In the era of intelligence, artificial intelligence (AI) and humans have become two important sources of advice. Attachment style, a classic social trait in psychology, reflects an individual's stable mental representation of an advisor and their positive or negative evaluations. It provides an effective theoretical framework for explaining individuals’ inherent preferences for advice from humans or AI. Based on Bowlby's attachment theory, current research aims to explore how attachment styles and the source of advice (AI or humans) jointly influence individuals' advice adoption.
Two experiments were conducted to examine the interaction between attachment styles and advice source on advice-taking behavior. Experiment 1 utilized a 2 (attachment style: attachment anxiety, attachment avoidance) × 2 (advice source: human, AI) between-subjects design. A total of 196 participants were recruited through an online survey platform. The primary dependent variable was the weight of advice (WOA), measured using the Judge-Advisor System (JAS) paradigm, which quantifies the extent to which participants adjust their initial judgments based on the advice received. Attachment styles were assessed using the Chinese version of the Experiences in Close Relationships Scale (ECR). Control variables included gender, age, education level, and self-reported AI knowledge. Participants were asked to estimate the weight of a person in a photograph (initial assessment) and then received either human or AI-generated advice on the weight. They were subsequently asked to provide a final weight estimate (post-assessment). The difference between the initial and post-assessment estimates, relative to the advice received, was used to calculate the WOA. Experiment 2 employed an attachment priming paradigm to replicate and extend the findings from Experiment 1. A total of 248 participants were randomly assigned to one of three attachment priming conditions (secure attachment, attachment anxiety, attachment avoidance) and then completed the same advice-taking task as in Experiment 1.
The research reveals that (1) Compared with human advice, individuals with high attachment anxiety are more likely to adopt advice from AI. That is, as the level of attachment anxiety increases, individuals' adoption of AI advice significantly rises, while their adoption of human advice does not change significantly; (2) Individuals with high attachment avoidance do not show a significant preference for either AI advice or human advice. Individuals with high attachment anxiety may find AI advice more appealing due to its perceived objectivity and lack of social threat, which aligns with their desire for support without the fear of social rejection. In contrast, attachment avoidance does not appear to drive a clear preference for either AI or human advice, suggesting that the underlying mechanisms influencing advice acceptance may differ between attachment anxiety and avoidance. Future research should explore additional mediators and moderators that may explain these differential effects and consider the impact of attachment styles on advice-taking in more complex and ecologically valid decision-making scenarios.
In terms of theoretical contributions, this study introduces the attachment theory into the research on advice interaction between humans and artificial intelligence. It enriches the theoretical research findings on human-Machine interaction and provides a novel theoretical framework for understanding the contradictory phenomena of algorithm appreciation and algorithm aversion in the intelligent era. In terms of practical implications, the findings of this study provide insights for the design of AI-based decision support systems, especially in contexts where user trust and acceptance are crucial for effective human-Machine collaboration. For individual advice adoption, the study offers a reference for individuals to optimize their advice adoption and decision-making patterns in the intelligent era. Specifically, those who can rationally analyze the capability boundaries between AI and humans, and comprehensively evaluate advice from different sources, are more likely to make effective decisions. Individuals with high attachment anxiety may exhibit irrational algorithm appreciation, which could lead to the adoption of erroneous suggestions. This, in turn, may distort and negatively impact their cognition, necessitating attention to the potential risk of over-reliance.
Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is a prevalent mental health condition characterized by an intense fear of social situations and of negative evaluations from others. The fear of being “watched” or scrutinized by others is one among myriad symptoms of SAD. This study systematically analyzes abnormal gaze processing characteristics in individuals with SAD from a process-oriented perspective. Gaze processing is divided into three distinct dimensions: gaze perception (cone of direct gaze, CoDG), gaze process (initial orienting, attentional maintenance, and disengagement), and the gaze cueing effect (GCE). This approach is designed to follow an integrated perspective regarding the cognitive and behavioral mechanisms underlying gaze processing abnormalities in individuals with SAD.
The human gaze plays a crucial role in social interactions, functioning as a key nonverbal cue in the formation and regulation of interpersonal relationships. For individuals with SAD, eye contact often becomes a perceived threat rather than a social connector. They are more likely to interpret others’ gazes as negative evaluations, thereby exacerbating the anxiety response and reinforcing avoidance behaviors. In other words, gaze processing may create a self-sustaining cycle of symptoms in SAD.
Although gaze-processing anomalies are recognized as a key feature of SAD, existing studies have yielded conflicting findings. Some suggest heightened vigilance (hypervigilance) towards gaze stimuli while others report significant avoidance tendencies. These contradictory research outcomes suggest that gaze processing in SAD is a dynamic process that warrants examination across different temporal stages.
The present study uses the temporal progression framework of information processing theory, which posits that visual social information is processed through multiple dynamic stages, including perception, cognition, and behavioral response. Additionally, proponents of the attentional control theory argue that anxiety impairs the sustaining and shifting of attention. The vigilance-avoidance hypothesis and attention maintenance hypothesis further elucidate the nature of attention in individuals with SAD, in which hypervigilance to threat stimuli precipitates avoidance behavior. Taken together, these perspectives provide a comprehensive theoretical framework that supports the analysis of gaze-processing abnormalities in individuals with SAD, particularly their underlying cognitive and behavioral mechanisms.
This comprehensive review synthesizes empirical studies and theoretical models related to gaze processing in individuals with SAD, focusing on three main dimensions, including gaze perception (CoDG), gaze process (initial orienting, attentional maintenance, and disengagement), and the gaze cueing effect (GCE). Findings from eye-tracking studies, virtual reality interventions, and behavioral experiments are integrated to construct a cohesive theoretical framework that accounts for the dynamic nature of gaze processing in SAD.
Individuals with SAD are found to exhibit an expanded CoDG, indicating a heightened sensitivity to perceiving others’ gazes as directed at themselves, even erroneously. Socially anxious individuals are also more likely to interpret ambiguous gaze directions from virtual characters as direct, correlating with the severity of their anxiety symptoms. The presence of additional virtual characters in a social scenario expands the CoDG width, suggesting that increased social pressure exacerbates gaze-processing abnormalities in SAD.
In the gaze processing stage, individuals with SAD show no significant differences from healthy controls in the initial orienting phase under non-threatening conditions; to this effect, early automatic attention processes appear to remain intact. However, under conditions of high-pressure social evaluations, individuals with SAD display heightened vigilance towards threatening or positive facial stimuli. This highlights the influence of situational factors on attentional deployment.
During attentional maintenance, socially anxious individuals demonstrate marked difficulties in sustaining focus on specific stimuli. Eye-tracking studies have shown that individuals with SAD spend less time fixating on facial expressions, indicative of avoidance. This pattern grows more pronounced in dynamic, real-life interactions where social threats are more salient.
Inconsistencies in findings across different settings underscore the complexity of attentional processes in SAD. In the disengagement phase, socially anxious individuals exhibit either delayed withdrawal from threatening stimuli or, conversely, quicker shifts away from such stimuli depending on the experimental context. This dichotomy suggests that disengagement in SAD is influenced by multiple factors, including stimulus presentation duration and the nature of the social threat. These dynamics further complicate the understanding of attention control in SAD.
Contrary to our expectations, recent studies indicate that SAD does not significantly modulate the GCE. Research controlling for trait anxiety, depression, and autism found no substantial differences in the GCE between individuals with and without SAD when processing angry, fearful, and neutral facial expressions. However, these studies employed static facial stimuli, which potentially limits the ecological validity and detection of more nuanced effects of dynamic expressions on GCE.
Overall, the findings of this review indicate that gaze-processing abnormalities in SAD are not static but rather evolve through several distinct stages. Expanded CoDG and impaired attentional maintenance and disengagement underscore significant deficits in attention control among individuals with SAD, aligning with the attentional control theory. The lack of significant impact on the GCE suggests that while SAD is associated with attentional anomalies during active gaze processing, implicit gaze-cued attention shifts remain largely unaffected in afflicted individuals.
To account for these complexities, this study proposes a stage-based theoretical framework that delineates gaze perception, process, and effect stages. This model accounts for the dynamic nature of attention in SAD, in which early hypervigilance transitions into avoidance behavior and disengagement processes are inconsistently affected by contextual factors. This integrative approach reconciles previous contradictory findings by emphasizing the temporal nature and situational dependency of gaze-processing in socially anxious individuals.
Understanding the stage-specific gaze-processing abnormalities in SAD can inform the development of targeted clinical interventions. For instance, cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) regimens can be designed to include modules for improving attentional control during maintenance and disengagement phases. Virtual reality (VR) environments, which allow for controlled manipulation of social scenarios and facial expressions, can be utilized to enhance exposure and habituation to perceived social threats and thus reduce CoDG expansion and avoidance behavior. Attention Bias Modification (ABM) techniques can also be tailored to specific attentional deficits in separate gaze-processing stages. By fostering more adaptive gaze-related behavior and reducing the misinterpretation of social cues, these interventions can alleviate core symptoms of SAD while improving overall social functioning and quality-of-life for affected individuals.
In conclusion, this study underscores the intricate relationship between gaze-processing and social anxiety. Individuals with SAD exhibit dynamic abnormalities in gaze-processing that span perception, processing, and effect stages. By adopting a process-oriented framework, this research reconciles previous inconsistencies and secures a robust foundation for future theoretical and empirical investigations. Enhancing our understanding of these cognitive and behavioral mechanisms may not only advance the theoretical discourse on SAD but also pave the way for more effective, stage-specific clinical interventions. Ultimately, taking a more comprehensive approach holds promise for improving the social functioning and overall well-being of individuals grappling with SAD.
