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Prior preferences beneficially influence social and non-social learning.

ABSTRACT: Our personal preferences affect a broad array of social behaviors. This includes the way we learn the preferences of others, an ability that often relies on limited or ambiguous information. Here we report an egocentric influence on this type of social learning that is reflected in both performance and response times. Using computational models that combine inter-trial learning and intra-trial choice, we find transient effects of participants' preferences on the learning process, through the influence of priors, and persistent effects on the choice process. A second experiment shows that these effects generalize to non-social learning, though participants in the social learning experiment appeared to additionally benefit by using their knowledge about the popularity of certain preferences. We further find that the domain-general egocentric influences we identify can yield performance advantages in uncertain environments.People often assume that other people share their preferences, but how exactly this bias manifests itself in learning and decision-making is unclear. Here, authors show that a person's own preferences influence learning in both social and non-social situations, and that this bias improves performance.

SUBMITTER: Tarantola T

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5635122 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Prior preferences beneficially influence social and non-social learning.

Tarantola Tor T Kumaran Dharshan D Dayan Peter P De Martino Benedetto B

Nature communications 20171010 1

Our personal preferences affect a broad array of social behaviors. This includes the way we learn the preferences of others, an ability that often relies on limited or ambiguous information. Here we report an egocentric influence on this type of social learning that is reflected in both performance and response times. Using computational models that combine inter-trial learning and intra-trial choice, we find transient effects of participants' preferences on the learning process, through the inf ...[more]

PMID: 29018195

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Project description:Despite limited information and knowledge, we personally form beliefs about certain properties of objects encountered in our daily life-popularity of a newly released movie, for example. Since such beliefs are prone to error, we often revise our initial beliefs according to the beliefs of others to improve accuracy. Optimal revision requires modulating the degree of accepting others' beliefs based on various cues for accuracy-number of opinions, for example-such that the more accurate others' beliefs are, the more we accept them. Although previous studies have shown that such accuracy cues can influence the degree of acceptance during social revision, they primarily investigated problems with 'factually correct' answers, and rarely problems with 'socially correct' answers. Here we examined which accuracy cues are objectively useful (utility of cues), and how those cues are used (use of cues), in the social revision of people's beliefs about problems with 'socially correct' answers. We asked people to estimate the 'shared preferences (SPs)' for sociocultural items, the answers to which are determined by socially aggregated beliefs-how popular an abstract painting will be among a large crowd, for example-and then to revise their initial estimates after being exposed to other people's estimates about the same items. We considered 'confidence', 'agreement among estimates', and 'number of estimates' as accuracy cues. We found that, while all three cues validly signaled the accuracy of SP estimates, only the 'number' cue has a significant utility, but the other cues are much less useful for optimal revision. Nevertheless, people used the cues of 'agreement' and their own 'confidence' to the extent comparable to that of the 'number' cue. Our findings suggest that the utility and use of accuracy cues for problems with 'socially correct' answers differ from those with 'factually correct' answers, as follows: (i) confidence does not have a significant utility and (ii) but people use their own confidence while ignoring others' confidence.

Project description:Background Additional time spent on social media (SM) due to the COVID-19 pandemic, increased adolescents’ exposure to food and beverage (F&B) advertisements. The marketing of unhealthy F&B products featuring celebrities and influencers may contribute to an increased preference towards various products, potentially influencing consumption patterns and increasing one's long-term health risk. Objective The objective of this study was to examine SM's influence on adolescents’ food and beverage preferences during the COVID-19 pandemic and explore their parents’ perceptions of this phenomenon. Study Design, Setting, Participants Three, one-hour, semi-structured virtual focus groups were conducted with seven dyads of 6th grade students and their parents (n = 14) from a suburban school district in northeastern Pennsylvania. Students and parents participated in separate focus groups and completed a demographic survey that included SM use characteristics in June-September 2021. Measurable Outcome/Analysis Focus group transcripts were transcribed, coded, and analyzed by both authors using a constant comparison approach. Results Three themes that emerged from adolescents were: increased SM usage, factors that increased consumption, and increased recall of memorable aspects of F&B advertisements. Themes that emerged from parents were: parental observations of adolescents’ less healthy eating behaviors, parental influence over F&B purchases, and increased engagement in food trends seen on SM. Conclusions These themes suggest increased SM use influenced adolescents' ability to recall specific F&B brands and potentially influenced consumption. Safeguards seem to remain in place regarding parents’ influence over the adolescents’ F&B purchase requests. Additionally, parents may be aware of the targeted marketing used on SM and its potential to influence adolescents’ eating behaviors. These findings suggest the importance for parents, dietitians, and other healthcare providers to be aware of increased SM usage and the potential influence F&B advertisements may have on adolescent eating behaviors. These findings will also be important for nutrition educators to understand when teaching these risks to students/future practitioners. Funding Villanova University's Undergraduate Research Fellowship Program

