Regimes of Expectations: An Active Inference Model of Social Conformity and Human Decision Making
How do humans come to acquire shared expectations about how they ought to behave in distinct normalized social settings? This paper offers a normative framework to answer this question. We introduce the computational construct of ‘deontic value’ – based on active inference and Markov decision proces...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2019-03-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00679/full |
| _version_ | 1819090089189310464 |
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| author | Axel Constant Axel Constant Axel Constant Maxwell J. D. Ramstead Maxwell J. D. Ramstead Maxwell J. D. Ramstead Maxwell J. D. Ramstead Samuel P. L. Veissière Samuel P. L. Veissière Samuel P. L. Veissière Karl Friston |
| author_facet | Axel Constant Axel Constant Axel Constant Maxwell J. D. Ramstead Maxwell J. D. Ramstead Maxwell J. D. Ramstead Maxwell J. D. Ramstead Samuel P. L. Veissière Samuel P. L. Veissière Samuel P. L. Veissière Karl Friston |
| author_sort | Axel Constant |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | How do humans come to acquire shared expectations about how they ought to behave in distinct normalized social settings? This paper offers a normative framework to answer this question. We introduce the computational construct of ‘deontic value’ – based on active inference and Markov decision processes – to formalize conceptions of social conformity and human decision-making. Deontic value is an attribute of choices, behaviors, or action sequences that inherit directly from deontic cues in our econiche (e.g., red traffic lights); namely, cues that denote an obligatory social rule. Crucially, the prosocial aspect of deontic value rests upon a particular form of circular causality: deontic cues exist in the environment in virtue of the environment being modified by repeated actions, while action itself is contingent upon the deontic value of environmental cues. We argue that this construction of deontic cues enables the epistemic (i.e., information-seeking) and pragmatic (i.e., goal- seeking) values of any behavior to be ‘cached’ or ‘outsourced’ to the environment, where the environment effectively ‘learns’ about the behavior of its denizens. We describe the process whereby this particular aspect of value enables learning of habitual behavior over neurodevelopmental and transgenerational timescales. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-21T22:18:17Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-480453e51b8643b59c0b4291579fcff5 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-21T22:18:17Z |
| publishDate | 2019-03-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-480453e51b8643b59c0b4291579fcff52022-12-21T18:48:23ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782019-03-011010.3389/fpsyg.2019.00679420184Regimes of Expectations: An Active Inference Model of Social Conformity and Human Decision MakingAxel Constant0Axel Constant1Axel Constant2Maxwell J. D. Ramstead3Maxwell J. D. Ramstead4Maxwell J. D. Ramstead5Maxwell J. D. Ramstead6Samuel P. L. Veissière7Samuel P. L. Veissière8Samuel P. L. Veissière9Karl Friston10Charles Perkins Centre, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, AustraliaWellcome Trust Centre for Human Neuroimaging, University College London, London, United KingdomCulture, Mind, and Brain Program, McGill University, Montreal, QC, CanadaWellcome Trust Centre for Human Neuroimaging, University College London, London, United KingdomCulture, Mind, and Brain Program, McGill University, Montreal, QC, CanadaDepartment of Philosophy, McGill University, Montreal, QC, CanadaDivision of Social and Transcultural Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, QC, CanadaCulture, Mind, and Brain Program, McGill University, Montreal, QC, CanadaDivision of Social and Transcultural Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, QC, CanadaDepartment of Anthropology, McGill University, Montreal, QC, CanadaWellcome Trust Centre for Human Neuroimaging, University College London, London, United KingdomHow do humans come to acquire shared expectations about how they ought to behave in distinct normalized social settings? This paper offers a normative framework to answer this question. We introduce the computational construct of ‘deontic value’ – based on active inference and Markov decision processes – to formalize conceptions of social conformity and human decision-making. Deontic value is an attribute of choices, behaviors, or action sequences that inherit directly from deontic cues in our econiche (e.g., red traffic lights); namely, cues that denote an obligatory social rule. Crucially, the prosocial aspect of deontic value rests upon a particular form of circular causality: deontic cues exist in the environment in virtue of the environment being modified by repeated actions, while action itself is contingent upon the deontic value of environmental cues. We argue that this construction of deontic cues enables the epistemic (i.e., information-seeking) and pragmatic (i.e., goal- seeking) values of any behavior to be ‘cached’ or ‘outsourced’ to the environment, where the environment effectively ‘learns’ about the behavior of its denizens. We describe the process whereby this particular aspect of value enables learning of habitual behavior over neurodevelopmental and transgenerational timescales.https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00679/fullactive inferenceMarkov decision processsocial conformitydecision-makingdeonticityniche construction theory |
| spellingShingle | Axel Constant Axel Constant Axel Constant Maxwell J. D. Ramstead Maxwell J. D. Ramstead Maxwell J. D. Ramstead Maxwell J. D. Ramstead Samuel P. L. Veissière Samuel P. L. Veissière Samuel P. L. Veissière Karl Friston Regimes of Expectations: An Active Inference Model of Social Conformity and Human Decision Making Frontiers in Psychology active inference Markov decision process social conformity decision-making deonticity niche construction theory |
| title | Regimes of Expectations: An Active Inference Model of Social Conformity and Human Decision Making |
| title_full | Regimes of Expectations: An Active Inference Model of Social Conformity and Human Decision Making |
| title_fullStr | Regimes of Expectations: An Active Inference Model of Social Conformity and Human Decision Making |
| title_full_unstemmed | Regimes of Expectations: An Active Inference Model of Social Conformity and Human Decision Making |
| title_short | Regimes of Expectations: An Active Inference Model of Social Conformity and Human Decision Making |
| title_sort | regimes of expectations an active inference model of social conformity and human decision making |
| topic | active inference Markov decision process social conformity decision-making deonticity niche construction theory |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00679/full |
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