ArticlePDF Available

Shared worlds and shared minds: A theory of collective learning and a social psychology of common knowledge

Authors:
Garriy Shteynberg at University of Tennessee at Knoxville
Garriy Shteynberg
Jacob B Hirsh at University of Toronto
Jacob B Hirsh
R. Alexander Bentley at University of Tennessee at Knoxville
R. Alexander Bentley
Jon Garthoff
Jon Garthoff
Jon Garthoff
  • This person is not on ResearchGate, or hasn't claimed this research yet.
Download full-text PDF
Read full-text
Download citation

Abstract

The study of observational learning, or learning from others, is a cornerstone of the behavioral sciences, as it grounds the continuity, diversity, and innovation inherent to humanity’s cultural repertoire within the social learning capacities of individual humans. In contrast, collective learning, or learning with others, has been underappreciated in terms of its importance to human cognition, cohesion, and culture. We offer a theory of collective learning, wherein the cognitive capacity of collective attention indicates and represents common knowledge across group members, yielding mutually known representations, emotions, evaluations, and beliefs. By enhancing the comprehension of and cohesion with fellow group members, collective attention facilitates communication, remembering, and problem-solving in human groups. We also discuss the implications of collective learning theory for the development of collective identities, social norms, and strategic cooperation.
Content uploaded by Garriy Shteynberg
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Garriy Shteynberg on Mar 13, 2020
Content may be subject to copyright.
A preview of the PDF is not available
A preview of this full-text is provided by American Psychological Association.
Learn more
Content available from Psychological Review
This content is subject to copyright. Terms and conditions apply.
... Among humans, warfare was prominent as an out-group threat by the early Holocene [25]. The collective experience of war, through shared awareness [26,27] and shared dysphoric experience [28], can sap the influence of previously meaningful social identities via the tightening of social norms [3]. ...
... Our study sheds light on what Ukrainians believe about who is to blame for the war-before and after its beginning. After the invasion, the increase in blame towards Russia-in Ukraine but not in Belarus-is consistent with expectations for shared awareness [26,27] and shared dysphoria and threat [28,[36][37][38]. ...
Response to collective threat: Russian invasion unifies Ukrainians across ethnic, linguistic, religious and geographic lines
Article
Full-text available
  • Jan 2025
Under the collective threat of war, the 2022 Russian invasion would be expected to unify Ukrainians across distinct ethnic, linguistic, geographic and generational identities. Here, we show this using survey data collected in Belarus and Ukraine before and after the full-fledged invasion of Ukraine by Russia. Using our data collection waves from spring and summer of 2022, we observed attitudinal changes rarely documented before and after such an event. Our data include both the invaded country, Ukraine, as the ‘treatment’ and a non-invaded country, Belarus, as the ‘control’. We find that, in Ukraine but not in Belarus, geopolitical views were sharply unified by the experience of the invasion, outweighing the heterogeneous group identities before the event. Our observations serve as evidence that identity fusion under collective threat can override long-standing social divisions.
View
... When employees perceive that their leaders prioritize ethical behavior and value transparency, they are more likely to engage in collaborative knowledge-sharing activities (Chedid et al., 2020;Gerbin and Drnovsek, 2020;Wang and Hu, 2020). This, in turn, contributes to a collective knowledge pool within the organization, enhancing its adaptive capacity and problem-solving capabilities (Shteynberg et al., 2020;Smaldino et al., 2022). ...
... Knowledge sharing serves as the conduit through which valuable insights, experiences, and expertise flow within an organization (Smaldino et al., 2022;Shteynberg et al., 2020;Yaghi and Ethics, 2019). When individuals freely exchange information, ideas, and lessons learned, it creates a collaborative environment that fosters a collective intelligence (Suran et al., 2020;Vu et al., 2020). ...
Exploring ethical leadership influence on organizational effectiveness within Vietnamese SMEs and the mediating contributions of knowledge sharing and organizational learning
Article
Full-text available
  • Sep 2024
This research delves into the intricate dynamics of ethical leadership within the context of Vietnamese Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). By scrutinizing its impact on organizational effectiveness, the study unveils a comprehensive understanding of the interconnectedness between ethical leadership, knowledge sharing, and organizational learning. Employing a mixed-methods approach, the research investigates the mediating roles played by knowledge sharing and organizational learning in the relationship between ethical leadership and organizational effectiveness. Through empirical analysis and case studies, this study contributes valuable insights to the literature, offering practical implications for fostering ethical leadership practices in Vietnamese SMEs to enhance overall organizational effectiveness. The findings shed light on the nuanced mechanisms through which ethical leadership contributes to sustainable success, emphasizing the pivotal roles of knowledge sharing and organizational learning in this intricate relationship.
