Articles tagged with Group Behavior
Scientists tracked brain activity of schooling glassfish to uncover how animals detect social partners' actions, allowing groups to escape danger. The study found that social behavior is crucial for coordinated escape, with groups responding more effectively to threats than individual fish.
Researchers at the University of California San Diego used computational models and virtual reality to study the social interaction rules of schooling fish. They found that individual fish 'copy' the movement direction of a randomly-chosen nearby neighbor, leading to highly dynamic behavior in groups.
Researchers found that envy plays a greater role when resources are allocated through majority voting than individual decisions. Participants preferred to reduce the other person's allocation, even though they received no additional money, indicating a preference for envy over greed. The study also found that voting influences particip...
A study published in Nature Neuroscience found that social isolation increases alcohol consumption in male mice by activating a specific brain circuit, while decreasing it in female mice. The researchers identified a neural pathway connecting the basolateral amygdala and medial prefrontal cortex, which may hold key to understanding alc...
A meta-analysis of 204 studies reveals that verbal and nonverbal communication styles have a stronger impact on first impressions than resume content. People form an overall positive or negative impression, influencing later interpretations of individual traits.
A new UCLA study found that teenage girls who experienced the highest levels of childhood trauma showed the largest gains in social connectedness after participating in a breathwork course combined with social-emotional learning. The program, developed by the International Association for Human Values, increased social connectedness by...
Social animals exhibit a range of pre-war preparations, including environmental cues and memories of past events. These behaviors can impact socio-cognitive evolution, population dynamics, and community structures. Preemptive behavior is widespread in social species, depending on the current threat level.
The Center for BrainHealth has partnered with Dr. Krystal Sexton to expand its workplace-focused strategy, providing science-based tools to optimize workforce performance and resilience. The partnership aims to equip organizations with scalable solutions to enhance adaptability, innovation, and long-term performance.
A new study by University of Cologne researchers found that political orientation significantly impacts romantic interests, with young Americans showing reluctance towards dating across party lines. The study suggests that people use politics as a filter to determine compatibility and social circle approval.
A large survey of US adults found that support for political violence remained stable from mid-2024 to mid-2025, with most Americans rejecting violence across all political affiliations. The study's findings suggest that prevention efforts can benefit from recognizing both areas of concern and resilience.
A new study by Concordia researchers found that well-liked friends can help reduce peer exclusion, but not social withdrawal in isolated children. The study tracked 252 fifth- and sixth-grade students over eight weeks and found that friendships with high-status peers reinforced existing social status, rather than improving inclusion.
Researchers surveyed in Sweden reveal differing attitudes towards research misconduct and questionable practices across disciplines. Medical scientists hold the strictest views, while social sciences and humanities researchers tend to be more lenient, particularly with regards to open science.
A new study by the University of Ottawa found that emojis can negatively affect perceptions of competence and appropriateness in professional settings. The researchers discovered that using positive emojis with negative messages can create a sense of dishonesty, while negative emojis can lower overall competence perception.
Research shows that targeted interventions highlighting personal impact on others can alter behavior among partisans. Both Republican and Democratic voters reduced risk-taking when presented with a simple message asking to choose the safer option for themselves and others.
Researchers found three types of relational fractures: co-performance, co-learning, and marketplace. Vegans employ strategies such as decoding, decoupling, divesting, and chameleoning to cope with conflicts. These findings are transferable to other contexts, highlighting the need for social skills to navigate moral differences.
A groundbreaking longitudinal study reveals that peer influence is specialized, with best friends primarily shaping internal emotional states and academic behaviors, while popular peers set the standard for public image and social media engagement. The findings suggest that adolescents use different mental calculations to navigate thei...
A study by the University of Cambridge found that US political divisions increased by 64% from 1988 to 2024, with most of the change coming after 2008. The shift was driven by liberal Americans moving in a more progressive direction on social and political issues.
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania found that rewarding 'reformers' who improve the collective prediction regardless of their own personal accuracy leads to more accurate and diverse outcomes. This approach is more effective than rewarding 'niche experts' or 'experts', which can lead to a loss of diversity and accuracy.
A study by City St George's criminologist Dr Tony Karas found that social media, particularly YouTube, was crucial in the radicalization process for 40 PA activists. The platform's autoplay function nudged them towards more extreme content, often with ethnonationalist views.
Researchers at UCO's LAECOVI study found a strong link between moral courage and prosocial defense behaviors in bullying situations. Moral courage is a cognitive-moral mechanism that influences bystanders' decision-making in bullying situations.
