Paulo S. Boggio’s research while affiliated with Mackenzie Presbyterian University and other places

Group heterogeneity is often thought to hinder cooperation and public goods provision,but it’s unclear which differences matter most or if all diversity reduces cooperation.This study examines whether two core mechanisms of cooperation—reputation andreciprocity—operate differently in groups with varying gender, race, and agecompositions. Across three studies (N = 875) using the Public Goods Game, weindependently assessed how group diversity affects reputation and reciprocity incooperative settings. Contrary to expectations, group composition (heterogeneous vshomogeneous) did not significantly alter reputation perceptions. While reciprocitydifferences emerged, they were due to varying leniency towards non-cooperatorsrather than a clear in-group bias, except in race, where White participants showedgreater cooperation with similar cooperative partners over Black ones. Our findingssuggest that, while similarity may influence initial group dynamics, its impact onreputation and cooperation wanes over time, challenging the view that diversityconsistently reduces public goods provision.

The book begins by overviewing the timeline of the pandemic and how it affected life, followed by a discussion of the ethics and legal aspects of the pandemic. It then discusses behaviors during the pandemic (e.g., social distancing, protesting) before discussing experiences during the pandemic (e.g., prejudice, well-being, stress, joblessness, family changes). Next, the book discusses outcomes after the pandemic (e.g., global outcomes, societal outcomes, and individual outcomes; these outcomes might be related to shifts in the economy, health, morality, politics). To compliment these theory-based sections, Section Five discusses best practices for conducting future studies during or about the pandemic.

Scientific evidence regularly guides policy decisions¹, with behavioural science increasingly part of this process². In April 2020, an influential paper³ proposed 19 policy recommendations (‘claims’) detailing how evidence from behavioural science could contribute to efforts to reduce impacts and end the COVID-19 pandemic. Here we assess 747 pandemic-related research articles that empirically investigated those claims. We report the scale of evidence and whether evidence supports them to indicate applicability for policymaking. Two independent teams, involving 72 reviewers, found evidence for 18 of 19 claims, with both teams finding evidence supporting 16 (89%) of those 18 claims. The strongest evidence supported claims that anticipated culture, polarization and misinformation would be associated with policy effectiveness. Claims suggesting trusted leaders and positive social norms increased adherence to behavioural interventions also had strong empirical support, as did appealing to social consensus or bipartisan agreement. Targeted language in messaging yielded mixed effects and there were no effects for highlighting individual benefits or protecting others. No available evidence existed to assess any distinct differences in effects between using the terms ‘physical distancing’ and ‘social distancing’. Analysis of 463 papers containing data showed generally large samples; 418 involved human participants with a mean of 16,848 (median of 1,699). That statistical power underscored improved suitability of behavioural science research for informing policy decisions. Furthermore, by implementing a standardized approach to evidence selection and synthesis, we amplify broader implications for advancing scientific evidence in policy formulation and prioritization.

Resumo O crescimento das redes sociais deu força sem precedentes aos discursos de ódio, que têm causado danos globalmente. Este artigo objetivou discutir os substratos sociocognitivos do discurso de ódio e o papel das redes sociais no agravamento do problema, integrando conhecimentos das neurociências, da Psicologia Social, Análise Crítica do Discurso, entre outras, propondo uma breve revisão narrativa para auxiliar a compreensão e o combate ao discurso de ódio no contexto brasileiro. Por meio da articulação dessas áreas, foram abordados temas centrais ao discurso de ódio: sua natureza como prática social e os processos sociocognitivos subjacentes a ele, como a categorização social e formação de estereótipos, preconceitos e identidade social, fenômenos que podem mediar conflitos interpessoais e intergrupais. A partir de conceitos já bastante consolidados, buscou-se literatura atualizada para compreender e ilustrar a dimensão da problemática dos discursos de ódio. Este trabalho aponta direções estratégicas para combater e mitigar efeitos negativos dos discursos de ódio, para promover sociedades mais justas e cooperativas, com adoção de medidas socioeducativas dentro e fora da Internet.

Effectively reducing climate change requires dramatic, global behavior change. Yet it is unclear which strategies are most likely to motivate people to change their climate beliefs and behaviors. Here, we tested 11 expert-crowdsourced interventions on four climate mitigation outcomes: beliefs, policy support, information sharing intention, and an effortful tree-planting behavioral task. Across 59,440 participants from 63 countries, the interventions’ effectiveness was small, largely limited to non-climate-skeptics, and differed across outcomes: Beliefs were strengthened most by decreasing psychological distance (by 2.3%), policy support by writing a letter to a future generation member (2.6%), information sharing by negative emotion induction (12.1%), and no intervention increased the more effortful behavior–several interventions even reduced tree planting. Finally, the effects of each intervention differed depending on people’s initial climate beliefs. These findings suggest that the impact of behavioral climate interventions varies across audiences and target behaviors.

Stimulating CT-afferents by forearm caresses produces the subjective experience of pleasantness in the receiver and modulates subjective evaluations of viewed affective images. Receiving touch from another person includes the social element of another person's presence, which has been found to influence affective image evaluations without involving touch. The current study investigated whether these modulations translate to facial muscle responses associated with positive and negative affect across touch-involving and mere presence conditions. Female participants (N = 40, M(age) = 22.4, SD = 5.3) watched affective images (neutral, positive, negative) while facial electromyography was recorded (sites: zygomaticus, corrugator). Results from ANOVAs showed that providing touch to another person or oneself modulated zygomaticus site responses when viewing positive images. Providing CT-afferent stimulating touch (i.e., forearm caresses) to another person or oneself dampened the positive affective facial muscle response to positive affective images. Providing touch to another person generally increased corrugator facial muscle activity related to negative affect. Receiving touch did not modulate affective facial muscle responses during the viewing of affective images but may have effects on later cognitive processes. Together, previously reported social and touch modulations of subjective evaluations of affective images do not translate to facial muscle responses during affective image viewing, which were differentially modulated.

Players’ identity and their reputation are known to influence cooperation in economic games, but little is known about how they interact. Our study aimed to understand how presenting pre-programmed co-players’ identities (face photos; names) along with their previous cooperation history (reputation) could influence participants’ cooperative decisions in a public goods game. Participants (N = 759) were allocated to one of six experimental groups: (i) control (no information); (ii) only reputation (neutral, free-rider, or cooperative); (iii) only face; (iv) face with reputation; (v) only name; (vi) name with reputation. In the reputation group, cooperation significantly decreased when free-riders were playing and significantly increased when they were cooperators. Person’s identity affected cooperativeness only when combined with reputation: face photo mitigated the negative effect of the free-rider reputation, while name identity mitigated any significant effect expected for reputation. Our study suggests a hierarchy: reputation changes cooperation, but a person's identity can modulate reputation.