View
... Collective consciousness is at the foundation of a uniquely human psychology, wherein homo sapiens have the intent and the capacity to cooperate with beings that are living and dead, human and otherwise (Shteynberg et al., 2020(Shteynberg et al., , 2022(Shteynberg et al., , 2023. Beyond these lofty words, lies an intellectual and empirical challenge. ...
... Notably, the recursion is made possible by individual autonoetic cognition, wherein I represent what "I" know about what "you know"…and so on ad infinitum. My colleagues and I have argued (Shteynberg et al., 2020(Shteynberg et al., , 2022(Shteynberg et al., , 2023 that the solution to the failings of individual autonoetic cognition is collective autonoetic cognition (also see Chater et al., 2022;Colman & Gold, 2018). Simply put, when people think in "we" terms, utilizing "we-representations," the mind is represented as a unitary collective, and mind-in-mind recursion (that requires the representation of two minds) disappears. ...
The psychology of collective consciousness
Article
Full-text available
  • Jul 2024
Collective consciousness is “baked into” the architecture of the human mind—it is at the foundation of a uniquely human psychology, wherein homo sapiens have the intent and the capacity to cooperate with beings that are living and dead, human and otherwise. I discuss the psychological contours of collective consciousness and its effects on human cognition, affect, motivation, and behavior. Integrating across three major theoretical papers and dozens of empirical papers, I argue that the psychological structure and function of collective consciousness are intertwined; the former giving rise to the latter. I also discuss two varieties of collective consciousness—collective reality and collective psychology—that enable individual and group success in human society. I will end by describing how the psychology of collective consciousness can enhance our understanding of mutual trust and cooperation.
View
... Therefore, members of the manufacturing value chain are likely to form codes of conduct for knowledge and information sharing, and information about the deviant behaviors of members in the network is easily disseminated, which amplifies the reputation effects and collective sanctions. These characteristics inhibit the possibility of opportunistic behavior among value chain members (Yeung et al., 2009), significantly reduce barriers to information sharing among members, and strengthen emotional ties beyond the contractual relationship, thus enhancing the "common knowledge" among members (Shteynberg et al., 2020), that is, the mutual cognition among manufacturing enterprises based on each other's resources, technologies, and practices is continuously strengthened, and mutual understanding in terms of organizational culture and long-term goals (Capaldo, 2007;Uzzi, 1997). "Common knowledge" promotes the improvement of cooperation efficiency and knowledge transfer effectiveness. ...
Cross-Domain Cooperation Mechanism for Servitization of Manufacturing Enterprises—A Value Appropriation Perspective Based on Cross-Chain Reorganization
Article
Full-text available
  • Jan 2025
Despite the rapid development of the servitization process, few studies pay attention to the distribution of benefits in the servitization cooperation. Furthermore, existing researches mainly focus on coupled enterprises, neglecting to explore the issue from the perspective of cross-chain cooperation among multiple entities of manufacturing enterprises. Accordingly, this paper takes the idea of “value appropriation” as a starting point and combines social capital theory and profiting from innovation theory. From the perspective of the value chain, the paper explains the joint impact of knowledge characteristics and asset status on the value of servitization innovations possessed by manufacturing enterprises. Based on the empirical analysis of 517 sample enterprises, the results show that in the process of servitization cooperation (i) manufacturing enterprises establish tight networks in the manufacturing value chain and loose networks in the service value chain; (ii) establishing complementary assets with upstream and downstream enterprises in the manufacturing value chain that are highly complementary and weakly mobile, and establishing complementary assets with service providers in the service value chain, enables enterprises to capture more newly created value. The contributions of this paper are as follows: (i) it reveals how manufacturing firms can capture more new value creation in servitization cooperation by carefully structuring the micro-cooperation between the manufacturing value chain and the service value chain based on the knowledge and asset characteristics; (ii) although this paper takes the servitization cooperation as the object of the study, it further develops the PFI theory and expands its analytical framework to the cross-domain cooperation level. These findings can help enterprises participating in servitization cooperation to clarify their position and function in the cooperation network and even determine how to capture more new creation value by shaping the micro-industrial structure in various types of business ecosystems based on the analytical framework of this paper.
View
... These interactions lead to the development of shared mental representations, coordination of beliefs and expectations, and rectification of behavioral practices within groups. This influences the preferential selection of social learning strategies and outcomes [192,193]. The interactions between individual and group mental processes inform expected utility in the heuristic balancing [194,195] of allostatic load, risk mitigation, efficiency, and information gain. ...