Eye movement modelling examples (EMME) is an emerging instructional design that effectively supports multimedia learning. It records the eye-movement tracks of experts in the process of learning or solving problems and superimposes them onto video materials to show novice or less experienced learners. Previous studies have confirmed the effectiveness of eye movement examples in attentional guidance and the promotion of multimedia learning from the perspective of attention and (meta)cognitive processing. Recent studies have shown that social information of gaze cues (e.g., learners’ social beliefs about gaze cues) may have an impact on the effectiveness of EMME. Through two experiments, this study investigated the impact of social cues and their associated social beliefs on the effectiveness of EMME. This study aims to enhance the application of eye movement examples and improve the outcomes of multimedia learning.
In Experiment 1, three groups of learners with different social beliefs about gaze cues were set up by manipulating the instruction: the expert model group (expert gaze cues - expert instruction), the peer model group (expert gaze cues - peer instruction), and the physical cues group (expert gaze cues - computer generated instruction). A control group without eye movement examples was also established to investigate the impact of learners’ social beliefs on the effectiveness of EMME. Building upon Experiment 1, Experiment 2 further investigated how different types of model gaze cues (e.g., peers or experts) and learners’ social beliefs about these cues (instruction gaze cues from an expert or peer) independently or jointly affect the EMME effect. The purpose of Experiment 2 was not only to validate the results of Experiment 1 but also to elucidate the role of social cues associated with gaze cues in the mechanism of EMME.
The results of Experiment 1 showed that compared with the control group, learners in the expert model group, peer model group, and physical cues group had a higher proportion of fixation in the interest area and a shorter time before the first fixation. Learning was enhanced by eye movement examples only when learners perceived the eye movement trajectory to be recorded by experts. These results indicate that gaze cues can provide a stable guide for attention, while learners’ social beliefs significantly affect learning outcomes. The results of experiment 2 showed that compared with peer gaze cues, learners under expert gaze cues had longer fixation time, shorter time before the first fixation, and higher retention and transfer scores. These results suggest that expert gaze cues effectively direct learners’ attention allocation and facilitate cognitive processing, thereby improving the learning outcomes. Additionally, learners under the instruction gaze cues from expert condition showed shorter initial fixation times and higher transfer test scores compared to those under the instruction gaze cues from peer condition, indicating that learners’ social beliefs about gaze cues significantly impact the EMME effect. Combined with the subjective questionnaire, it is found that learners believe that the expert eye movement track is more helpful, and their learning motivation is higher. This belief may prompt them to process the learning content more deeply.
This study indicates that both “looking with whom” and “thinking about looking with whom” impact the multimedia learning effect. Among them, the gaze cues of eye movement examples have a stable attention guidance effect, in which the expert gaze cues are especially helpful in guiding attention and promoting cognitive processing. Additionally, the learners’ social beliefs about gaze cues affect the learning outcomes. When learners believe that eye movement tracks are recorded by experts, they show better academic performance, which may be related to their expectations of gaze cues and their learning motivation. This study reveals the important role of expert gaze cues and their associated social beliefs in optimizing learning results in EMME, providing guidance for the optimization and application of eye movement examples.
An increasing number of studies have suggested that interpersonal emotion regulation plays a key role in maintaining and improving mental health, strengthening emotional connections between individuals, and promoting the development of healthy interpersonal relationships. Therefore, it is of great importance to enhance the effectiveness of interpersonal emotion regulation. However, previous research has given limited attention to how contextual factors influence its effectiveness. Notably, past studies have typically manipulated the context and emotional events through participants' imagination, meaning the regulator often participates in the emotion regulation process as a "bystander." For example, the regulator was made aware of the target’s negative emotions through the presentation of images, text, or by asking the participant to recall specific events. Although the regulator in this "bystander" scenario receives emotional information from the target, the absence of direct experience may result in a less accurate understanding of the other person's emotions. In contrast, when the regulator and the target experience negative emotions together—that is, when they "co-suffer"—the regulator can access the most direct and accurate emotional information from the target. This can potentially enhance the effectiveness of emotion regulation.
To investigate this issue, the present study used an innovative, high ecological validity interpersonal emotion regulation task to examine the impact of the regulator's situation on interpersonal emotion regulation. A 2 (electrical stimulation probability: low probability - safe/high probability - dangerous) × 2 (regulator’s situation: bystander/co-sufferer) within-subjects design was used. Negative emotions (anxiety, panic) were induced through real electrical stimulation, and the presentation method of the stimulation was manipulated to create two conditions for the regulator: "bystander" (not receiving stimulation) and "co-sufferer" (receiving the stimulation along with the target).To explore the impact of contextual factors on interpersonal emotion regulation with greater ecological validity, we manipulated the probability of electrical stimulation to simulate relatively safe and dangerous situations, with the safe condition set as the baseline. Participants were paired for the experiment. Before the formal experiment began, both participants first assessed their pain thresholds for the electrical stimulation, then learned the definitions and practiced two emotion regulation strategies: distraction and reappraisal. Next, participants drew lots to determine their roles, with one acting as the regulator and the other as the target. Roles remained fixed throughout the experiment. The task was divided into two blocks, corresponding to the "bystander" and "co-sufferer" conditions. In both conditions, the regulator's task was to reduce the negative emotions of the target caused by the anticipation of the impending electrical stimulation.
Our results showed that the co-sufferer condition did not improve the regulation effect as expected. In contrast, when the regulator acted as a bystander, their empathy accuracy was higher, and the interpersonal emotion regulation effect was better.
This study is the first to examine the impact of the regulator’s situation on interpersonal emotion regulation, offering a new theoretical perspective to enrich its process model. While the goal of interpersonal emotion regulation is to improve the emotional state of the target, the regulator's own emotional state is also continuously influenced throughout the process, impacting the implementation and effectiveness of regulation. This study suggests that the process model of interpersonal emotion regulation should include modules for the regulator to manage their own emotions. To improve the effectiveness of interpersonal emotion regulation and benefit both parties, it is crucial to enhance our understanding of the cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying the regulator's role. Additionally, from both the regulator's and the target 's perspectives, efforts should be made to ensure that the regulator's emotional regulation of both the other person and themselves mutually reinforce each other during the process. Based on the findings of this study, we recommend that, when providing emotional regulation assistance, the regulator should carefully assess their own situational characteristics, embodying the principle, "Maintain your kindness in poverty, lend a helping hand in prosperity."
Chronic stress refers to the sense of tension and loss of control that individuals experience when exposed to stressful learning and overloaded work for a long period of time. It affects not only individual health but also cognitive mechanisms, impairs executive function and autonomous activities, and increases risk-taking behavior. Stress and decision making are both common psychological processes in life, and there are numerous studies on the relationship between them, but most of them are induced acute stress in the laboratory. However, chronic stress is the closest experience to people's real life and the most natural type of stress. Due to the difficulty of inducing chronic stress, it is not easily controlled as an independent variable and is rarely seen in research. Chronic stress can change the cognitive and emotional regulation mode of individuals, thereby affecting decision-making behavior. The mechanism of its influence is an urgent mystery. This study can provide a new theoretical framework and research ideas for neuroscience by thoroughly examining the mechanisms that chronic stress affects decision making. This helps us better understand how brain responds to chronic stress and provides a foundation for future research.
In this study, two laboratory experiments were set up in college students. Experiment 1, the first phase of the experiment, used a large sample to measure chronic stress using the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), after which the college students were asked to do decision-making tasks. After balancing the gender variables, the subjects were divided into two groups according to their PSS scores. The data of 1,000 college students who met the requirements of the experiment were collected and used to analyze the differences in decision performance. To further explore the neural mechanism of chronic stress on decision making, experiment 2 was set up. Experiment 2 repeated the procedure of Experiment 1, with the only difference that Experiment 2 added post-task functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) for resting state brain scanning. It should be noted that although experiment 2 is a second-stage study, the subjects of experiment 1 are not the same group of college students. All subjects were exposed to IGT test content for the first time, and took a 10-minute rest after arriving at the laboratory, during which no communication was allowed. Then the PSS measurement was completed on the computer, and after the test, the IGT test was completed by resting at the original position for 10 minutes, and finally the fMRI scan was performed for 8 minutes. During the scan, the subjects were instructed to keep their eyes open and stay awake, and not to think about anything.
Experiment 1 showed that there were differences in IGT between subjects with high and low stress levels. The group with high chronic stress was prone to making more risky decisions. fMRI resting state scanning was performed in experiment 2, and the behavioral results were consistent with experiment 1. That is, chronic stress was proportional to risk propensity and inversely proportional to loss avoidance ability. In experiment 2, whole brain analysis showed that vmPFC and VS were more active, and the significance level was.001. This result proves the control effect of vmPFC and VS on loss avoidance. Further data analysis found that chronic stress affects loss avoidance in individuals by altering resting state function of the brain, primarily in the ventromedial prefrontal (vmPFC) and ventral striatum (VS) regions, leading to dysregulation of decision making.
This study reveals that chronic stress negatively affects loss avoidance in individuals by altering the resting state function of the brain, primarily in the ventromedial prefrontal and ventral striatum (VS) regions, leading to the emergence of dysdecision-making. Under the influence of the ventromedial prefrontal and ventral striatum (VS) regions, individuals were more likely to avoid losses than pursue possible gains when faced with a decision. This tendency can lead to irrational and unstable decisions, making individuals more vulnerable to potential risks and negative outcomes.
Considering the speaker’s identity information provides a more social and ecological explanation of the cognitive processing of spoken words. However, whether and how speaker’s identity information affects spoken word processing is controversial. The abstractionist view (including the early and developmental abstractionist views) and the episodic view hold different opinions on this issue. Moreover, previous studies have employed different experimental tasks that provide different evidence for these views. Based on our analyses of these previous studies, we propose that existing views may each be suitable for explaining different processes in spoken word processing. It is necessary to examine the role of speaker’s identity information in spoken word processing requiring different processing depths. Based on this background, the present study focused on whether and how speaker’s identity information affected lexical access and conceptual comprehension in spoken word processing. Addressing these issues can help us better understand spoken word processing.