Project description:Ultraviolet (UV) A signals (320-400 nm) are important in mate choice in numerous species. The sensitivity for UV signals is not only assumed to be costly, but also expected to be a function of the prevailing ecological conditions. Generally, those signals are favored by selection that efficiently reach the receiver. A decisive factor for color signaling is the lighting environment, especially in aquatic habitats, as the visibility of signals, and thus costs and benefits, are instantaneously influenced by it. Although ecological aspects of color signal evolution are relatively well-studied, there is little data on specific effects of environmental UV-light conditions on signaling at these shorter wavelengths. We studied wild-caught gravid female 3-spined sticklebacks Gasterosteus aculeatus of 2 photic habitat types (tea-stained and clear-water lakes), possessing great variation in their UV transmission. In 2 treatments, tea-stained and clear-water, preferences for males viewed under UV-present (UV+) and UV-absent (UV-) conditions were tested. A preference for males under UV+ conditions was found for females from both habitat types, thus stressing the significance of UV signals in stickleback's mate choice decisions. However, females from both habitat types showed the most pronounced preferences for males under UV+ conditions under clear-water test conditions. Moreover, reflectance measurements revealed that the carotenoid-based orange-red breeding coloration in wild-caught males of both habitat types differed significantly in color intensity (higher in clear-water males) and hue (more red shifted in clear-water males) while no significant differences in UV coloration were found. The differential reflection patterns in longer wavelengths suggest that sticklebacks of both habitat types have adapted to the respective water conditions. Adaptations of UV signals in a sexual context to ambient light conditions in both behavior and coloration seem less evident.

Project description:Different environmental conditions may lead to diverse morphological, behavioral, and physiological adaptations of different populations of the same species. Lighting conditions, for example, vary vastly especially between aquatic habitats, and have been shown to elicit adaptations. The availability of short-wave ultraviolet (UV) light is especially fluctuating, as UV wavelengths are attenuated strongly depending on water properties. The island of North Uist, Scotland, comprises 2 differential habitat types, tea-stained and clear-water lakes, varying considerably in UV transmission. In previous studies, wild-caught 3-spined stickleback Gasterosteus aculeatus populations (3 populations of each habitat type) were tested with respect to their shoaling and mate preferences for fish viewed under UV-present and UV-absent conditions. The results revealed a habitat-dependent preference of UV cues during shoal choice (tea-stained populations: preference for UV-absent condition in tea-stained water; clear-water populations: no preference in clear-water) but an overall preference for UV-present conditions during mate choice. To assess genetic influences on these behavioral patterns, similar experiments were conducted with lab-bred F1-generations of the same stickleback populations that were raised in a common environment (i.e. standardized clear-water conditions). Offspring of sticklebacks from tea-stained lakes tended to prefer shoals viewed under UV-absent conditions (only in tea-stained water), while sticklebacks from clear-water lakes showed a significant preference for the shoal viewed under UV-present conditions in clear-water but not in tea-stained water. Mate-preference experiments demonstrated that females from the tea-stained lakes significantly preferred and females from the clear-water lakes preferred by trend the male viewed under UV-present conditions in the clear-water treatment. The results for both shoaling- and mate-preference tests were largely similar for wild-caught and lab-bred sticklebacks, thus hinting at a genetic basis for the preference patterns.

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Prior preferences beneficially influence social and non-social learning.

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Prior preferences beneficially influence social and non-social learning.

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