Coordinating Behaviors: Is social interaction scripted?

Abstract

Some philosophical and psychological approaches to social interaction posit a powerful explanatory tool for explaining how we navigate social situations: scripts. Scripts tell people how to interact in different situational and cultural contexts depending on social roles such as gender. A script theory of social interaction puts emphasis on understanding the world as normatively structured. Social structures place demands, roles, and ways to behave in the social world upon us, which, in turn, guide the ways we interact with one another and the ways we coordinate our behaviors. In this paper, I explore the phenomenon of coordinated behaviors in social interactions in humans. I argue that looking closely at everyday interactions, for which social coordination is central, strongly points to a fundamental role of scripts for social cognition and interaction. In order to explain some social interactions, like those based on social coordination, we do not need to recourse to mental state attribution. Rather, I argue, scripts are a powerful resource for explaining social interaction and especially coordinated behaviors. Scripts have been neglected in standard approaches to social cognition but are (re‐)gaining attention via the normative turn in social cognition.

Scripts and Social Cognition

“…The relevant knowledge is not just descriptive but normative (cf. Eickers 2019;2023). In the bar scenario, there are norms of politeness, age limits, norms about serving those who are intoxicated, and so on.…”

“…As Andrews (2020) notes, standard approaches in social cognition have focused on explaining and predicting behavior individualistically. In more recent approaches, it has been argued that social norms and social roles contribute to our way of understanding and interacting with other people, and scripts may have a role in explaining how this happens (Eickers 2023). There is no consensus, yet, however, as to how far that contribution goes and regarding the specific tasks in social cognition the suggested resources can handle.…”

“…Scripts can also be applied to mental states, such as anger. So-construed, scripts can be a tool for coordinating social behaviors more generally (see Eickers 2023). That is, scripts can do more work than has previously been attributed to them, that is, we might have scripts about contextually situated emotions, about specific social behaviors of specific people, or about group dynamics in specific contexts.…”

Influence of Parental Involvement as a Discipline Management Strategy on the Academic Achievement of Students in Siaya County

“…Conversely, a child who has seen parents' aggressive behavior is likely to be violent in solving problems. The theory, therefore, emphasizes that behavior is learnt in social institutions, and the environment can influence it either positively or negatively (Eickers, 2023).…”

The emergence of division of labour through decentralized social sanctioning

“…For instance, it would be inappropriate (i.e. sanctionable) for a student to behave like a teacher or for a judge to behave like a legislator [21][22][23]. The errant student would likely face discipline from an academic administrator-another role, and one for which such sanctioning is part of its job description.…”