The present study conducted two behavioral experiments and adopted the classic long-term repetition priming paradigm to minimize possible interference from explicit experimental tasks. Specifically, Experiment 1 adopted a lexical decision task to examine whether and how speaker’s identity information affected lexical access in spoken word processing. Eighty-eight participants were recruited for the experiments and randomly divided into two groups (speakers’ identities were consistent vs. inconsistent). The experiment contained learning and test phases. In the consistent group, participants would hear stimuli spoken by a male in both the learning and test phases; in the inconsistent group, participants would hear stimuli spoken by a male in the learning phase and by a female in the test phase. The experimental materials consisted of 36 real words (e.g., “/yi1fu2/”, which means clothes in English) and 36 pseudowords (i.e., pronounceable but meaningless nonwords, e.g., “/ju4hong2/”). Participants needed to judge whether the auditory word was real or pseudo. Experiment 2 adopted a category decision task to examine whether and how speaker’s identity information affected conceptual comprehension in spoken word processing. The participants and design were the same as Experiment 1, with 36 biological words (e.g., “/xiao3cao3/”, which means grass in English) and 36 non-biological words (e.g., “/qian1bi3/”, which means pencil in English) as experimental materials. Participants needed to judge whether the auditory word was biological or non-biological.
In Experiment 1, the performance of learned words was better than that of unlearned words, indicating a stable repetition effect. More importantly, in the overall analysis (including real words and pseudowords), for learned words, the accuracy of the consistent condition was significantly larger than the inconsistent condition; for unlearned words, there was no significant difference between the consistent and inconsistent conditions. Further analysis revealed that the results for pseudowords were the same as the overall analysis, but for real words, there were no significant differences in either accuracy or reaction time between the consistent and inconsistent conditions for both learned and unlearned words. In Experiment 2, the response times of learned words were significantly shorter than those of unlearned words, suggesting the repetition effect of learned words. However, in contrast to Experiment 1, the accuracy of the consistent condition was significantly larger than the inconsistent condition for unlearned words, while there was no such difference for learned words.
Speaker’s identity information influences the processing of spoken word differently depending on the processes. Specifically, speaker’s identity consistency facilitation for learned words in the lexical decision task suggested that the representation of the speaker’s identity was integrated with linguistic information and would affect lexical access integrally, supporting the episodic view. In contrast, speaker’s identity consistency facilitation for unlearned words in the category decision task suggested that the speaker’s identity and linguistic information would be represented separately and affect conceptual comprehension independently, supporting the developmental abstractionist view. Integrating the developmental abstractionist and episodic views helps us better understand spoken word processing.
Cyberbullying refers to a form of repeated harassment that uses electronic information communication tools. Specifically, individuals can insult, threaten, defame, harass, or isolate others by posting comments, uploading photos or videos, or sending instant messages. College students, who frequently use the internet or social media for interpersonal communication, are more prone to experiencing cyberbullying. Previous studies have indicated that college students who suffer from cyberbullying may exhibit anxiety, depression, academic difficulties, and in severe cases, even suicidal ideation. Cyberbullying is usually described as a group interaction process that includes not only the binary interaction between the bullies and victims, but also bystanders who witness the bullying. Generally speaking, negative bystander behaviors can exacerbate cyberbullying, while positive bystander behaviors can prevent further deterioration. Previous studies have pointed out that intervention measures for cyberbullying should focus on the interaction process among victims, bullies, and bystanders, rather than targeting a single group or role. Therefore, it is necessary to factors that influence bystander behaviors from the perspective of group interaction. In addition, studies have indicated that bystander intentions are not equivalent to their behaviors, participants may report intentions but not engage in corresponding behaviors. However, few studies have clearly distinguished between bystander intentions and behaviors, which may fail to provide constructive intervention strategies.
The present study aimed to examine the influential factors of bystander behaviors in cyberbullying among college students from the perspective of group interaction and the arousal: cost-reward model, exploring the roles of self-disclosure (victims/arousal), bullying severity (bullies/cost), and social distance (bystanders/reward).
Prior to conducting the formal experiment, we evaluated the experimental materials through a pre-experiment. The formal experiment presents cyberbullying situations through video methods. Two hundred college students (Mage = 21.20, 48.50% boys) were assigned to eight different experimental conditions to explore the influences of victims’ self-disclosure, severity of cyberbullying, and social distance towards bystander behaviors on cyberbullying. Self-disclosure and severity of cyberbullying were divided into high and low groups based on the results of the pre-experiment. Social distance was manipulated in the experiments: participants in the distant group observed the victim as a stranger, while participants in the close group were informed that the victim was a friend of theirs.
The results showed that: (1) Lower level of victim’s self-disclosure resulted in more positive bystander behaviors in cyberbullying: F(1, 24) = 24.38, p <.001, η2=.12; (2) Closer social distance between victims and bystanders resulted in more positive bystander behavior in cyberbullying: F(1, 24) = 66.21, p <.001, η2 =.26; (3) The three-way interaction effect of victim’s self-disclosure, severity, and social distance towards bystander behaviors on cyberbullying was significant: F(7, 192) = 10.11, p <.01, η2 =.05. When the victim’s self-disclosure was higher, in the high-severity events, the bystander behaviors were more positive towards the closer victims compared with the distant victims (F(7, 192) = 62.96, p <.001, η2 =.33). In the low-severity events, there was no significant difference between the closer victims and the distant victims (F(7, 192) =.08, p >.05, η2 =.04). When the victim’s self-disclosure was lower, bystanders’ behaviors were more positive towards the closer victim regardless of whether bullying severity was high (F(7, 192) = 32.93, p <.001, η2 =.17) or low (F(7, 192) = 10.16, p <.01, η2 =.05).
Overall, the present study is grounded in the perspective of group interaction and the arousal-cost-reward model of cyberbullying. Using experimental methods, this study comprehensively examines the impact of self-disclosure, bullying severity, social distance, as well as their interactions on bystander behaviors. The results provide a novel approach to intervening in bystander behaviors in cyberbullying.
Probabilistic representation refers to the ability to perceive, judge, and infer about uncertainties. Human infants, children, and several nonhuman animals, such as great apes, monkeys, and birds, are sensitive to probabilistic information, as well as capable of making probabilistic judgments and inferences, even learning based on probabilities, suggesting inter-species consistency of probabilistic representation. Also, human and nonhuman animals are capable of integrating different-domain information into probabilistic representation, such as spatio-temporal information, physical constraints, and mental states, suggesting domain-generality of probabilistic representation. Domain-generality and inter-species consistency indicate that probabilistic representation is of great importance for organisms’ survival and reproduction. However, how human represent probabilities remains controversial for a long time. Understanding what cognitive mechanisms underlie probabilistic representation and how children acquire the ability to represent probabilities would be of great importance for understanding how human learn and reason about the world, as probabilities must be the core information of the world in which human and animals live.
Existing empirical research mostly used two paradigms to examine probabilistic representation, violation of expectation (VoE) and two-alternative forced-choice (2AFC) task. Violation of expectation paradigm was mostly applied to infant and nonhuman animal studies, as infants and nonhuman animals were not able to give meaningful verbal responses. Two-alternative forced-choice paradigm was mostly applied to child and nonhuman animal studies. Compared with two-alternative forced-choice paradigm, violation of expectation paradigm could only indicate infants’ sensitivity to probabilities, as it always showed all the information to capture infants’ visual attention patterns toward expected and unexpected consequences, instead of making infants choose uncertain choices based on their predictions.
Researchers have examined human and nonhuman animals’ probabilistic representation by the two paradigms mentioned above, and have discussed how human and nonhuman animals represent probabilities from different theoretical perspectives. Two theoretical explanations have been proposed to construct the cognitive developmental mechanisms of probabilistic representation, numerical processing, and logic inferences. On the one hand, theoretical perspective based on numerical processing, or intuitive statistics, suggests that we represent probabilities based on numerical information, such as the proportions. Some research indeed showed that children and nonhuman animals exhibited similar characteristics to numerical processing in probabilistic representations, and numerical representation acuity was positively correlated with performances of probabilistic representation. Children showed increasingly better abilities to represent probabilities based on numerical information with age. On the other hand, according to the theoretical perspective based on logic inferences, we represent probabilities by enumeration of all the possible and exclusive consequences, which was referred to as modal concept or modal logic. However, some researchers argued that we were not born with the ability to represent probabilities with modal logic. Instead, they proposed that infants and toddlers represented probabilities by simulating a random consequence from all the possible consequences till age three, whereas older children and adults represent probabilities by enumerating all the consequences, or modal logic.
Combined with the empirical evidence and existing theoretical explanations, we expound the theoretical explanations for the cognitive developmental mechanisms of probabilistic representation, including different perspectives from numerical processing and logical inferences. This article proposed an integrative hypothesis of probabilistic representation, and suggested the possible directions for future research. Additionally, the two aforementioned proposals may not be exclusive to each other. Each explanation focused on one aspect of probability representation. Therefore, we proposed the integrated theory to construct the cognitive developmental mechanism of probability representation. Logic inferences, or modal logic, allows us to understand that all the possible consequences might happen and they are exclusive. Meanwhile, numerical processing helps us estimate the numerical information of probabilities. In general, both modal logic and numerical processing underly human’s probabilistic representation. Future research could focus on explore the integrated cognitive developmental mechanism of probability representation and apply different approaches in this field.
Aggression, which is a common and remarkably damaging problem, has its roots in stress-responsive systems. Although children display a wide range of individual differences in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis function, numerous initial conditions of stress reactivity may reach the same end state. In other words, both hyper- and hypo-responses to stress tend to induce heightened risks for aggressive behavior. Informed by the concept of equifinality in developmental psychopathology, this study, through its focus on hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) genetic susceptibility, examines the nonlinear (U-shaped) relationship between stress responsiveness and the severity of aggression. Additionally, since it remains unclear whether the equifinality phenomenon is evident in distal behavioral phenotypes or proximal endophenotypes, this study also evaluated, on the basis of “psychobiological model of antisocial behavior” framework, a mediated moderation model to examine the effects of the HPA axis genes on aggression, as moderated by the parent-child relationship and mediated by impulsivity.
