A social science trust taxonomy with emergent vectors and symmetry

Introduction

Trust is foundational to all social science domains, but to date, there is no unifying theory or consistent measurement basis spanning the social sciences. This research hypothesized that trust forms the basis of an ontology that could unify the social science domains. The proposed ontology comprises a Cartesian plane with axes self-trust and other-trust. Self-trust manifests in dominant behaviors, and other-trust manifests in cooperative behaviors. Both axes are divided into five discrete categories, creating a matrix of 25 cells. All words in the lexicon are allocated into one of these 25 cells.

Methods

This research started with an existing 14,000-word lexicon of dominance and affiliation. The lexicon was extended by manually identifying and including socially descriptive words with information regarding self-trust, other-trust, dominance, and cooperation. The taxonomy was optimized using the Gradient Descent machine learning algorithm and commercially curated synonyms and antonyms. The t-test was employed as the objective (or loss) function for Gradient Descent optimization. Word vectors were identified using groups of four words related as synonyms and antonyms.

Results

Over 30,000 words were identified and included in the lexicon. The optimization process yielded a t-score of over 1,000. Over 226,000 vectors were identified, such as malevolent-mean-gentle-benevolent. A new form of symmetry was identified between adjectives and verbs with a common root; for example, the words reject and rejected are horizontally reflected.

Discussion

The word vectors can create a metrologically compliant basis for psychometric testing. The symmetries provide insight into causes (verbs) and effects (adjectives) in social interactions. These vectors and symmetries offer the social sciences a basis of commonality with natural sciences, enabling unprecedented accuracy and precision in social science measurement.

Empowering the younger generation increases their willingness for intergenerational reconciliation in the context of climate change

Climate change can evoke intergenerational conflict. Structural inequalities and their unequal impact on generations can increase perceptions of collective victimhood among the younger generation (< 30 years) and bear the risk of social tensions between the young and the elderly. An experimental study (N = 434) showed that younger people perceived an increased risk of future victimhood. In line with a needs-based approach, the young reported an increased desire to pursue agentic intergroup goals, indicating a heightened need for agency. However, when the young received empowering messages that affirmed their ingroup agency, their willingness to reconcile with the old generation increased, whereas informing them about non-agentic ingroup behavior did not affect reconciliation (between-subjects manipulation). While empowering messages from the outgroup ("Grannies for Future") that directly affirmed the young generations' agency for climate change mitigation as well as empowering messages from the ingroup that indirectly affirmed ingroup agency in domains unrelated to climate change both addressed the need for agency, only outgroup empowerment promoted intergenerational reconciliation. However, empowerment did not affect support for collective climate action. We discuss empowerment as an avenue for resolving intergroup conflict in the context of climate change and possible consequences for climate action and social change.

Cross-Cultural Adaptation to Australia of the KONTAKT© Social Skills Group Training Program for Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Feasibility Study

This study investigated the feasibility and cultural validity of KONTAKT©, a manualised social skills group training, in improving the social functioning of adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). KONTAKT© was delivered to 17 adolescents (m_age = 14.09, SD_age = 1.43; 70% male) with ASD over sixteen 90 min sessions. A pre-test post-test design evaluated changes in personally meaningful social goals, symptom severity, quality of life, interpersonal efficacy, social anxiety, loneliness, and facial emotion recognition at pre, post and 3 months follow-up. Focus groups were conducted post intervention. Findings indicate that KONTAKT© may support Australian adolescents with ASD in achieving their personally meaningful social goals. This study resulted in finalisation of KONTAKT© in preparation for evaluation of its efficacy in a randomised controlled trial (Australian New Zealand Clinical Registry (ANZCTR): ACTRN12617001117303, ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT03294668).