Researchers discovered that terminally ill ant brood release an odor signaling their impending death and risk, allowing the colony to detect and remove pathogenic infections. This early warning system facilitates rapid disease detection and effective removal of pathogens.
A study published in Radiology found that soccer fans' brain activity is triggered by positive and negative emotions when watching their favorite team play. The researchers used fMRI to examine the brain's response to goal sequences from matches, revealing patterns of neural activation associated with social identity and fanaticism.
Researchers found that humans have an evolutionary tendency to bias behavior against rare but mass mortality events, leading to intense dread and avoidance. This response is favored by evolution as it protects familial structures and genetic lineage.
A recent study found that most users cannot identify AI bias in training data, unless it affects their own group. Researchers created 12 versions of a prototype AI system to detect facial expressions and tested how users might detect bias in different scenarios.
A recent study published in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior found that discontinuing universal free school meal policies significantly increases school meal debt and stigma among students. States without UFSM programs reported a decline in participation rates and an increase in unpaid meal charges, highlighting the nega...
A team of researchers, including Mehmet Aktas from Kennesaw State University, is studying information diffusion and its impact on communities. They are using a novel mathematical approach called the sheaf Laplacian to analyze group interactions and identify whether messages are supportive, misleading, or contradictory.
A new study published in Biological Psychiatry found that individuals with similar levels of autistic traits are more attracted to each other and their brains synchronize in unique ways during passive and active communication. This suggests a novel approach for building social connection among people with autism by tailoring environments.
A new study by University of Cambridge researchers found that social media engagement flips from hostility to solidarity after a major crisis, such as the attempted assassination of Donald Trump and Joe Biden's suspension of his re-election campaign. This 'ingroup love' effect is seen in Republican and Democrat posts expressing unity a...
A study by University of Miami business professor Kevin Hong found that big crowds on synchronous content platforms like Twitch and YouTube Live can inhibit participation due to cognitive bedlam and emotional polarity. AI-powered bots may hold promise in moderating conversations and making them more coherent.
Studies found that leaders are less likely to empower employees who raise concerns about workplace decisions, instead favoring those who praise the status quo. Employees who exhibit challenging voice are seen as threats to leadership, while supportive voice is viewed as an indicator of shared goals.
A new study reveals that fatal school shootings have far-reaching consequences, altering daily life and disrupting economies in affected communities for months. Anxiety about public safety drives a measurable decline in consumer activity, particularly in grocery stores and restaurants.
A study conducted in collaboration with researchers from SWPS University found that practicing niceness can increase the propensity to cooperate by strengthening social bonds. The researchers conducted two studies, one measuring everyday niceness and its association with social connectedness and attitudes towards cooperation, and anoth...
A new study found that football teams move as though they are a single person, displaying Lévy walk patterns while hunting for the ball. This collective behavior suggests that individual players complement each other's actions in response to the game.
A recent study published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology found that individuals with minority viewpoints may self-silence themselves in conversation, leading to changed behavior that contradicts their true opinions. The study, led by Kristin Hurst, involved 248 undergraduate students and showed that participants who felt the...
Researcher Anne Pisor discusses how group living and perception play a role in triggering the 'us versus them' mindset, which can lead to conflict. She also provides insights on how cultural background, past experiences, and resource availability contribute to this phenomenon.
Psychologists from the Konstanz Cluster of Excellence use portable EEGs to examine synchronization of brain activity in groups of viewers who watch real video health messages against risky alcohol consumption. The study demonstrates that strong messages lead to increased synchronization of brain waves, a key finding with implications f...
A study on captive chimpanzees found that when one individual pees, others are more likely to follow, with lower-ranking individuals being more likely to pee in response. This suggests that urination patterns are influenced by social hierarchy, with a tendency for the behavior to 'flow down' the dominance structure.
The study shows that liberals and conservatives often support different types of leaders due to differences in moral priorities. Conservatives tend to favor dominant leaders who employ assertiveness and formal authority, while liberals prefer prestigious leaders who lead through knowledge and earned respect.
A study published in Judgment and Decision Making found that religious believers give more to those of the same faith, while atheists also favor their own group. In follow-up studies in the USA and Egypt/Lebanon, Muslims were more generous towards their own kind than Christians or atheists.
The study found that critical states in animal groups consist of heterogeneous structures, with role sharing among individuals being crucial for optimized decision-making. The distribution of criticality was nonuniform within the group, but averaging confirmed traditional criticality status.
