Reinforcement
What is the link between TV and aggression? (Joy et al. 1986)
- Introduction of TV in British Colombia towns
- 3 communities: none, some, limited TV
- Total TV watching led to more aggression - not specifically violent programmes
What did Johnston et al (20020 find about long term TV watching and aggression?
Long term longitudinal correlations of amount of TV watching and level of aggression between 14 and 18/22 years
What did Anderson & Bushman (2001) find out about computer games and aggression? What contradicts this?
Meta-analysis: games - Increase aggressive behaviour and decrease prosocial behaviour, increases arousal
But - angry people who believe in catharsis are drawn to violent video games (Bushman and Whitaker, 2010)
What did Prescott et al (2018) find out about computer games, anger and race?
- Clear effect across longitudinal studies on self-/other-report physical aggression in White participants
- Especially with >1yr follow up
- Weaker in Asians, null for Hispanic ppts
What did Bushman and Gibson (2011) find out about computer games and rumination?
- Experiment with 126 students
- Aggression 24hrs later tested by giving ‘losers’ in task a noise blast
- Rumination is key … so more about cognitive element? (e.g. Berkowitz?)
How can cultural influences to aggression be seen in white males from the American south?
- Settler mentality culturally transmitted through generations (frontier communities from rieving areas, no CJS, wealth can be easily stolen)
- “Argument-related” (non-felony) homicides 6x times higher in southern than northern US states
- State-wide homicide rate in US is positively correlated with proportion of white population from the south (Blau and Blau 1982)
- Southerners endorse violence as legitimate response to insult and for protection (Nisbett, 1993)
White males “accidentally” bumped into and insulted by a confederate (Cohen et al. 1996). Southerners more likely to:
- Believe their masculine reputation was threatened
- Show a rise in cortisol (stress response)
- Show a rise in testosterone (dominance challenged)
- Engage in dominating behaviour subsequently (chicken game - who steps to one side when walking towards each other)
What is Felson’s (1992) symbolic interactionist framework?
Symbolic interactionist / impression management approach
- ‘Face’ as critical social currency
- Rules of conversation require cooperation: “mutual facework” (Goffman 1959)
1. Slight interpreted as intentional attack
2. Negative alter-casting creates unfavourable social identity.
3. Retaliation
- deters further attack and saves face
- but threatens the face of the other party
- Gives rise to escalating “conflict spiral”
What is the conflict spiral sequence? (Felson 1984)
Based on 191 episodes of homicide and assault
Identity attack:
- Wimp
Influence attempt:
- Take that back
Noncompliance:
- Make me
3rd party instigation/mediation:
- Hit him/ he’s not worth it
Threat:
- I’ll kill you
Possible evasive action
Commitment to violence
What do evolutionary approaches say about the cost/benefit balance of aggression?
Cost of injury < Benefit of success = Aggress
What do evolutionary approaches say about gender differences in aggression?
- Particular focus on sex differences - benefits to men and costs to women
- The more severe the aggression, the bigger the gender difference
- Sex differences appear before 2 years (Potegal and Archer, 2004)
- And before children can apply gender labels (Campbell, Shirley and Caygill, 2002)
So what are potential benefits to men?
What do Daly and Wilson (1988) say about aggression for mate competition?
Mate competition = key
- Male-male homicide is greater than any other kind in every country
- High rank = access to more mates
- Physical aggression = high risk/ high gain
- High willingness to be aggressive in men - being aggressive in a targeted way when it is required
- Adaptive aggression - securing scarce resources
- Male primate rank is associated with RS (reproductive success)
- e.g. Gelada Baboons (no female choice of mates - males fight among themselves)
Why is homicide a good measure of aggression?
Homicide - good indicator of violent behaviour - if there is a corpse and a perpetrator, it is easier to attribute someone to it than other violent crimes
What is RHP - resource holding potential?
- Humans - Perusse (1986) (female choice) - RHP (resource holding potential) - number of potential conceptions that men had - higher ranked businessmen had more potential conceptions
- Humans typically establish status by RHP (jobs, wealth, hunting prowess)
- Where RHP is low, males use other means to establish status e.g. physical dominance
What differences in aggression are there depending on marital status and employment? Why?