Development and Validation of a Circumplex Measure of the Interpersonal Culture in Work Teams and Organizations

Interpersonal circumplex (IPC) inventories assess a range of dispositions but can condense and compare their findings within a circular model defined by two factors: agency and communion. Whereas other IPC inventories assess individuals, the current research introduces IPC inventories assessing the interpersonal culture (interaction and communication norms) characterizing an entire organization or team-namely, the Circumplex Culture Scan (CCS) and Circumplex Team Scan (CTS). Across an initial development sample (n = 1676), online validation sample (CCS, n = 808; CTS, n = 832), and onsite validation sample (CCS, n = 516 respondents from 21 organizations; CTS, n = 347 respondents from 38 teams), the eight 8-item CCS/CTS octant scales demonstrated good internal consistencies, circumplex properties, reliable within-group agreement and between-group variance (thus justifying aggregation across an organization/team), and convergent, discriminant, and incremental validity in relation to other measures. According to their members, the organizations/teams with the most satisfied members and customers/clients were organizations/teams with considerably stronger communal (e.g., being open and respectful) than uncommunal (e.g., being rude and guarded) norms and somewhat stronger agentic (e.g., being eager and assertive) than unagentic (e.g., being cautious and quiet) norms. The CCS/CTS complements existing IPC and organizational culture measures and helps bridge the IPC and organizational literatures.

Agentic and communal interaction goals in conflictual intergroup relations

Members of conflicting groups experience threats to different identity dimensions, resulting in the need to restore the aspect of identity that was threatened. Do these needs translate into specific goals in social interactions? In the present research, we examined the hypotheses that (1) experiencing one’s ingroup as illegitimately disadvantaged or victimized arouses agentic goals (to act and appear assertive and confident) when interacting with the advantaged or victimizing group, while (2) experiencing one’s ingroup as illegitimately advantaged or perpetrating transgressions arouses communal goals (to act and appear warm and trustworthy) when interacting with the disadvantaged or victimized group. Study 1 (N = 391) generally supported both hypotheses across diverse intergroup contexts involving gender, national/ethnic, and consumer identities. Study 2 (N = 122) replicated this pattern in a context of occupational identities. Study 2 further showed that the effect of ingroup role on agentic and communal intergroup goals was not moderated by participants’ general dispositional preferences for agentic and communal goals in interpersonal interactions, thus demonstrating how ingroup role exerts a distinct and robust influence on goals for interactions with other groups. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

The Effect of Social Class on Agency and Communion: Reconciling Identity-Based and Rank-Based Perspectives

How does social class affect people’s goals in social interactions? A rank-based perspective suggests actors from higher social classes (compared to lower social classes) have more agentic and less communal goals when interacting with same class or unspecified others. Focusing on targets’ social class, an identity-based perspective suggests the reverse: Actors should more strongly endorse communal (agentic) goals toward illegitimately lower class (higher class) compared to illegitimately higher class (lower class) targets, regardless of actors’ own social class. Three preregistered experiments ( N = 2,023) manipulated actor’s social class and the nature of the target (illegitimately higher/lower class, same class, unspecified) and measured participants’ goals in imagined interactions using the Circumplex Scales of Intergroup Goals. The identity-based perspective received strong support: Across studies, actors expressed stronger agentic (communal) goals toward higher class (lower class) targets. The rank-based perspective received limited support, with relatively low-class (vs. relatively high-class) actors expressing stronger communal goals toward same-class targets.

Communal and Agentic Interpersonal and Intergroup Motives Predict Preferences for Status Versus Power

Seven studies involving 1,343 participants showed how circumplex models of social motives can help explain individual differences in preferences for status (having others' admiration) versus power (controlling valuable resources). Studies 1 to 3 and 7 concerned interpersonal motives in workplace contexts, and found that stronger communal motives (to have mutual trust, support, and cooperation) predicted being more attracted to status (but not power) and achieving more workplace status, while stronger agentic motives (to be firm, decisive, and influential) predicted being more attracted to and achieving more workplace power, and experiencing a stronger connection between workplace power and job satisfaction. Studies 4 to 6 found similar effects for intergroup motives: Stronger communal motives predicted wanting one's ingroup (e.g., country) to have status-but not power-relative to other groups. Finally, most people preferred status over power, and this was especially true for women, which was partially explained by women having stronger communal motives.