The evolution of cooperation in asymmetric systems

Explaining "Tragedy of the Commons" of evolution of cooperation remains one of the greatest problems for both biology and social science. Asymmetrical interaction, which is one of the most important characteristics of cooperative system, has not been sufficiently considered in the existing models of the evolution of cooperation. Considering the inequality in the number and payoff between the cooperative actors and recipients in cooperation systems, discriminative density-dependent interference competition will occur in limited dispersal systems. Our model and simulation show that the local but not the global stability of a cooperative interaction can be maintained if the utilization of common resource remains unsaturated, which can be achieved by density-dependent restraint or competition among the cooperative actors. More intense density dependent interference competition among the cooperative actors and the ready availability of the common resource, with a higher intrinsic contribution ratio of a cooperative actor to the recipient, will increase the probability of cooperation. The cooperation between the recipient and the cooperative actors can be transformed into conflict and, it oscillates chaotically with variations of the affecting factors under different environmental or ecological conditions. The higher initial relatedness (i.e. similar to kin or reciprocity relatedness), which is equivalent to intrinsic contribution ratio of a cooperative actor to the recipient, can be selected for by penalizing less cooperative or cheating actors but rewarding cooperative individuals in asymmetric systems. The initial relatedness is a pivot but not the aim of evolution of cooperation. This explains well the direct conflict observed in almost all cooperative systems.

3-7岁儿童对情景化习俗道义情境中社会行为的认知发展

Children’s understanding of deontic rules and theory of mind (ToM) were the two research domains for children’s social cognition. It was significant for understanding children’s social cognition to combine the researches in the two domains. Children at 3, 5 and 7years were required to answer three questions according to the stories which happened in children’s familiar context. The three questions were designed to address the three problems:⑴Development of 3-7-Year-old children’s understanding about how the deontic rules were enacted or changed.⑵ Development of 3-7-Year-old children’s understanding about that the deontic rules and the actor’s mental states could impact on his behaviors.⑶ Development of 3-7-Year-old children’s capacity to integrate the deontic rules and mental state to evaluate the actor’s behavior. The results showed that: ① The 3-7-Year-old children had known that deontic rules were established by the authority’s speech act. But there were still some irrelevant factors which influenced the children’s judgments, such as the authority’s desire. ② The children gradually recognized the relationship between actors should do something and they will do the same thing. 3-year-old children could recognize such relationship in a way, but their predictions were usually influenced by some irrelevant factors. The children at 5 and 7 years old understood this relationship more steady. ③ In deontic context, more and more children predicted the actors��� behaviors according to the actors��� mental states as they grown up. The ratio that the 3-7-Year-old children predicted the actors��� behavior according to their false belief about the deontic rules was smaller in deontic context compared with the children’s performance in traditional false belief task. This maybe indicated that the deontic context influenced the children’s inference stronger than the physical context. ④ When they could get the actors��� desires and the deontic rules, all the children could predict the actors��� behaviors according to their desires, but not the deontic rules. It meant that all the children could understand that the actors��� desire mediated between the deontic rules and their behaviors. But when the actors wanted to transgress the deontic rules, all the children’s predications became less accurate. ⑤ When they assigned criticism, more and more children could discriminate different behaviors as a result of diverse mental states although they all transgressed the deontic rules. But the most part of children overweighed the deontic rules but overlooked the actors��� mental state about the deontic rules; their criticism to behaviors which transgressed the deontic rules just differ in quantity according to diverse mental states, that is: if the actors known the rules or want to transgress the rules, then punished more, and if the actors didn’t know the rules or transgress the rules accidentally, then punished a little.

