Social performance cues induce behavioral flexibility in humans
Behavioral flexibility allows individuals to react to environmental changes, but changing established behavior carries costs, with unknown benefits. Individuals may thus modify their behavioral flexibility according to the prevailing circumstances. Social information provided by the performance leve...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2011-07-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00160/full |
| _version_ | 1819025384900919296 |
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| author | Ulf eToelch Ulf eToelch Ulf eToelch Matthew J. Bruce Matthew J. Bruce Marius T.H. Meeus Simon Matthew Reader Simon Matthew Reader |
| author_facet | Ulf eToelch Ulf eToelch Ulf eToelch Matthew J. Bruce Matthew J. Bruce Marius T.H. Meeus Simon Matthew Reader Simon Matthew Reader |
| author_sort | Ulf eToelch |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Behavioral flexibility allows individuals to react to environmental changes, but changing established behavior carries costs, with unknown benefits. Individuals may thus modify their behavioral flexibility according to the prevailing circumstances. Social information provided by the performance level of others provides one possible cue to assess the potential benefits of changing behavior, since out-performance in similar circumstances indicates that novel behaviors (innovations) are potentially useful. We demonstrate that social performance cues, in the form of previous players’ scores in a problem-solving computer game, influence behavioral flexibility. Participants viewed only performance indicators, not the innovative behavior of others. While performance cues (high, low, or no scores) had little effect on innovation discovery rates, participants that viewed high scores increased their utilization of innovations, allowing them to exploit the virtual environment more effectively than players viewing low or no scores. Perceived conspecific performance can thus shape human decisions to adopt novel traits, even when the traits employed cannot be copied. This simple mechanism, social performance feedback, could be a driver of both the facultative adoption of innovations and cumulative cultural evolution, processes critical to human success. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-21T05:09:50Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-79545a3c45204186991a21c3360feabd |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-21T05:09:50Z |
| publishDate | 2011-07-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-79545a3c45204186991a21c3360feabd2022-12-21T19:15:05ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782011-07-01210.3389/fpsyg.2011.0016010267Social performance cues induce behavioral flexibility in humansUlf eToelch0Ulf eToelch1Ulf eToelch2Matthew J. Bruce3Matthew J. Bruce4Marius T.H. Meeus5Simon Matthew Reader6Simon Matthew Reader7Utrecht UniversityUtrecht UniversityHumboldt UniversityUtrecht UniversityDepartment of Sustainability and EnvironmentTilburg UniversityUtrecht UniversityMcGill UniversityBehavioral flexibility allows individuals to react to environmental changes, but changing established behavior carries costs, with unknown benefits. Individuals may thus modify their behavioral flexibility according to the prevailing circumstances. Social information provided by the performance level of others provides one possible cue to assess the potential benefits of changing behavior, since out-performance in similar circumstances indicates that novel behaviors (innovations) are potentially useful. We demonstrate that social performance cues, in the form of previous players’ scores in a problem-solving computer game, influence behavioral flexibility. Participants viewed only performance indicators, not the innovative behavior of others. While performance cues (high, low, or no scores) had little effect on innovation discovery rates, participants that viewed high scores increased their utilization of innovations, allowing them to exploit the virtual environment more effectively than players viewing low or no scores. Perceived conspecific performance can thus shape human decisions to adopt novel traits, even when the traits employed cannot be copied. This simple mechanism, social performance feedback, could be a driver of both the facultative adoption of innovations and cumulative cultural evolution, processes critical to human success.http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00160/fullSocial learningcultural transmissioninnovationexploration-exploitationAspiration levelCumulative cultural evolution |
| spellingShingle | Ulf eToelch Ulf eToelch Ulf eToelch Matthew J. Bruce Matthew J. Bruce Marius T.H. Meeus Simon Matthew Reader Simon Matthew Reader Social performance cues induce behavioral flexibility in humans Frontiers in Psychology Social learning cultural transmission innovation exploration-exploitation Aspiration level Cumulative cultural evolution |
| title | Social performance cues induce behavioral flexibility in humans |
| title_full | Social performance cues induce behavioral flexibility in humans |
| title_fullStr | Social performance cues induce behavioral flexibility in humans |
| title_full_unstemmed | Social performance cues induce behavioral flexibility in humans |
| title_short | Social performance cues induce behavioral flexibility in humans |
| title_sort | social performance cues induce behavioral flexibility in humans |
| topic | Social learning cultural transmission innovation exploration-exploitation Aspiration level Cumulative cultural evolution |
| url | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00160/full |
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