A total of 530 participants (mean age 19.35 ± 1.59 years at Time 1, 53.4% females) completed two assessments at a one-year interval. Data on self-reported aggression, parent-child relationship, and impulsivity were collected, and DNA was extracted from saliva. All of the measures exhibited good reliability. The multilocus genetic profile score (MGPS) was calculated using four polymorphisms within HPA axis-related genes, namely NR3C2 gene rs2070951 polymorphism, CRHR1 gene rs110402 polymorphism, COMT gene rs4680 polymorphism, and BDNF gene rs6265 polymorphism. For each participant, genotyping of the four HPA axis genes was performed using improved multiplex ligation detection reaction. This was followed by a series of hierarchical regressions that were conducted to examine the U-shaped relationship between MGPS and aggression, and the moderating role of parent-child relationships and the mediating role of impulsivity was tested in a mediated moderation model. To test the robustness of the results, a series of sensitivity analysis were conducted. Specifically, the mediated moderation models of each polymorphism were examined to explain the power of MGPS approach. Besides, an internal replication and meta-analysis were conducted by randomly splitting the total sample into two subsamples.
The U-shaped relation between HPA MGPS and aggression was not observed. However, a quadratic, U-shaped relationship was observed between the additive genetic risk of HPA and aggression. Both low and high MPGS carriers exhibited high levels of aggression when exposed to higher levels of parent-child conflict. Nevertheless, parent-child cohesion did not exhibit such moderating effects. Furthermore, the moderating effect was mediated by impulsivity. Similarly, there was a significant quadratic relationship between MGPS and impulsivity when parent-child conflicts were at comparatively high levels, with results displaying a U-shaped relationship. However, an inverted U-shaped relationship between MGPS and impulsivity was observed when parent-child conflicts were relatively lower. Impulsivity was a significant risk factor for aggression, with high impulsivity predicting high levels of aggression. The sensitive analysis revealed that the additive genetic risk of HPA accounted for a more significant effect than any single gene. The mediated moderation model was replicated in both two subsamples.
These findings inform our understanding of how additive genetic variants in the HPA axis and its response to adversity are involved in the etiology of aggressive behavior. It is likely that, because of the U-shaped relationship, the association between HPA genetic function and aggression is more complex than what the general perspectives — “the more the genetic risk variants, the higher the likelihood of aggressive behavior.” Moreover, these findings provide support for the phenomenon of equifinality in developmental psychopathology. Domain-specific findings regarding the differences in parent-child conflicts and the cohesion model imply that the U-shaped function of HPA genes cannot be generalized to positive environmental influences.
The developing human brain exhibits remarkable functional specialization, with hemispheric lateralization emerging as a fundamental organizational principle that begins during fetal development. This review synthesizes current knowledge about the neural underpinnings of language and emotion processing in infants (ages 0~12 months) and toddlers (ages 1~3 years), focusing on the establishment of hemispheric asymmetry and its implications for both typical and atypical neurodevelopment.
Structural and functional hemispheric asymmetries manifest early in ontogeny, preceding the contralateral organization of sensorimotor systems. Unlike the strict contralaterality observed in primary sensory and motor pathways, cognitive lateralization represents a relative dominance where one hemisphere assumes primary responsibility while maintaining bilateral involvement. This specialized organization enhances neural efficiency by reducing redundant processing and enabling the parallel computation of complex cognitive functions. Crucially, the developmental trajectory of lateralization serves as a sensitive biomarker of neurodevelopmental integrity, with atypical patterns predicting subsequent emergence of conditions including autism spectrum disorder (ASD), schizophrenia, and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Our comprehensive analysis reveals robust evidence of left-hemisphere dominance in infant language processing at multiple neurobiological levels. Structural MRI studies demonstrate early leftward asymmetries in perisylvian regions and white matter tracts, particularly the arcuate fasciculus connecting Broca's and Wernicke's areas. Functional neuroimaging confirms this specialization, with left temporal regions showing preferential activation for speech stimuli as early as the neonatal period. Notably, this typical pattern appears disrupted in infants at high risk for ASD, who exhibit either reduced leftward lateralization or paradoxical right-hemisphere dominance - a finding with significant implications for early identification.
The neural substrates of emotion processing present a more complex picture. While the right-hemisphere hypothesis receives substantial support from studies on emotional prosody and facial expression processing, competing evidence for valence-specific lateralization (the left hemisphere for positive affect, right for negative) complicates theoretical accounts. Developmental studies suggest this dichotomy may reflect different processing stages, with initial right-hemisphere bias for rapid emotion detection followed by valence-dependent lateralization during conscious evaluation. Methodological variations in stimulus selection and experimental paradigms likely contribute to these discrepant findings.
Three critical directions emerge for advancing this field:
First, refined experimental paradigms must address the inherent confounds of current emotion research. The prevalent use of emotional speech stimuli inadvertently engages both language and emotion networks, potentially obscuring emotion-specific lateralization. We recommend developmentally appropriate alternatives: non-linguistic auditory stimuli (e.g., emotional music) for younger infants and dynamic visual stimuli (e.g., facial/bodily expressions) for older infants. These approaches would provide a clearer characterization of emotion processing networks.
Second, the field urgently requires longitudinal investigations to map the dynamic development of functional asymmetry. Existing cross-sectional designs cannot adequately capture the potentially non-linear trajectories of lateralization establishment. Prospective studies with dense sampling intervals could identify critical periods and developmental milestones in hemispheric specialization, while clarifying the relationship between early atypical patterns and subsequent neurodevelopmental outcomes.
Third, integrative research designs simultaneously assessing language and emotion processing could yield transformative insights. The known behavioral coupling of these domains suggests their neural substrates may develop interactively. Combined assessment protocols would not only reveal potential synergies in typical development but also enhance early identification of neurodevelopmental risk through multi-modal neural signatures.
The exceptional plasticity of the infant brain underscores the clinical importance of this research. By elucidating both normative and atypical patterns of functional lateralization, we move closer to developing sensitive, objective markers for early intervention. Future work should prioritize: (1) Standardized protocols for assessing lateralization across development, (2) Mechanistic studies examining genetic and environmental influences on asymmetry development, and (3) Translational applications linking neural markers to behavioral outcomes.
This synthesis highlights how the study of early hemispheric specialization bridges fundamental neuroscience with clinical applications. As neuroimaging technologies advance, refined characterization of lateralization patterns promises to transform our understanding of both typical brain development and the origins of neurodevelopmental disorders.
Research has shown that the impressions and cognitive evaluations individuals form of others influence their willingness to seek advice and whom they prefer to ask. For example, people tend to seek advice from those they perceive as competent or warm individuals (e.g., confident or polite). However, it is unclear whether competence or warmth is the preferred trait when seeking advice. Most relevant studies have focused on how an advisor’s impression affects advice-taking, and these studies have typically examined only a single dimension, overlooking the fact that ambivalent stereotypes—where individuals may be seen as both competent and lacking in warmth, or vice versa—are more commonly formed in real life. Accordingly, the present study examined individuals’ willingness and preferences for seeking advice from high competence-low warmth (HC-LW) and high warmth-low competence (HW-LC) individuals to test whether competence or warmth is more valued. In decision-making, thinking styles play a critical role in shaping outcomes. The different cognitive and emotional needs of decision-makers, depending on their mode of thinking, can influence their advice-seeking preferences. Since the goal of seeking advice is often to gather new information, decision-makers tend to prefer advisors with unique insights. The level of information sharing between decision-makers and advisors determines how well these needs are met, which affects their preference for competence or warmth. This study also investigates how thinking styles and perceptions of information sharing impact advice-seeking preferences.
Experiment 1 investigated the impact of thinking styles on advice-seeking preferences using an escape room scenario task. A total of 163 participants were assigned to a 2 (ambivalent stereotypes: HC-LW, HW-LC) × 2 (thinking styles: analytical, intuitive) mixed experimental design, with 84 participants engaged in analytical thinking and 79 in intuitive thinking. All participants read advice-seeking scenarios and assessed their willingness to seek advice from two individuals representing ambivalent stereotypes, as well as their preference between the two. The results showed that participants generally preferred seeking advice from HC-LW individuals. However, a clear preference for competence emerged only when analytical thinking was activated, while no preference for competence or warmth was observed under intuitive thinking.
Experiment 2 further examined how advice-seeking preferences are influenced by thinking styles under different information sharing states. A total of 315 participants were randomly assigned to a 3-factor mixed experimental design: 2 (ambivalent stereotypes: HC-LW, HW-LC) × 2 (thinking styles: analytical, intuitive) × 2 (shared information states: fully shared information, incompletely shared information). Of these participants, 158 were in the fully shared information group (73 engaged in analytical thinking, and 85 engaged in intuitive thinking), and 157 were in the incompletely shared information group (80 engaged in analytical thinking and 77 engaged in intuitive thinking). The experimental procedure was similar to that of Experiment 1, except participants received information about the state of shared information between the decision-maker and the advisor after the contextual imagery task. The findings revealed that the fully shared information scenario produced results similar to those observed in Experiment 1, in which no specific information about sharing was provided. In contrast, the incompletely shared information scenario led to a greater preference for warmth, with the intuitive thinking group favoring advice from HW-LC individuals, whereas the analytical thinking group showed no preference between the two ambivalent stereotype individuals.
This study clarifies the competence preference effect when people seek advice from others, provides direct support for the “interest-interdependence hypothesis”. In addition, this study explores how two key variables, thinking styles and perceptions of information sharing states, affect the competence preference effect, and identifies the conditions under which competence preference disappears or reverses, providing new insights into the mechanisms of preference change in the process of advice seeking.