中美大学生归因偏差的跨文化研究

This research systematically compared Chinese undergraduates with American undergraduates on four kinds of attributional bias: correspondent bias, siuational overattribution, intergroup attributional bias and self-serving attributional bias, and examined the effect of the implicit theories reflecting the cultures on attributional bias. First is analyzed three pairs of opposite implicit theories: dispositionalist theory and situationalist theory, generality and particularity, stressing the positive evaluation of self and despising the positive evaluation of self. It developed the Modern Implicit Theories Inventory and Traditional Implicit Theories Inventory to measure these implicit theories, and the results showed these inventories had satisfactory validity and reliability, and they were suitable for the group comparison of Chinese implicit theories with European-American. At the same time through the test it found Chinese undergraduates agreed all these opposite implicit theories more than American undergraduates. Second, it studied Chinese and American undergraduates' attributional accuracy on locus of causality. The results showed: Chinese and American undergraduates both had the correspondent bias under the different salient situational constraints, and the degree of Chinese and American undergraduates' correspondent bias under the different salient situational constraints had no significant difference' Chinese and American undergraduates both showed the situational overattribution; Chinese undergraduates had more the correspondent bias and situational overattribution than American undergraduates. Third, on the research of Chinese and American undergraduates' intergroup attributional bias, it found Chinese and American undergraduates both had no intergroup attributional bias among kin, friends and strangers, while they both show some favorable outcome effects for these three group actors. The favorable outcome effects were significant on the attributional dimensions of locus of causality and controllability for strangers' behavior, and stability for kin and friends' behavior rating by Chinese undergraduates, and stability for friends' behavior rating by American undergraduates. Fourth, it explored Chinese and American undergraduates' self-serving attributional bias, and the result indicated that Chinese and American undergraduates both showed significant self-serving attributional bias: for outcome effects, Chinese undergraduates' self-serving attributional bias were reflected on the attributional dimensions of locus of causality, stability, controllability and globality, and American undergraduates were reflected on the attributional dimensions of locus of causality, stability and globality; for categorization effects, both Chinese and American undergraduates' self-serving attributional bias were reflected on attributional difference between self's negative behavior and others', but Chinese undergraduates were embodied on the attributional dimensions of locus of causality, stability and globality while American undergraduates were reflected on the attributional dimensions of stability and globality. It also found Chinese undergraduates had more self-serving attributional bias than American undergraduates. This was reflected on the attributional dimensions of locus of causality, stability and controllability for outcome effects, and for categorization effects, locus of causality, stability and globality rating for self and others' negative behavior. All studies indicated that Chinese and American undergraduates' implicit theories had no significant effects on all their four attributional bias. These findings' potentially important implications were discussed and the further research was suggested.

印象形成中同化和对比效应研究

Impression formation is an important aspect of person perception and has important interpersonal consequences. There are assimilation and contrast effects in impression formation and is still considerable debate regarding the best way to account for them. This present research used trait-implying sentences as priming materials, trait inferences sever as self-generated primes, examined the effect of different trait knowledge in assimilation and contrast effects. Experiment 1 determined the priming and target stimuli of this research by pretest. In experiment 2, participants read trait-implying sentences and resulted in trait inference as self-generated primes, examined the influence of trait activation on impression formation. The results indicated that participants instructed to memorize trait-implying sentences showed assimilation effect, whereas participants instructed to form impression from trait-implying sentences showed contrast effect. Difference to previous studies that emphasized the impact of awareness of the prime in impression formation, this research paid attention to the impact of different trait knowledge that resulted from trait inference. Experiment 3 studied the influence of actor salience on impression formation. The results indicated that when trait-implying sentences that described actors with names and were accompanied with photos of the actors, participants showed contrast under both memorization and impression instructions. Experiment 4 studied the influence of attribution context on assimilation and contrasts. The results showed that contrast ensued when trait-implying sentences were accompanied with the information that suggested a person attribution, whereas assimilation ensued when that information suggested a situation attribution, independent of processing goals. Experiment 5 made a direct test of the effect of different trait knowledge in impression formation. The results discovered that when abstract trait concepts were activated they act as a general interpretation frame in encoding stage, whereas when specific actor-trait links were activated, the activated information is likely to be used as a comparative standard in judgment stage. All studied indicated that there are two types of activated trait knowledge in trait inference: abstract trait concepts versus specific actor-trait links. When trait inference activated abstract trait concepts, the activated information serves as interpretation frame and lead to assimilation effect during impression formation, when trait inference activated specific actor-trait links, the activated information is more likely to be used as a comparative standards and resulted in contrast effects. These findings have important implications for understanding the mechanism of impression formation and practical values for interpersonal communication.