Information, Entanglement, and Emergent Social Norms: Searching for 'Normal'
Article
Full-text available
  • Nov 2024
Social norms are often regarded as informal rules or strategies. Previously, we have proposed that norms are better understood as information. Social norms represent a behavioral adaptation that identifies and curates the information required to create and maintain a predictable environment. Here, we further demonstrate that social norms act as the leading edge of individual and collective search and optimization processes. These processes provide efficient and effective evolutionary mechanisms for constant adjustment and adaptation to an environment. We show that social norms constitute the forefront of our ability to ingest and process information, and are responsible for the conditions under which social and collective cognition are possible. This new model of social information processing provides not only insight into how humans adapt and evolve to diverse environments, but also provides concrete definitions of human sociality and its distinctions from that of other social animals. Our social constructs and behaviors are not separate from the physical world we inhabit, but are instead the primary means by which we exist within it.
View
... Collective intelligence and the collaborative learning it fosters are based on a series of fundamental principles to achieve knowledge such as: collaboration among group members sharing ideas, knowledge and skills (Shteynberg et al., 2020); effective communication, whether oral or written, together with the ability to provide and receive feedback from peers (Suran et al., 2020); critical thinking inextricably linked to having to analyse and evaluate the information they receive and respond to the problem posed (Ziska, 2020); reflection on one's own learning fostered during the process of interacting with others (Kameda et al., 2022); shared knowledge among individuals participating in the task, which, through interactions, increases the individual's own knowledge (Woolley & Aggarwal, 2020); distributed cognition among a group of individuals sharing the cognitive load and providing feedback through collaboration (Malone & Bernstein, 2022); social learning between individuals and others through observation, imitation and communication (Kameda et al., 2022); and collective decision-making based on the shared knowledge generated . ...
Confronting Fake News Through Collective Intelligence in Adolescents
Article
Adolescents are vulnerable to the exponential increase in fake news spread. Collective judgment on the quality of news has been an effective intervention. Collective Learning platform makes it possible to apply collective intelligence through simultaneous interaction in a large group, similar to social networks. The objective of this article is to analyze whether this platform effectively improves how adolescents confront fake news. 360 Spanish students aged 15–16 years old participated in the experiment confronting a fictitious case of fake news. The quantitative analysis using ANOVA demonstrated that there were significant positive changes for addressing fake news, both overall as well as in each of the participants. We discuss how these results confirm that collective intelligence improves digital literacy in the Internet challenges
View
... Se così, bisognerebbe chiedersi se le comunità apprendono nello stesso modo degli individui… Ed è proprio in seno a tali ramificazioni epistemologiche che si può fare nuovamente ricorso alla definizione statistica UNESCO, intendendo il formarsi della comunità come avente esito principe nel processo di patrimonializzazione -e vedendo quindi l'apprendimento o, meglio, il sapere collettivo, come chiave di volta del costituirsi di un sé condiviso, in maniera prioritaria, anziché ancillare, rispetto a quanto precedentemente osservato rispetto alla funzione "di supporto" dei processi formativi in genere. La controprova concettuale di tale rapporto tra formazione comunitaria e patrimonio culturale è fornita indirettamente dalla trattazione che Shteynberg et al. (2020) fanno dell'apprendimento collettivo. Secondo la loro teoria, il miglior marcatore dell'apprendimento collettivo è la manifestazione dell'attenzione collettiva, da intendersi come stato disposizionale di un agente plurale nei confronti di un oggetto specifico; allo scopo di individuare la medesima, si cerca di stabilire se gli individui abbiano raggiunto una prospettiva plurale a partire dal fatto che, all'agente collettivo (implicito o esplicito) i partecipanti ascrivono un orientamento specifico nei confronti di un qualche oggetto -in altre parole, sembrano suggerire Shteynberg et al., tale coscienza comune è tale solo se il suo stato attenzionale è saturato da un qualcosa nel mondo. ...