At present, the international political and economic situation is complicated, and the global economic recovery is weakening, creating an increasingly volatile and uncertain external environment for business. To survive this crisis, organizational managers are paying increasing attention to training team agility and employee agility. Enterprise social media (ESM), an indispensable digital technology in today’s enterprises, is recognized as an effective enabler of communication, collaboration, and social relationships within organizations. It also offers enterprises a greater possibility of enhancing the capabilities of teams and employees. Despite this, there is still a lack of in-depth discussion on how ESM usage affects team agility and employee agility. In order to effectively promote agility, it is necessary to explore whether and how the use of ESM affects team agility and employee agility in the context of ESM. Based on the team cohesion theory, we propose a multilevel model to examine how team ESM usage affects team agility and employee agility by promoting team cohesion and how team interdependence moderates the impacts of team cohesion on team agility and employee agility.
To test the proposed theoretical model and research hypotheses, we conducted a multi-wave and multi-source questionnaire survey through a professional survey agency. At Time 1, team subordinates reported on team ESM usage and team interdependence and diversity, and provided demographic information. At Time 2, team subordinates rated team cohesion. At Time 3, team leaders rated their subordinates’ agility and team agility. All measurement items were adapted from prior related studies. We received 386 team leader-team subordinate valid paired samples in 84 work teams for hypothesis testing. We calculated Cronbach’s α, average variance extracted, and conducted confirmatory factor analyses to evaluate the reliability, convergent validity, and discriminant validity, respectively. The multilevel structural equation modelling method was used to assess the structural model in Mplus 7.4 software.
The results of the data analysis support our research model and hypothesis. Results showed that: (1) Team ESM use had a significantly positive effect on team cohesion (r =.47, p <.001); (2) Team cohesion has a significantly positive effect on both team agility (r =.35, p<.05) and employee agility (r =.58, p <.001); (3) Team interdependence positively moderates the effects of team cohesion on team agility (r =.27, p<.01) and employee agility (r =.17, p <.01); (4) Team cohesion mediated the the influence of team ESM use on team agility (r =.18, 95%CI = [.02,.40]) and employee agility (r =.19, 95%CI = [.03,.35]).
Our study made contributions to the theory. First, this study explores in depth the impact of ESM use on team agility, thus effectively expanding the research on the antecedents of team agility. Second, this study integrates ESM research into agility at both the team and individual levels and adopts the team cohesion theory to reveal the mediating mechanism of ESM use affecting team agility and employee agility, so as to advance the existing research on the relationship between ESM and agility. Third, this study enriches the research on team interdependence to a certain extent by exploring the moderating effect of team cohesiveness on team agility and employee agility.
This study has several limitations. First, the data in this study is collected in China. Considering the essential differences in the cultural backgrounds of China and the West, the use of ESM and its impact may differ. Therefore, future studies should be conducted under different research backgrounds to compare the influence of ESM use on employee and team agility in different cultural backgrounds. This can improve the external validity of research conclusions. Second, although this study conducted a multi-wave and multi-source questionnaire survey to collect data, the questionnaire survey method is inevitably subjective. Third, since the time interval between waves in this study was only one week, future studies should extend it to better predict the causal relation between variables.
Reproductive experience is a complex and transformative life event for women, encompassing physiological, emotional, and cognitive dimensions. Traditionally, pregnancy and childbirth have been associated with cognitive impairments and emotional instability. However, emerging research across human and animal models has begun to challenge this notion, revealing that reproductive experience may enhance core psychological functions. This paper provides a comprehensive synthesis of the positive effects of reproductive experience on women's psychological functioning. It emphasizes two key domains: the cognitive system— particularly memory, attention, and executive function—and emotional regulation. Furthermore, it explores the underlying neurobiological and evolutionary mechanisms that support these enhancements, offering a multidimensional perspective on the adaptive value of motherhood.
Reproductive experience is linked to cognitive skills, such as improved spatial and recognition memory, enhanced attentional shifts, and greater cognitive flexibility. Such improvements are especially evident in tasks requiring adaptive planning and decision-making—critical components for managing childcare responsibilities. Neuroimaging and behavioral studies show that, postpartum, gray matter volume increases in the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus, indicating enhanced neuroplasticity and structural adaptation. Additionally, rodent models support that reproductive females outperform non-mothers in spatial navigation and memory tasks, indicating cross-species consistency in reproductive-related cognitive benefits. While some memory subtypes, such as prospective and retrieval memory, may experience transient challenges, these effects are typically reversible and compensated by gains in more immediately functional memory systems that are crucial for parenting.
Reproduction experience is also associated with improved emotion regulation abilities and increased psychological resilience (i.e., the ability to adapt and recover from stress). Although the perinatal period carries risks for mood disturbances, several studies report reduced levels of anxiety and depression in the postpartum period compared to pregnancy. Enhanced emotional coping may arise from hormonal regulation (e.g., increased oxytocin and prolactin), combined with experiential learning through caregiving. Psychological resilience also appears to be strengthened, enabling mothers to navigate the multifaceted demands of parenting with greater emotional stability and flexibility in coping. These adaptive emotional changes not only benefit maternal well-being but also contribute to more secure parent-infant attachment and healthier developmental outcomes in offspring.
The underlying mechanisms behind these psychological enhancements can be examined on both physiological and theoretical perspectives. Neurophysiologically, changes in brain structure and connectivity, particularly in the hippocampus, prefrontal cortex, and associated networks, support improved cognitive and emotional capacities. Hormonal fluctuations throughout pregnancy and lactation, including oxytocin, prolactin, and estradiol, play a key role in promoting neurogenesis, synaptic plasticity, and executive function, thereby promoting functional enhancement in the maternal brain.
Theoretically, these changes are supported by both evolutionary psychology and environmental adaptation models. From an evolutionary perspective, the cognitive and emotional upgrades associated with motherhood may reflect adaptive traits that promote offspring survival and overall maternal fitness. Parental investment theory posits that mothers develop specialized psychological traits to better meet their children’s needs and enhance offspring survival. In parallel, the environmental adaptation model similarly views motherhood as a high-demand context that dynamically reshapes attentional and emotional systems to meet caregiving challenges. Together, these frameworks underscore how reproduction can act as a catalyst for long-term psychological optimization.
In conclusion, reproductive experience should not be regarded solely as a source of psychological vulnerability, but rather as a potential driver of functional enhancement across multiple psychological domains. Recognizing these benefits carries significant implications for maternal healthcare policy, public discourse, and intervention development. Future research should adopt culturally sensitive approaches and longitudinal designs to further explore how different reproductive trajectories, cultural values, and social supports interact to influence women's mental health. Interventions should be culturally tailored to local contexts, particularly for Chinese women, by integrating traditional practices, such as Tai Chi and mindfulness with evidence-based psychological frameworks. These culturally informed strategies may help amplify the benefits of reproduction while mitigating associated risks, thereby fostering maternal well-being and broader societal understanding.
Trust is an individual's positive expectation of others, which has an important impact on individuals, teams, and society. Previous studies have mostly explored the generation process of trust based on the attributes of the trustor and the trustee. Besides, trust can also be generated through transfer. Based on the work-home resources model, this study focused on two specific trust: trust in the spouse (where the employee is the trustee and the employee’s spouse is the trustor in this study) from the family domain and the colleague trust (where the employee is the trustor and the employee’s colleague is the trustee) from the work domain, and explored whether trust in the spouse has a transfer effect on the colleague trust. After exploring the transfer effect of trust in the spouse, this study also examined the trickle-in effect of trust in the spouse. That is, trust in the spouse indirectly affected the job performance of employees’ colleagues by influencing employees’ trust in colleagues. Moreover, this study examined the mediating role of family-work enrichment in the transfer effect and the trickle-in effect of trust in the spouse.
In Study 1, 172 employees (including 109 female employees) and their spouses, as well as 12 supervisors of these employees from two service companies in Jiangsu Province and Shanghai were investigated by questionnaires. This study confirmed the transfer effect of trust in the spouse, and explored the trickle-in effect of trust in the spouse, namely, trust in the spouse indirectly influenced the job performance of employees’ colleagues by influencing employees’ trust in colleagues.
In Study 2, 245 married employees and their spouses, as well as 21 supervisors of these employees from an automobile parts manufacturing company in Jiangsu Province were investigated using the cluster sampling method at two different times with a two-month interval. This study reexamined the relationship between trust in the spouse and work subsystem and examined the mediating role of family-work enrichment. The results showed that family-work enrichment mediated the relationship between trust in the spouse and employees’ trust in colleagues. Moreover, the results indicated that family-work enrichment and employees’ trust in colleagues played a chain mediating role between trust in the spouse and colleagues’ job performance.
From the theoretical perspective, first, this study confirmed the transfer effect of trust in the spouse through two sub-studies in different companies, indicating that the result is reliable and stable. This finding enriched the existing literature on trust transfer, echoed and enriched the work-home resources model, indicating that trust is one kind of important resources in the family domain. This study also provided new empirical evidence for the establishment and dissemination of trust in social life. Second, this study tested the trickle-in effect of trust in the spouse, which not only enriched the research about the trickle-in effect but also revealed a cross-domain indirect social impact, that is, the employee’s spouse could indirectly influence the employee’s colleagues in the organization through the employee. Third, based on the transfer effect and the trickle-in effect of trust in the spouse, this study examined the mediating role of family-work enrichment. This reveals how trust, as an important resource in the family domain, leads to the promotion of personal resources, and finally influences the work domain. This result not only explained the mediating mechanism of the transfer effect and the trickle-in effect of trust in the spouse, but also expanded the empirical research on family-work enrichment, and broadened the work-home resources model. From the practical perspective, this study suggests that improving trust in the spouse could promote the positive behavior of employees, improve the trust level of the work team, and enhance organizational effectiveness.
Creativity has long been regarded as one of the advanced cognitive abilities unique to humans. Within the realm of creativity research, the perception of creativity in GAI-generated works and individuals’ attitudes to GAI creativity, particularly when these creations are judged to have creative characteristics, are key issues worthy of in-depth exploration. This study focuses on the artistic products generated by GAI, specifically three-line poems and oil paintings, and uses three progressive experiments to investigate individual perceptions and attitudes toward GAI creativity among college students. Additionally, the study explores key factors moderating human evaluations of GAI creations, aiming to provide empirical evidence to support the widespread adoption, evaluation, and societal utility of GAI.