Still in mating market - sexually mature but not likely to be married, high testosterone
Controlling for age, same-sex violence/ violent crime are more frequent among:
- Non-married men and the unemployed (Daly and Wilson 1988)
- Non-fathers than fathers (Boothroyd and Cross 2016)
- Why?
- Offers explanation of male sensitivity to status which other approaches do not explain
- Men are very focused on status/face/honour, especially in low SES (socio-economic status)groups
What is the link between violence and inequality?
- Aggression as response to inequality/ resource shortage
- Violent crime rates are sensitive to poverty
- Wolfgang and Ferracuti (1967) argued for a ‘subculture of violence’ in inner city Philadelphia - cultural context of using violence to resolve things - racist but switch from genetic groupings to cultural groupings (black genetics to black culture)
- Daly and Wilson - it is actually a rational response to persistent inequality - lack of status
- Schacter et al: US vs Canada - similar levels of gun ownership, but US has higher gun violence as well as higher levels of poverty and inequality
What did Campbell (1999) find out about the costs of aggression to women?
- Useful to be high status as a woman - better resources (infant survival)
- Infant survival most dependant on mothers - e.g. Ache infant mortality (Hill and Hurtado, 1996)
- Physical aggression = very high risk/ low gain - more gain for men as it enables them to father more children, however it puts women’s potential and existing children at a risk that is not worth it
- Aversion to aggression in women
- Fear of injury as a crucial factor
- Women have more blood/animal phobias (Marks, 1987)
- Women rate situations as more dangerous than men and have greater fear of physical attack (less risk) (Bettencourt and Miller, 1996)
When do women typically express aggression?
Female aggression = non-violent/indirect (Bjorkqvist 1994) - achieves ends with safer means, violence only when anger spills over fear threshold
Apart from maternal aggression - strong response to reproductive success being threatened
How do men and women view their own aggression differently? (Campbell, 1993)
- Men viewed their aggression as instrumental
- Women viewed their aggression as expressive - a loss of control
- Men can (potentially) gain status/ fitness through aggression
- Women only aggressive if worth the risk
What is the heritability of aggression? What does this suggest about the cause of aggression levels?
Aggression is strongly heritable (40-50%
- Very stable over time
- Correlation over 1 year = 0.9/0.8
- Correlation over 20 years = 0.4
- Suggests a genetic component
- As well as cultural/environmental influences (Moffitt, 2005) and (Caspi et al, 2002)
How does testosterone link to aggression?
· Male T>Female T
· Male T is highest - when young, when single and when childless (Peter Grey) - exactly the same as violent crime
· T levels inversely relate to (unconcious) fear (e.g. van Honk et al, 2005)
What evidence is there that T causes aggression?
- Trans individuals - trans women with T suppressors - less angry, trans men with T - more angry (van Goozen et al, 1995) - either effect of T or people feeling more comfortble conforming to gender roles once body changes
- Carre et al (2023) - only in high risk/ dominant men who were already more aggressive than average
- Increasing testosterone levels is not the same as naturally having higher or lower testosterone - body accustomed to a certain level
- T -> dominance behaviours
- Rat injection studies - more T - behavioural dominance
- Human competition e.g. tennis, dominoes contests, T rises in anticipation of male-male competition - observers as well as ppts - coalitionary aggression
What evidence is there that aggression causes an increase in T? Is the relationship straightforward?
· Winning vs losing is very important
· Tennis players - (Booth et al, 2003)
· Football spectators
· Randomly assigned sumo-betting (Pound et al, 2009)
· Adaptive feedback loop?
· Schaal et al (1996) - Adolescent boys - high T - high dominance - low aggression - no one messes with you - not a straight forward relationship between T and aggression
How is inhibitory control of aggression linked to T?
Aggression is associated with poor self-control and high impulsivity (Eisenburg et al, 2001; Moffit et al, 2002)
- Testosterone - reduces inhibitory control in experimental rats - Svensson et al (2003), is higher in psychopaths (cannot control impulsive behaviours) - Dolan et al (2001)
What sex differences are there in impulsivity and aggression?
What evidence suggests there is still a cultural component?
- Impulsivity as a mediator for sex differences in aggression - Campbell, 2006; Struber, Luck and Roth, 2008)
- Sex differences in impulsivity exist (albeit declining) - Cross, Copping and Campbell, 2010
BUT sensation seeking reversed in matrilineal Mosuo girls, so still cultural effects - people stay in maternal home, women own land , Mosuo girls have higher levels of risk taking in behavioural tasks than boys when first starting school (not exposed to patrilineal families yet)
What is altruism?