The Myth of Childhood in the Kalevala: A Case of Formative Fatalism in Finnish Cultural Heritage
Article
Full-text available
  • May 2024
The Kalevala, the quintessential Finnish epic poem, hosts a unique repertoire of episodes related to a 'mythological' conception of childhood. This makes it a fruitful target for the study of informal education connected with cultural heritage. After establishing how the latter constitutes the keystone for the study of informal learning processes, this contribution adopts the perspective of Greater Humanities for Education to conduct a thematic analysis of the instances in the Kalevala concerning childhood-taking into account the empirical, historical, hermeneutic, and ethical-moral dimensions of the literary phenomenon in question. The resulting case study reveals a multifaceted concept of childhood, alternating between deficient conceptions and forms of exceptionalism. From the articulations of this concept emerges a folk theory of education which in this contribution is dubbed formative fatalism. The study inductively derives the three pillars of formative fatalism drawing on the Kalevala: (i) intergenerational determinism (history); (ii) quasi-determinism of tradition; (iii) formative idiosyncrasy of individual existential paths. Given the extensive heritage status of the Kalevala and its role in shaping Finnish collective identity, the study concludes by reflecting on how this fatalism can be reconciled with the more progressive aspects of contemporary Finnish society.
View
... A Informação e o conhecimento têm sido objetos de reflexão e estudo em diversas áreas (DIAS; PINHEIRO; AGUIAR FILHO, 2022), talvez em função do reconhecimento que os seres humanos se proliferam e têm sucesso como espécie por um processo de transferência de cultura, cooperação e aprendizado, via outros seres humanos, sejam eles contemporâneos ou ancestrais (SHTEYNBERG et al., 2020). ...
O FACEBOOK® COMO AMBIENTE DE CONTEXTO CAPACITANTE E BA: UMA PROPOSTA DE MODELO PARA TESTE EMPÍRICO. THE FACEBOOK® AS AN ENVIRONMENT ENABLING CONTEXT AND BA: A PROPOSED MODEL FOR EMPIRICAL TESTING.
Article
Full-text available
  • Apr 2024
Resumo: nos últimos anos as discussões sobre o conhecimento em canais físicos e/ou virtuais vêm ganhando força na comunidade cientifica. Objeto de reflexão e estudo em diversas áreas, sobretudo em função do reconhecimento que os seres humanos obtenham maior sucesso como espécie por um processo de cooperação, as plataformas digitais como o Facebook vêm ganhado destaque e representam ambientes ideais de contexto capacitante para exploração de fenômenos. Diante desse contexto, essa pesquisa tem como objetivo propor um modelo para teste empírico que considera o Facebook como plataforma de ambiente de contexto capacitante e Ba. Caracterizada como uma pesquisa do tipo qualitativa e exploratória foi realizada uma revisão da literatura como parâmetro para a construção do modelo aqui proposto. Como resultado foi possível descrever teoricamente como acontece o percurso do indivíduo desde o gap informacional e de conhecimento até a obtenção de um novo conhecimento ou boas práticas. As considerações deste esforço de pesquisa apontam que o modelo proposto para teste empírico descreve um percurso em que o indivíduo diante de um novo contexto segue em busca de um ambiente que permite a troca e o compartilhamento informacional culminando em novos conhecimentos e boas práticas. Espera-se que este modelo possa ser testado empiricamente e replicado em diversos contextos, ambientes e plataformas contribuindo para estudos futuros e servindo como suporte para estudantes e pesquisadores. Palavras-chave: gestão da informação; gestão do conhecimento; contexto capacitante; Facebook.
View
View
The impact of new energy vehicle sharing value, emotional advertising appeal, emotional discourse, and self-determination on consumer loyalty
Article
  • Jan 2024
Purpose—In 2023, new energy vehicles became a trend in mainland China. In this study, we mainly investigated the views and feelings of mainland Chinese consumers on new energy vehicle advertising. This study aims to analyze how consumers recognize brand loyalty when purchasing new energy vehicles in mainland China (Zhejiang Province). Design/methodology/approach—In our questionnaire, consumers N=315, we explored four hypotheses: shared value is positively correlated with self-determination, emotional advertising appeal is positively correlated with self-determination, emotional discourse is positively correlated with self-determination, and self-determination is positively correlated with consumer loyalty. Findings – Moreover, our innovative findings address that (1) emotional advertising for new energy vehicles can increase consumer loyalty and (2) the power of shared value in the community can increase consumer loyalty. Research limitations/implications—Our research's motivation is to understand new energy vehicle consumers who can identify with certain brands and further enhance their brand loyalty. Because the research is limited by workforce and material resources, we suggest that future researchers be more thoughtful in their design. Originality/value—Our research is valuable because it investigates the ultimate brand loyalty of new energy vehicle consumers.