In Experiment 1, a 2 (products’ actual author: human or GAI) × 2 (product quality: high or low) within-subjects design was employed. Participants’ likability of the products was considered as a covariate, and the perceived creativity of the products served as the dependent variable. During the experiment, participants viewed four three-line poems and four oil paintings, all created by humans or GAI. For each type of author, there was 1 high-creativity piece and 1 low-creativity piece. These works were presented in a random order within each type. The actual authorship of the works was hidden, and participants were asked to rate the works on a 7-point Likert scale for the creativity (obtained by calculating the average value of originality and appropriateness scores) and likability based on their subjective impressions. The results showed that the creative score of the three-line poems created by GAI was higher than that of those created by humans, but the main effect of the actual author of oil paintings was not significant. Overall, college students rated GAI’s works as equally creative as human-created works, though this rating was affected by the type and quality of the works.
In Experiment 2, a 2 (speculated author label: human or GAI) × 2 (product quality: high or low) within-subjects design was utilized. The dependent variables consisted of participants’ inferred authorship of the works and their perceptual evaluations (creativity and likability). During the experiment, participants were presented with four three-line poems and eight oil paintings. Among human-created works, there was 1 high-creativity and 1 low-creativity three-line poem, as well as 2 high-creativity and 2 low-creativity oil paintings; the categories and quantities of works created by GAI were consistent with those by humans. All works were displayed in a random order within each category (three-line poems and oil paintings). Without revealing the actual authorship, participants were asked to speculate on the authorship of each piece (Human or GAI) after viewing the works. Subsequently, participants rated the works on a 7-point Likert scale for creativity and likability. The results indicated that participants had moderate accuracy in distinguishing the creators of the three-line poems (54.64% accuracy), whereas their ability to identify the creators of the oil paintings (40.62% accuracy) was below chance level, suggesting an inability to accurately identify authorship. Whether they are three-line poems or oil paintings, the perceived score of the works created by the speculated author for “GAI” are always lower than those of the works created by the speculated author for “Human”. The above results show that for the three-line poems and oil paintings, whether the actual creator is GAI or humans, as long as the participants think the creator is GAI, their creativity ratings are lower. It indicates that people have speculative bias and evaluative bias on the creativity of GAI works.
In Experiment 3, a 2 (products’ actual author: human or GAI) × 2 (exoteric author label: human or GAI) within-subjects design was employed. Participants’ likability of the products was again considered as a covariate, and the perceived creativity of the products was the dependent variable. In this experiment, participants sequentially viewed eight three-line poems and eight oil paintings. The three-line poems and oil paintings were presented randomly within their respective categories. The exoteric author labels were displayed either at the top (for three-line poems) or at the bottom (for oil paintings) of the works. These labels were pseudo-randomized: within each pair of works from the same condition (the types and quality of the works are the same), one was randomly labeled as “Creator: Human/GAI”, while the other received the opposite label (Creator: GAI/Human). The remaining procedure adhered to the steps of Experiment 1. The results show that for both three-line poems and oil paintings, regardless of whether their actual author are GAI or humans, if the exoteric author label is “GAI”, their creativity ratings are lower. This suggests that evaluative bias persists even when authorship is explicitly disclosed. Furthermore, the evaluative bias was moderated by participants’ exposure to AI and their professional background. Specifically, evaluative bias was reduced in participants with higher levels of exposure to AI and those with a background in STEM fields.
In summary, this study highlights the perceptual characteristics of GAI creativity, the biases in college students’ perceptions of GAI-generated works, and the potential factors moderating these biases. The findings offer valuable insights into human-AI interactions and contribute to the advancement of human-computer collaboration and innovative behavior in the AI era.
Is it better to sacrifice future health for immediate economic gain, or to invest current economic resources to secure long-term health? Such decisions, which involve different temporal dimensions and domains, are essentially intertemporal decision-making, a process in which individuals weigh costs and benefits at various points in time. Traditional research on intertemporal decision-making predominantly has adopted a single-domain perspective, which fails to fully capture the dynamic and complex interaction between economic and health outcomes in real-world settings. Moreover, intense social competition compels individuals to prioritize immediate economic gains, while increasing rates of chronic diseases and aging populations amplify future health risks. Under these dual pressures, overcoming the lure of short-term economic gains to optimize long-term health decisions represents a critical scientific challenge.
In response, the present study proposes an innovative theoretical framework of “economic-health intertemporal decision-making”. This framework aims to explore the trade-off mechanisms between current economic benefits and future health outcomes. A key factor in this process may be environmental uncertainty, defined as individuals’ perception of rapid and dramatic environmental changes that are difficult to accurately assess and predict. Currently, the escalation of global geopolitical conflicts, financial market turbulence, and the frequent occurrence of extreme climate events collectively heighten individuals’ sense of environmental uncertainty, thereby significantly increasing the complexity of decisions involving current economic benefits and future health outcomes. Investigating how individuals balance current economic benefits and future health outcomes under conditions of environmental uncertainty is of great theoretical and practical significance for understanding economic-health intertemporal decision-making and devising targeted intervention strategies.
Three experiments were designed to explore these issues in depth. Study 1 examined the effect of environmental uncertainty on intertemporal decision-making within a single domain and compared economic discount rates with health discount rates. A total of 140 participants were randomly assigned to either an environmental uncertainty manipulation group or a control group. Participants underwent environmental uncertainty manipulation and verification, followed by economic intertemporal decision-making and health intertemporal decision-making tasks. The results indicated that, in both domains, environmental uncertainty significantly increased individuals’ preference for immediate rewards; furthermore, participants were more likely to disregard future health outcomes than future economic benefits.
Study 2 extended the investigation from a single-domain focus to a cross-domain perspective of economic-health intertemporal decision-making, aiming to determine whether participants in the environmental uncertainty group were more inclined to choose immediate economic benefits over future health benefits. A total of 220 participants were randomly assigned to either the environmental uncertainty group or the control group. During the experiment, participants completed the environmental uncertainty manipulation and verification, followed by a cross-domain economic-health intertemporal decision-making task. The results showed that under conditions of environmental uncertainty, individuals were more likely to opt for current economic benefits rather than future health benefits.
Study 3 employed a dual-scenario experimental paradigm based on a gain-loss framework to investigate the effects of environmental uncertainty, gain-loss framing, and changes in low back pain levels on cross-domain economic-health decision-making. A total of 272 participants were randomly assigned to the environmental uncertainty group or the control group. After undergoing environmental uncertainty manipulation and verification, participants completed a cross-domain economic-health intertemporal decision-making task framed in terms of gains and losses. The results revealed that in both the “current economic gain-future health loss” and “current economic loss-future health gain” scenarios, environmental uncertainty diminished the attention paid to future health. However, in the former scenario, the emphasis on future health was relatively higher.
In summary, this study found that environmental uncertainty generally reinforces the prioritization of immediate economic benefits while weakening long-term considerations for health. These findings provide theoretical support for improving public health decision-making models and enhancing individuals’ awareness and prevention of future health risks.
Volunteering is an important symbol of social progress and plays a significant role in building a community for social governance. However, China currently faces challenges of low participation continuity and high volunteer attrition. Exploring the dynamics and mechanisms underlying sustained volunteering behavior is crucial for addressing these issues. Existing studies predominantly examine the one-way influence of volunteer motivation and role identity on sustained volunteering behavior from a static perspective, with limited focus on the dynamic relationships between variables over time. This static interpretation may be disconnected from real-life situations and fail to fully reflect the continuous nature of volunteering as a result of both individual factors and time. In fact, volunteer motivation and role identity evolve and change throughout the volunteering process. This change represents the cognitive construction and reconstruction that volunteers experience as they engage in sustained behaviors. Failing to consider this dynamic process can result in an incomplete understanding of the formation and continuity mechanisms of volunteer behavior, thereby limiting the effectiveness of strategies aimed at improving volunteer retention rates.
To explore the dynamic relationship between volunteer motivation, role identity, and sustained volunteering behaviors, this study employed a three-wave longitudinal design. The study followed 442 college student volunteers (Mage = 19.27 years, SD = 1.67 years, female 86.65%) three times over a one-year period (T1: March 2023, T2: September 2023, T3: March 2024). Data were analyzed using SPSS 27.0 and Mplus 8.3, and a cross-lagged panel model (CLPM) was constructed to test a reciprocal circular model between the three variables, with gender and age as covariates. Volunteer motivation was assessed using the Volunteer Functions Inventory, and role identity was measured with the Volunteer Role Identity 5-Item Scale. Sustained volunteering was measured by averaging the standardized scores for time spent on volunteering, volunteering frequency, and volunteers' intention to continue volunteering. All measurements had good reliability and validity, and there was no severe common method bias, ensuring the robustness of the study findings. The main variables involved exhibited a certain degree of stability over time, meeting the conditions required for establishing a cross-lagged model.
The study found that: (1) A reciprocal relationship existed between volunteer motivation and role identity. Volunteer motivation at T1 and T2 positively predicted role identity at T2 and T3 (βT1=.13, p<.01; βT2=.11, p<.05), and role identity at T1 and T2 positively predicted volunteer motivation at T2 and T3 (βT1=.10, p<.05; βT2=.12, p<.05). (2) Role identity and sustained volunteering also demonstrated a reciprocal relationship. Role identity at T1 and T2 positively predicted sustained volunteering at T2 and T3 (βT1=.24, p<.001; βT2=.17, p<.01), and sustained volunteering at T1 and T2 positively predicted role identity at T2 and T3 (βT1=.16, p<.001; βT2=.11, p<.05). (3) There was no significant direct effect between volunteer motivation and sustained volunteering; rather, their reciprocal relationship was established through role identity. Specifically, the mediating effect of T2 role identity between T1 volunteer motivation and T3 sustained volunteering was significant (β=.02, p<.05, 95%CI=[.00,.04]); Similarly, the mediating effect of T2 role identity between T1 sustained volunteering and T3 volunteer motivation was also significant (β=.02, p<.05, 95%CI=[.00,.04]).
