Group value learned through interactions with members: A reinforcement learning account

Hackel, Leor M.; Kogon, Drew; Amodio, David M.; Wood, Wendy

doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2021.104267

Cited by 15 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 58 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Although we examined relational categories, other kinds of categories might also facilitate generalization, such as categories describing social groups (Dunsmoor & Murphy, 2014; Hackel et al, 2022; Kalkstein, Bosch, & Kleiman, 2020; Osherson et al, 1990). And although we examined social structure, people may easily generalize reward in nonsocial settings whenever they have expertise and fluency with structure (Goldwater et al, 2021).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social Concepts Simplify Complex Reinforcement Learning

Hackel

Kalkstein

2023

Psychol Sci

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Humans often generalize rewarding experiences across abstract social roles. Theories of reward learning suggest that people generalize through model-based learning, but such learning is cognitively costly. Why do people seem to generalize across social roles with ease? Humans are social experts who easily recognize social roles that reflect familiar semantic concepts (e.g., “helper” or “teacher”). People may associate these roles with model-free reward (e.g., learning that helpers are rewarding), allowing them to generalize easily (e.g., interacting with novel individuals identified as helpers). In four online experiments with U.S. adults ( N = 577), we found evidence that social concepts ease complex learning (people generalize more and at faster speed) and that people attach reward directly to abstract roles (they generalize even when roles are unrelated to task structure). These results demonstrate how familiar concepts allow complex behavior to emerge from simple strategies, highlighting social interaction as a prototype for studying cognitive ease in the face of environmental complexity.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social Concepts Simplify Complex Reinforcement Learning

Hackel

Kalkstein

2023

Psychol Sci

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In other words, an increase in positive intergroup behaviors toward the out-group after the intervention were often not caused (or accompanied) by more positive attitudes. Recent lab studies have also demonstrated that even when intergroup behavior is concurrent with intergroup attitude change, the changes in attitudes do not fully explain changes in behavior, providing further support for the idea that other factors are at play in intergroup behavior change (e.g., Hackel et al, 2022).…”

Section: Effectiveness Of Current Prejudice-reduction Interventionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stuck on Intergroup Attitudes: The Need to Shift Gears to Change Intergroup Behaviors

Bräuer

2023

Perspect Psychol Sci

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Decades of research on how to improve intergroup relations have primarily examined ways to change prejudiced attitudes. However, this focus on negative intergroup attitudes has yielded few effective solutions. Because intergroup relations are shaped by behavior during intergroup interactions, it is necessary to identify constructs that have a strong causal impact on intergroup behavior change. In this article, I will discuss evidence showing that intergroup attitude change is neither a sufficient nor necessary cause for intergroup behavior change. Empirical research suggests that intergroup attitudes are difficult to change and have a limited effect on intergroup behavior. I also distinguish between constructs that primarily affect intergroup attitude change (e.g., counterstereotypical exemplars, evaluative conditioning) and constructs that primarily affect intergroup behavior change (e.g., social norms, self-efficacy). Further, suggestions for future research will also be provided to advance understanding of the various psychological constructs that influence intergroup behavior change, which will help us develop effective methods of improving intergroup relations.

show abstract

“…One participant was removed due to not believing the manipulation, according to a research assistant, leading to a final sample of N = 80. We determined the sample size by aiming for a large sample for a within-subjects analysis and that was similar to other similar social cognitive RL designs (Hackel et al, 2022).…”

Section: Participantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Self-derogating to align with group norms: Similarity-based learning drives assimilation of the group to the self

Elder¹,

Davis²,

Hughes³

2022

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

People desire to see themselves positively, but also as similar to their groups. How do people arbitrate between these two potentially conflicting motives as they learn about and assimilate group norms? In three studies reflecting different group contexts, participants completed a social judgment task where they chose which of two traits were more self relevant. After each choice, participants were presented with the probability of ingroup or outgroup participants self-endorsing the same trait. We tested alternative computational models to characterize how people assimilate traits that are typical of their group. We find that, over the course of the task, participants increasingly self-endorsed traits that are similar to those that were depicted as group normative, even generalizing to novel traits they had not received group probability information for. We account for these findings with a similarity model that predicts that people self-endorse traits that are similar to previously observed group norms, rather than self-endorsing traits to learn expected group norms via trial-and-error learning. This tendency to use group norms to guide choices even leads to self-derogation, where people forgo choosing positive traits to select traits that are more group typical. Findings demonstrate that people are motivated to achieve similarity with group norms, which has potential broader implications for group affiliation, self-stereotyping, and extremism.

show abstract

Group value learned through interactions with members: A reinforcement learning account

Cited by 15 publications

References 58 publications

Social Concepts Simplify Complex Reinforcement Learning

Social Concepts Simplify Complex Reinforcement Learning

Stuck on Intergroup Attitudes: The Need to Shift Gears to Change Intergroup Behaviors

Self-derogating to align with group norms: Similarity-based learning drives assimilation of the group to the self

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About