A Cambridge study suggests that people from Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Ireland are better at detecting fake accents than those from London and the Southeast. The study found that participants were able to detect fake accents with an accuracy of around 60%, varying by region and cultural homogeneity.
Research by UC Santa Cruz psychologist Barbara Rogoff finds that globalization has reduced collaborative interactions among Mayan families, but they still prioritize harmonious relations and community involvement. The traditional practice of Learning by Observing and Pitching In remains a key strength for Indigenous communities.
The book uses a 'history from below' approach to center the voices of petitioners, revealing how they framed their demands using language like justice, rights, and equity. Through over 4,000 petitions, Dr. Bright Alozie shows the significance of this genre in shaping colonial society and influencing decision-making.
A major international study involving 56,968 adults found that levels of nature connectedness are associated with socioeconomic factors such as financial security, education, and racial majority status. The UK scored higher on the Nature Exposure Scale, while Bosnia and Herzegovina led in this aspect.
A recent study found that workplaces with high levels of collective engagement saw less employee turnover during the COVID-19 pandemic. Collective engagement refers to a shared sense of mission or community among store employees. The researchers also observed that stores with higher collective engagement had lower employee turnover rat...
A study found that children as young as six can contribute to group projects when there are clear and common goals. The researchers used a game where children worked together to fill a pool with water, with benefits for the whole group but individual costs. The results showed that most groups achieved their objectives and cooperated, e...
Experts propose incorporating joint criminal enterprise into the ICC Statute to hold high-ranking military officers and politicians accountable for collective criminal responsibility. The proposed change aims to ensure victims receive restorative justice and deter future mass atrocities.
Studies in glassfish reveal that vision plays a crucial role in coordinated schooling behavior, with maturity also essential for developing this ability. Researchers discovered that older fish can distinguish between movement patterns of their social partners, allowing them to align their bodies and swim together effectively.
Researchers at Universiteit van Amsterdam found that observing prejudiced individuals interact with group members can lead to the formation of similar prejudices. Observers often go on to act with prejudice without realizing they've been influenced, misperceiving worse behavior from group members who interacted with a prejudiced actor.
Mirta Galesic has been awarded a €3 million ERC Advanced Grant to investigate collective adaptation. The project, hosted at the Complexity Science Hub, aims to understand how human groups navigate complex problem landscapes using computational models and empirical data.
Researchers from SWPS University studied how participants adjusted their private moral judgments to conform with others' opinions in virtual environments. In two studies, they found that people conformed to group pressure in 43% and 30% cases when faced with avatars controlled by humans or AI, respectively.
A new study by City University of Hong Kong found that sex and social status influence social grooming among free-ranging feral cattle in Hong Kong. The research suggests that more dominant females receive more grooming, and high-ranking animals exchange more friendly grooming with each other.
A study by Osaka University researchers found that Japanese liberals are more sensitive to collective ownership threats than conservatives. The study suggests that this sensitivity may deter countries from engaging in activities that infringe on the territorial integrity of others.
A recent study conducted at the University of Zurich found that live performances stimulate a stronger emotional response in the brain compared to listening to recorded music. The researchers used magnetic resonance imaging to measure brain activity during both live and recorded music sessions, revealing a significant difference in amy...
A study by Harvard researchers found that fish group behavior can reduce energy costs by up to 50%, with coordinated movement allowing for more efficient swimming. By measuring the energetic cost of individual and group movements, the team discovered a J-shaped relationship between speed and energy expenditure.
Research in Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation reveals that companies with inclusive values and committed leadership teams experience improved performance and positive employee perceptions. Disability initiatives also foster a cohesive culture, valuing disabled employees as a vital part of the workforce.
A novel strategy, probabilistic selling, has proven effective in driving revenue, attracting new users, and managing inventory efficiently in the travel industry. The study finds that this approach enhances market demand and boosts consumer satisfaction, benefiting both the platform and sellers.
Using anonymized smartphone data, researchers found that police spend more time patrolling non-white neighborhoods, with disparities linked to socioeconomic and crime-driven demand for policing. The study reveals a strong correlation between racial composition of a neighborhood and police presence.
A new study by Ohio State University found that employees with differing values are less respected and engaged in the workplace. However, disclosing personal information about themselves can help value minorities feel more a part of their teams.
Researchers have developed SMART-BARN, a cutting-edge technology lab for complex behavioral analysis. The facility can host hundreds of animals simultaneously and track their movements in 3D, allowing for unprecedented insights into collective behavior.