Drawing upon the Triadic Reciprocal Determinism, Functionalism, and Motivated Identity Construction Theory, this study employs the CLPM to investigate the longitudinal reciprocal relationships among volunteer motivation, role identity, and sustained volunteering. The findings demonstrate that stimulating and fulfilling volunteer motivation serves as a critical starting point for promoting sustained participation in volunteer activities. Furthermore, role identity emerges as a pivotal factor in both maintaining and enhancing volunteer motivation and behavior, while also functioning as the core mechanism facilitating individuals' transition from short-term engagement to long-term commitment. These insights carry significant implications for developing effective strategies to foster sustained volunteer engagement and improve volunteer management practices.
Trust in organizations has become a focus of researchers and practitioners, given its profound impact on employee behaviors and organizational outcomes. Feeling trusted from supervisor is generally perceived as a positive force that enhances employee motivation, job satisfaction, and performance. However, recent studies have suggested that the relationship between feeling trusted from supervisor and employee behaviors may not be linear. Instead, excessive trust can lead to unintended negative consequences. According to self-evaluation theory, individuals will adjust their self-evaluation of abilities and values based on external feedback. When employees perceive high levels of trust from their supervisor, they may develop an inflated sense of self-worth, leading to overqualification perceptions and subsequent negative behaviors. Conversely, low levels of perceived trust might also result in feelings of underutilization and overqualification, prompting employees to engage in deviant behaviors as a form of coping or resistance. To address this complex relationship, this study aims to investigate the U-shaped relationship between feeling trusted from supervisors and perceived overqualification, and its distal impact on employee deviant behavior and moderating effect of extrinsic motivation.
To test the hypothesized relationships and ensure both internal and external validity, we conducted an experimental study (study 1) and a survey study (study 2). In study 1, we utilized a single-factor, three-level between-subjects design, randomly assigning 170 participants to one of three conditions. Participants first provided demographic information. Then, all participants were randomly assigned to one of the three groups: "low feeling trusted from supervisor " (N = 57), "medium feeling trusted from supervisor " (N = 57), and "high feeling trusted from supervisor " (N = 56). After reading, they completed the measurement of manipulation test, perceived overqualification, and deviant behavior based on their recalled true feelings. In study 2, a multi-time-point survey was conducted involving 303 leader-employee dyads from various organizations. The study design included three distinct phases to mitigate common method bias. At Time 1, employees were asked to complete a survey measuring their perceived trusted from their supervisor and their extrinsic motivation. At Time 2, employees reported on their perceived overqualification, reflecting their self-assessment of whether their skills and qualifications exceeded job requirements. Finally, at Time 3, employee’s supervisor provided an independent rating of employees deviant behavior.
The statistical analyses provided robust evidence supporting the hypothesized relationships. First, the results confirmed a significant U-shaped relationship between feeling trusted from supervisor and perceived overqualification. Specifically, employees who perceived moderate levels of trust from their supervisor reported lower levels of perceived overqualification, suggesting that a balanced level of trust helps align employees' self-assessment with their actual job requirements. In contrast, both low and high levels of perceived trust were associated with higher perceived overqualification. Employees with higher perceived overqualification were more likely to engage in deviant behaviors, such as wasting time, gossiping, or sabotaging work, as a way to cope with their feelings of overqualification and underutilization. There is a significant U-shaped relationship between feeling trusted from supervisors and perceived overqualification, which indirectly affects employee deviant behavior. Furthermore, extrinsic motivation was found to moderate the U-shaped relationship between feeling trusted from supervisor and perceived overqualification. For employees with lower extrinsic motivation, the relationship was more pronounced, indicating that these individuals are more susceptible to the effects of perceived trust on their self-evaluation and subsequent behaviors. In contrast, employees with higher extrinsic motivation, who are more focused on external rewards and less influenced by internal psychological states, exhibited a weaker U-shaped relationship.
The findings of this study offer valuable insights into the complex interplay between feeling trusted from supervisor, perceived overqualification, and employee deviant behaviors. They highlight the importance of managing trust effectively within organizations, as both under- and over-trust can lead to negative outcomes. The findings suggest that feeling trusted from supervisor can have a "too much of a good thing" effect, influencing employee deviant behavior through perceived overqualification. The study extends the self-evaluation theory by demonstrating how external feedback, such as perceived trust, can lead to complex self-assessments and subsequent behaviors.
Chronic health problems have gradually replaced hunger as the main obstacle to China's sustainable high-speed development, causing considerable economic and social losses. Therefore, the government has begun to adopt front of package (FOP) nutrition labels to promote healthy eating among Chinese residents. However, there are two types of FOP nutrition labels: evaluative and objective nutrition labels. And in some cases, consumers are more willing to purchase healthy foods labeled with evaluative nutrition labels, and in other cases, they prefer to purchase healthy foods with objective nutrition labels. It can be seen that the impact of FOP nutrition labels on consumers' healthy foods purchase intention may vary in different situations.
However, previous studies have not reached a consensus on how FOP nutrition labels affect consumers' purchases of healthy foods. Although most studies have found that consumers prefer healthy foods with evaluative nutrition labels to objective nutrition labels, some studies have come to the opposite conclusion, suggesting that objective nutrition labels are more effective in promoting consumers’ purchases of healthy foods. Some studies have also suggested that the impact of FOP nutrition labels on consumers' purchase of healthy food depends on other factors (e.g., processing context and relationship norm). However, the vast majority of these studies are based on the differences in the interpretability or ease of understanding of nutrition information between two types of FOP nutrition labels. Whether consumers are given the space to process nutrition information according to their own health needs is also an important difference between evaluative nutrition labels and objective nutrition labels. Yet, there are few studies exploring this research question from this perspective. Therefore, according to the utility theory, the current research introduces individual social class, explores the joint effect of FOP nutrition labels and social class on consumers' healthy food purchase intention, and reveals the underlying mechanism and theoretical boundary of this joint effect.
This study tested the research hypothesis through three experiments. Experiment 1 verified the joint effect of FOP nutrition labels and social class on the healthy food purchase intention by measuring social classes. That is, consumers from high (low) social classes are more willing to purchase healthy food labeled with objective (evaluative) nutrition labels. Experiment 2 again verified the joint effect of FOP nutrition labels and social class by manipulating individual social class, and examined the mediating role of nutrition information utility in this joint effect. Namely, the match between FOP nutrition labels and social class (high social class - objective nutrition label and low social class - subjective nutrition label) can lead to a higher nutrition information utility, which in turn will increase purchase intention of healthy food. Experiment 3 further examined the negative moderating effect of food health level on this joint effect. That is, as the level of food health increases, the joint effect of FOP nutrition labeling and social class on the healthy food purchase intention gradually weakens, suggesting that food health is also a boundary condition of the joint effect.
This study has several theoretical contributions and practical significance. First, this study introduces individual social class as a joint variable and proposes for the first time the joint effect of FOP nutrition labels and social class on consumers' healthy food purchase intention. This enriches and develops the literature on nutrition labels and health consumption. Second, this study further reveals the mediating and moderating effects of nutritional information utility and food health level on this combined effect, expanding the application scope of the utility theory. In practice, this study provides policy recommendations for the government to promote the development strategy of the Healthy China, as well as promotion strategies for health food producers and operators to sell their products.
Depression is a common mental health issue, particularly during adolescence. When depression becomes severe, it can have long-lasting negative effects on both physical and mental health in adulthood. Friendship support is an important component of social support. It refers to the practical help or emotional comfort individuals receive or perceive from their friends. Studies have shown the relationship between depression and friendship support. But there is still no evidence clearly indicating the directionality of the connection between these two variables. On the one hand, research has found that the level of depression is likely to reduce friendship support in adolescents. For example, depression and depressive tendencies often lead to avoidance and rejection behaviors in interpersonal interactions, resulting in difficulties in relationships and a decrease in friendship support. On the other hand, studies have also shown that friendship support can alleviate depression in adolescents. High levels of perceived friendship support may help reduce feelings of loneliness and boost self-esteem, thus lowering the likelihood of developing depression. In addition, researchers have conducted further analyses of the developmental trajectories and dynamic interactions between depression and friendship support. The results revealed that the dynamic development of depression is associated with friendship support at specific time points. Friendship support can predict the developmental trajectory of depression. However, few studies have incorporated the developmental trajectory of friendship support while examining the dynamic relationship between depression and it. To address this, cross-lagged regression analysis and a parallel latent growth model were performed to examine the dynamic interactions between the developmental trajectories of depression and friendship support across three time points.
A total of 2,178 students in grade 7 and grade 10 from Qingdao and Shanghai were recruited for the study with three follow-up assessments in one and a half years (T1: April 2021, T2: November 2021, T3: June 2022). The final valid sample consisted of 2,075 participants (Mage = 15.13 years, SDage= 1.41, 51.1% are girls) who provided complete data from at least two of the three assessments. Adolescents’ depression and friendship support were assessed through self-report measures, using the Children’s Depression Inventory (CDI) and the Network of Relationships Inventory (NRI), respectively. Using SPSS 27.0 and Mplus 8.3 software for data analyses. The results indicated that: (1) Cross-lagged regression analysis revealed a significant one-way predictive relationship between depression and friendship support, with depression at one time point significantly negatively predicting friendship support at the subsequent time point (β= -.061, p <.01; β = -.064, p <.01). However, friendship support at one time point did not significantly predict depression at the following time point (β = -.013, p>.05; β= -.001, p >.05). (2) Univariate latent growth model analysis indicates that both levels of adolescent depression (β =.884, p <.001) and friendship support (β =.798, p <.01) exhibit a linear increasing trend over time. (3) Parallel latent growth modeling showed that the growth rate of depression negatively predicted the growth rate of friendship support (β = -.285, p <.001). The initial level of depression negatively predicted both the initial level (β = -.267, p <.001) and growth rate of friendship support (β = -.144, p <.001). This study highlights the dynamic mechanisms through which depression negatively predicts the level and growth rate of friendship support, providing theoretical and practical insights for predicting the risk of insufficient friendship support in depressed individuals and for future interventions.