The principle and practice of concern for the well-being and/or happiness of other humans or animals above oneself
What happened to Kitty Genovese (1964, Queens) and what did this spark?
Stabbed multiple times on separate occasions - loads of people heard her screaming but no one called police - why?
- Led to social science research into altruism
- However - actually because there was not a specific police number and could not coordinate help - neighbours did try to stop attacker
What are Latane & Darley’s (1970) Five steps to emergency intervention?
Emergency
1) Notice something is happening
- Distraction
- Self concerns e.g. being late
2) Interpret event as emergency
- Ambiguity - is she really sick or just drunk?
- Relationship between attacker and victim - they can resolve their own family quarrels
- Pluralistic ignorance - no one else seems worried
3) Take responsibility for providing help
- Diffusion of responsibility - someone else must have called 999
4) Decide how to help
- Lack of competence - I’m not trained to handle this
5) Provide help
- Audience inhibition - I’ll look like a fool
- Costs exceed rewards - what if I do something wrong and get sued?
How is pluralistic ignorance shown by Latane and Darley? (1970) - smoke experiment
- Ppts completed questionnaire alone/ with 2 others
- Smoke begins to pour through ventilator
- How long till someone reacts?
- Alone: 50% leave after 2 mins, 75% leave by 6 mins
- Together: 12% leave after 2 mins, 38% leave by 6 mins
What is pluralistic ignorance?
Look to others to define ambiguous events
- Another form of informational conformity
How is diffusion of responsibility shown by Latane and Darley? (1968) - epileptic fit experiment
- Ppts in cubicles with headphones
- Take part in discussion - E leaves
- One ppt has epileptic fit. Help given within 60 seconds?
- Victim + participant = 85%
- Victim + participant + 2 = 62%
- Victim + participant + 4 = 31%
What is diffusion of responsibility?
Responsibility divisible by number present
How does co-witnesses being unable to help affect diffusion of responsibility?
Bickman (1971) - responsibility not diffused when co-witnesses are clearly not able to help
How does being specifically attached to a bystander affect diffusion of responsibility?
Moriarty (1975) - responsibility not diffused when specifically attached to a bystander
e.g. asking someone to keep an eye on your bag - form specific attachment because they personally were asked, person much more likely to do something if someone tries to take the bag
What did Fischer et al (2011) find out about moderators of the bystander effect in their meta-analysis?
- Meta-analytic review (105 studies) finds overall effect size of d= -.35 for bystander apathy (small - medium effect size of tendency to not help in artificial scenarios)
- Bystander effect is reduced when there is no clear danger (no ambiguity, perpetrator is present, solution requires cooperation) - dangerous emergencies are recognised faster and more clearly as real emergencies, thereby inducing higher levels of arousal and hence more helping
- Bystander effect is increased - among females compared to men (lack of confidence in own judgment and ability), among strangers, lab>field, increased number of bystanders (pluralistic ignorance and diffusion of responsibility)
What did Joe \Delaney do?
1983, Chennault Park, Louisiana
- Saw two boys struggling in the lake - saved them but ended up drowning
How does kin selection and inclusive fitness explain altruism?
- Darwin’s puzzle of altruism solved by Hamilton (1963)
- The unit of selection is the gene not the individual
- Our genes exist in relatives (inclusive fitness)
- Individual fitness = number of living children a person can produce
- Inclusive fitness = number of copies of a person’s genes that can make it into the next generation no matter how they get there (could be through family members)
- More altruistic to family members
- Coefficient of genetic relatedness should be related to altruism (share more DNA, more altruism)
What is Hamilton’s rule of kin selection?
Offer help where:
RS cost to me < RS benefit to you x our relatedness
What is the sibling rivalry problem?
Share 100% DNA with ourself and only 50% with sibling, so we will prioritise getting benefits for ourself over sibling unless this is no longer useful for us
What is the auntie problem?
- More investment given to brother’s kids than brother - why?
Brother won’t have any more kids but his kids will grow up and have children
What evidence supports Hamilton’s rule of kin selection?