View
Group Impressions as Dynamic Configurations: The Tensor Product Model of Group Impression Formation and Change
Article
Full-text available
  • Oct 2000
Group impressions are dynamic configurations. The tensor product model (TPM), a connectionist model of memory and learning, is used to describe the process of group impression formation and change, emphasizing the structured and contextualized nature of group impressions and the dynamic evolution of group impressions over time. TPM is first shown to be consistent with algebraic models of social judgment (the weighted averaging model; N. Anderson, 1981) and exemplar-based social category learning (the context model; E. R. Smith & M. A. Zárate, 1992), providing a theoretical reduction of the algebraic models to the present connectionist framework. TPM is then shown to describe a common process that underlies both formation and change of group impressions despite the often-made assumption that they constitute different psychological processes. In particular, various time-dependent properties of both group impression formation (e.g., time variability, response dependency, and order effects in impression judgments) and change (e.g., stereotype change and group accentuation) are explained, demonstrating a hidden unity beneath the diverse array of empirical findings. Implications of the model for conceptualizing stereotype formation and change are discussed.
View
Diagnosing Groups: Charting the Flow of Information in Medical Decision-Making Teams
Article
Full-text available
  • Aug 1996
Several hypotheses derived from an information sampling model of group discussion were tested with 3-person teams of physicians given 2 hypothetical medical cases to diagnose. Some of the information about each case was given to all 3 team members before discussion (shared information), whereas the rest was divided among them (unshared information). As predicted, shared information was, overall, more likely to be discussed than unshared information, and it was brought into discussion earlier. In addition, it was found that team leaders repeated substantially more case information than did other members and that, over time, they repeated unshared information at a steadily increasing rate. The latter findings are interpreted as evidence of leaders' information management role in problem-solving discussions.
View
Common knowledge, coordination, and strategic mentalizing in human social life
Article
Full-text available
  • Jun 2019
Significance Humans are an unusually cooperative species, and our cooperation is of 2 kinds: altruistic, when actors benefit others at a cost to themselves, and mutualistic, when actors benefit themselves and others simultaneously. One major form of mutualism is coordination, in which actors align their choices for mutual benefit. Formal examples include meetings, division of labor, and legal and technological standards; informal examples include friendships, authority hierarchies, alliances, and exchange partnerships. Successful coordination is enabled by common knowledge: knowledge of others’ knowledge, knowledge of their knowledge of one’s knowledge, ad infinitum. Uncovering how people acquire and represent the common knowledge needed for coordination is thus essential to understanding human sociality, from large-scale institutions to everyday experiences of civility, hypocrisy, outrage, and taboo.
View
The electronic mail game: Strategic behavior under “almost common knowledge”
Chapter
  • Aug 1992
There has been a great deal of interaction among game theorists, philosophers and logicians in certain foundational problems concerning rationality, the formalization of knowledge and practical reasoning, and models of learning and deliberation. This volume brings together the work of some of the pre-eminent figures in their respective disciplines, all of whom are engaged in research at the forefront of their fields. Together they offer a conspectus of the interaction of game theory, logic and epistemology in the formal models of knowledge, belief, deliberation and learning, and in the relationship between Bayesian decision theory and game theory, as well as between bounded rationality and computational complexity.
View
View
View
View
The possibility of altruism
Book
  • Jan 2016
Just as there are rational requirements on thought, there are rational requirements on action. This book defends a conception of ethics, and a related conception of human nature, according to which altruism is included among the basic rational requirements on desire and action.
View
Social Learning Strategies: Bridge-Building between Fields
Article
  • May 2018
  • TRENDS COGN SCI
While social learning is widespread, indiscriminate copying of others is rarely beneficial. Theory suggests that individuals should be selective in what, when, and whom they copy, by following 'social learning strategies' (SLSs). The SLS concept has stimulated extensive experimental work, integrated theory, and empirical findings, and created impetus to the social learning and cultural evolution fields. However, the SLS concept needs updating to accommodate recent findings that individuals switch between strategies flexibly, that multiple strategies are deployed simultaneously, and that there is no one-to-one correspondence between psychological heuristics deployed and resulting population-level patterns. The field would also benefit from the simultaneous study of mechanism and function. SLSs provide a useful vehicle for bridge-building between cognitive psychology, neuroscience, and evolutionary biology.
View
Collective Memory from a Psychological Perspective
Article
  • May 2018
  • TRENDS COGN SCI
Social scientists have studied collective memory for almost a century, but psychological analyses have only recently emerged. Although no singular approach to the psychological study of collective memory exists, research has largely: (i) explored the social representations of history, including generational differences; (ii) probed for the underlying cognitive processes leading to the formation of collective memories, adopting either a top-down or bottom-up approach; and (iii) explored how people live in history and transmit personal memories of historical importance across generations. Here, we discuss these different approaches and highlight commonalities and connections between them.
View