Department of Bio and Brain Engineering, College of Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon, Republic of Korea.
Program of Brain and Cognitive Engineering, College of Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon, Republic of Korea.
PLoS One. 2022 Jul 6;17(7):e0269812. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0269812. eCollection 2022.
To understand, predict, and help correct each other's actions we need to maintain accurate, up-to-date knowledge of people, and communication is a critical means by which we gather and disseminate this information. Yet the conditions under which we communication social information remain unclear. Testing hypotheses generated from our theoretical framework, we examined when and why social information is disseminated about an absent third party: i.e., gossiped. Gossip scenarios presented to participants (e.g., "Person-X cheated on their exam") were based on three key factors: (1) target (ingroup, outgroup, or celebrity), (2) valence (positive or negative), and (3) content. We then asked them (a) whether they would spread the information, and (b) to rate it according to subjective valence, ordinariness, interest level, and emotion. For ratings, the scenarios participants chose to gossip were considered to have higher valence (whether positive or negative), to be rarer, more interesting, and more emotionally evocative; thus showing that the paradigm was meaningful to subjects. Indeed, for target, valence, and content, a repeated-measures ANOVA found significant effects for each factor independently, as well as their interactions. The results supported our hypotheses: e.g., for target, more gossiping about celebrities and ingroup members (over strangers); for valence, more about negative events overall, and yet for ingroup members, more positive gossiping; for content, more about moral topics, with yet all domains of social content communicated depending on the situation-context matters, influencing needs. The findings suggest that social knowledge sharing (i.e., gossip) involves sophisticated calculations that require our highest sociocognitive abilities, and provide specific hypotheses for future examination of neural mechanisms.
为了理解、预测和相互纠正彼此的行为，我们需要保持对人的准确、最新的了解，而沟通是我们收集和传播这些信息的关键手段。然而，我们沟通社会信息的条件仍不清楚。我们从理论框架中检验了假设，并研究了何时以及为何会传播关于缺席第三方的社会信息：即八卦。向参与者呈现的八卦场景（例如，“人 X 在考试中作弊”）基于三个关键因素：（1）目标（内群体、外群体或名人），（2）好坏（正面或负面），和（3）内容。然后，我们问他们（a）是否会传播信息，以及（b）根据主观好坏、普通性、兴趣水平和情绪对其进行评分。对于评分，参与者选择八卦的场景被认为具有更高的好坏（无论是正面还是负面），更罕见、更有趣、更能引起情感共鸣；因此，这表明该范式对参与者具有意义。事实上，对于目标、好坏和内容，重复测量方差分析发现每个因素及其相互作用都有显著影响。结果支持了我们的假设：例如，对于目标，更多地八卦名人内群体成员（而不是陌生人）；对于好坏，整体上更多地涉及负面事件，但对于内群体成员，更多地八卦正面事件；对于内容，更多地涉及道德话题，但所有社会内容领域都取决于情境语境，影响需求。这些发现表明，社会知识共享（即八卦）涉及需要我们最高社会认知能力的复杂计算，并为未来对神经机制的研究提供了具体假设。