- Vignettes (moral problems - choosing between people to save)
Real life: - Fire at vacation complex (Sime 1983) - analysis of escape behaviour at Summerland, Isle of Man, 1973. 50 of 3000 guests died
Families more likely to find each other to get out, friends more likely to get themselves out - people spend longer in a burning building for family members than for friends - Live organ donation to close family members over non-family members (kidney, bone marrow) (Borgida et al 1992)
What did Burnstein et al (1994) find out about preferential helping of relatives in trouble?
High genetic relatedness - willingness to help was higher when it was life or death matter
Are people more likely to favour romantic partner or family in a dangerous situation? (Blasi, 2022)
- People more likely to favour offspring and sibling over romantic partner, people more likely to favour romantic partner over cousin, women more likely to favour kin than men
- Favour relative regardless of age
What did Belin et al (2023) find out about survival advantage in the Holocaust?
- More former campmates, more members of chainmail letter group, part of same Jewish regional grouping, part of same transit to Auschwitz - more likely to survive
What is Trivers’ (1971) theory of reciprocal altruism?
- Delayed ‘payback’ of altruistic acts where
- Benefit to recipient high (e.g. parasites removed)
- Cost to donor low (e.g. grooming)
- Likelihood that positions will be reversed in future
What are necessary conditions of reciprocal altruism?
- Social species
- Stable groups
- Good face recognition
- Good long term memory
- Non-cooperation with or punishment of defectors
- As long as we punish defectors, it is difficult for non-cooperators to become the majority
What is the prisoner’s dilemma?
‘If you confess and your partner does not, you are free and your partner gets 10 years’
‘If both confess, you each get 3 years’
‘If neither confesses, we will put you both away on a lesser charge for a year’
‘Same offer is being made to your partner’
What is the best strategy for the prisoner’s dilemma? (Short term losses)
- Your partner has realised the same thing as you, hence both behave selfishly and get a mutually bad outcome
- The game is ‘non-zero sum’
i.e. both players can benefit if they choose to cooperate, if they had both co-operated they would both have benefitted - Cooperation is the best strategy
What is the best strategy for iterated games? (The long haul) (Axelrod, 1984 - PD program)
The Evolution of Cooperation, Iterated PD program ‘competition’
- Tit-for-tat - cooperate on the 1st move, subsequently respond in kind (if they cheat you after this, you cheat them back)
- But unintended betrayal triggers endless round of defections so…
- Generous Tit-for-Tat - cooperate on the first move, subsequently respond in kind, cooperate on 1/3 defections after (Nowak and Sigmund, 1992, Nature)
What is frequency dependency and why is Generous tit for tat the best strategy? (Hawks vs doves)
Although GT4T may be good overall, a small number of cheaters can benefit from its generosity
- Common analogy: Hawks vs Doves:
- Hawks in a Dove’s world do well vs Doves in a Hawk’s world do not
- Hawks cheat, doves do not
- Can one population be ‘taken over’ by another?
- No - too many hawks - everyone is cheating and it becomes non-profitable, doves can’t take over hawks world as there are not enough of them to find each other
- GT4T is a good Evolutionary Stable Strategy (ESS)
What does Trivers say about the emotional mediation of altruism?
- Someone helping you - obligation and gratitude
- Not paying back - guilt
- If someone does not help you back - anger modulates behaviour to not help them again going forward
Positive mood enhances likelihood of helping behaviour
How is RA shown in primate grooming?
- Enjoy endorphins from grooming
- Remove parasites from each other
RA in primates because of reciprocal grooming
How do humans engage in social enforcement in reciprocity? (Fehr & Gachter, 2002)
Public goods game for money - competitive altruism and reputation
People willing to take a financial hit themselves in order to punish someone for not paying their own fair share
Reputational benefits will come back to them in other ways than cheating people for money
Publicity involved in giving money to charity - fuels reputation
What are examples of real life frequency dependency?
Vaccinations - group at whole less at risk if everyone gets vaccinated
Collective action only works if enough people engage in them e.g. strike action
How do evolutionary and social explanations of altruism differ?
- EP: Why are we altruistic as a species? What patterns might we therefore expect?
Kin - not reciprocity, everyone else - reciprocity - SP: What cognitive mechanisms underlie altruistic behaviour? What social scenarios are most associated with it?
- EP gives ultimate causation, SP gives proximate causation