Throughout human evolution, individuals have developed a tendency to form connections with others in order to counter external threats and ensure their survival. These social connections provide individuals with social support, and the phenomenon in which social support buffers the effects of stress and promotes physical and mental well-being is referred to as the social buffering effect. In this study, we systematically reviewed relevant animal and human studies, exploring how individuals perceive or receive social support through social relationships to mitigate stress.
Most animal studies on social buffering are conducted in laboratories, mainly using rodents and non-human primates, with common stressors such as novel environments, restraint, and electric shocks. These studies often employ two main paradigms: (a) exposure-type, in which both the subject and a partner experience the stressor together, and (b) housing-type, in which the subject receives support from a partner after exposure to stress. Social buffering can be maternal, mate, or conspecific. Maternal buffering is most effective early in life, primarily by inhibiting the release of norepinephrine to the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus, thereby suppressing the HPA axis. As the offspring mature, the social buffering effect of the mother diminishes, and partners and peers become important sources of buffering, which is mainly associated with the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). Recent research suggests that the effects of social buffering can persist, with findings indicating that neural mechanisms in the hypothalamus and amygdala contribute to this prolonged effect. Social buffering has also been observed in various other social species, including fish, birds, pigs, and cattle, highlighting its broad applicability.
In human studies on social buffering, common stressors include pain (e.g., electric, heat, or cold) and social stress (e.g., the Trier Social Stress Test or social exclusion). Social support, whether provided by real or virtual figures, has been shown to reduce pain perception and alleviate fear responses. The sources of social buffering vary by life stage. In infancy and childhood, parents provide the main buffering effect. As individuals reach adolescence, peer relationships, including friendships, become more significant, though sometimes these relationships can increase stress due to peer pressure. In adulthood, social buffering in romantic relationships is studied, with support provided either actively (e.g., physical touch, visual or auditory support) or passively (e.g., partner presence or imagined support). Interestingly, social buffering extends beyond romantic relationships, with friends, siblings, and even strangers offering support. The type of social support and gender differences play a role in buffering. While strangers can provide social support, support from close relationships tends to be more effective. Moreover, women benefit more from same-gender stranger touch, while men respond better to opposite-gender touch. However, these gender differences diminish when support is passive or indirect.
Social buffering effects are primarily mediated by reducing the activity of stress systems like the autonomic nervous system (ANS) and HPA axis. The HPA axis involves the hypothalamus, pituitary, and adrenal glands, with cortisol (or corticosterone in rodents) being released in response to stress. Social buffering modulates this system by regulating neuropeptides (e.g., oxytocin, vasopressin) and activating or inhibiting brain regions related to stress (e.g., amygdala, prefrontal cortex, hippocampus), thus reducing stress responses. Oxytocin plays a key role by downregulating HPA activity and affecting regions related to fear and attachment. In contrast, vasopressin, which antagonizes oxytocin, may contribute to stress responses, though its precise role in social buffering is less clear. The prefrontal cortex is involved in regulating stress responses, with social support activating this region and reducing fear-related activity. The amygdala, crucial for processing threat and fear, is also influenced by social buffering, where oxytocin release inhibits its activation, reducing threat responses. Lastly, the hippocampus, involved in memory and stress recovery, helps regulate the HPA axis and is protected from stress effects through social support. These neurobiological mechanisms illustrate how social buffering operates to mitigate stress and maintain physiological balance. In summary, the social buffering effect relies on the coordinated interaction between neuropeptides and key brain regions such as the prefrontal cortex and the limbic system, with oxytocin (OT) playing a central role.
Future research should further explore the physiological mechanisms of social buffering, such as olfactory cues, and employ more dynamic, real-world experimental designs. Additionally, the impact of parasocial relationships with virtual or AI companions on stress relief needs further exploration, while cross-species buffering, particularly between humans and pets, could reveal shared neurobiological responses. Finally, the social buffering effect plays a role in the intervention and treatment of psychological disorders. It may be incorporated into systematic desensitization therapy, integrated into standard cognitive behavioral therapy protocols, or combined with physical interventions, such as non-invasive.
The long-held myth that “intentionality must reside within individual minds” has only been challenged in recent decades by converging evidence from comparative psychology, ethology, evolutionary psychology, and social neuroscience. This paradigm shift has inspired a novel research approach in social cognition that transcends individual neurobiological constraints, focusing instead on inter-brain interactions between individuals and collectives. The collective dimension of mental activities gives rise to the synchronized minds thesis, which posits that individual minds shape synchronized collective outcomes through conceivable and implementable social interactions.
Recent advancements in hyperscanning techniques have enabled the precise measurement and analysis of dynamic inter-brain synchronization, drawing significant attention to neural oscillations in individual cognition and social interaction. Notably, neural oscillations extend beyond individual brains to bridge biological and environmental boundaries, serving as critical mediators of interpersonal social interaction. Their role in guiding cognition and conscious experience manifests through phase locking—— the adjustment of persistent neural rhythms to external stimuli. This phase-locking mechanism proves essential for achieving genuine inter-brain synchronization, in which individuals adapt their endogenous neural rhythms to match others’ oscillatory frequencies. Comparative studies across species systematically validate the evolutionary universality of inter-brain synchronization in biological systems, while cognitive science perspectives elucidate its theoretical plausibility, collectively enriching our understanding of this phenomenon.
Based on this foundation, Shteynberg et al. put forward the viewpoint of the Theory of collective mind (TCM), which posits the capacity to attribute a unified mental state to groups sharing common experiences, including the individuals themselves. Diverging from traditional Theory of Mind’s focus on individual mental state inference, the TCM emphasizes representing group members’ mental states from a collective perspective. This capacity facilitates experiential synchronization among individuals, enabling unified yet pluralistic perspectives toward external stimuli and group mental states. Within the TCM framework, “we-representations” are categorized as representations of collective reality and collective psychology. This distinction offers novel insights into the cognitive foundations of group behavior and clarifies synchronization’s role in collective mind formation. Through the lens of TCM, group members’ minds evolve along synchronization trajectories from initial “we-intentions” to deeper “feelings of socially entitative”, partially reconstructing the fusion process from individual to collective mentality.
While conducting a comprehensive review of the phenomenon of inter-brain synchronization and its extended theoretical framework, the Theory of Collective Mind, we have actively incorporated the cutting-edge methodology of Collective Neuroscience. This integrative approach aims to provide interdisciplinary insights for understanding the new manifestation of collective intentionality embodied in TCM. This innovative paradigm employs advanced neuroimaging to investigate social animals’ brain states during collective activities, revealing the neural encoding mechanisms of collective perception. Emphasizing cross-disciplinary collaboration among biologists, psychologists, neuroscientists, engineers, and computer scientists, it utilizes predictive coding and active inference frameworks to derive testable hypotheses about synchronized minds from generative computational models. This integrative approach promises to deepen our understanding of synchronization and coordination mechanisms in social interactions.
Despite substantial progress in synchronization research, the explanatory gap between innate behaviors and learned normative actions persists. However, exploring synchronized minds helps re-examine Zahavi’s paradox of reconciling collective intentionality with individual self-consciousness——the “We in Me or Me in We” dilemma. We propose interpreting inter-brain synchronization as proto-collective intentionality, which advances a radical collective neuroscience perspective. According to this perspective, individual “I” emerges as an inference from the primordial collective “We”. Thus, the synchronized minds thesis carries potentially revolutionary implications for understanding the fundamental nature of human and animal cognition.
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex neurodevelopmental condition characterized by atypical brain function that significantly impacts social communication, interaction, and induces restricted or repetitive behaviors and interests. Historically, theoretical frameworks focused narrowly on isolated symptom clusters, leading to incomplete explanations and difficulties establishing correlations between these symptoms and underlying neural mechanisms. As research has advanced, more recent hypotheses suggest that abnormalities in predictive processing may play a crucial role in the core symptoms of ASD. In this study, we conduct a comprehensive review of three prominent theories of prediction processing: the predictive impairment in autism hypothesis (PIA), the Bayesian perceptual theory, and the predictive coding theory. We synthesize relevant empirical evidence from diverse methodological approaches and domains. Each theory offers unique insights into the nature of predictive deficits in individuals with ASD.
The PIA hypothesis posits that individuals with ASD exhibit domain-general predictive processing deficits due to impaired estimation of the dynamics of temporally unfolding Markov systems, which reflects failures in learning and utilizing conditional probabilities. Research testing this framework often employs probabilistic learning paradigms to determine the presence of generalized predictive impairments. While much of this research has focused on the ability to form predictions, mixed findings raise questions about the nature of predictive abilities within this population. Bayesian perceptual theory posits that individuals with ASD face difficulties in the formation and application of priors, resulting in perceptual experiences that rely more heavily on immediate sensory input and are less influenced by prior knowledge. Empirical evaluation of this account frequently involves tasks demonstrably modulated by prior knowledge, such as susceptibility to visual illusions or perceptual closure tasks. Findings consistently indicate that individuals with ASD are less likely to use priori knowledge to shape perception. However, it is crucial to clearly define and distinguish between different types of prior knowledge in order to explore core deficits in individuals with ASD in the framework of Bayesian perceptual theory. Predictive coding theory emphasizes abnormalities in processing prediction errors when sensory input violates prior expectations, impairing context-based discrimination between relevant and irrelevant errors. Consequently, research aligned with predictive coding theory has predominantly focused on examining prediction error processing dynamics rather than prediction formation itself. Specifically, studies investigate whether individuals with ASD exhibit atypical weighting of prediction errors when sensory input violates expectations, particularly in relation to situational context. Relevant findings suggest that atypical processing of prediction errors in individuals with ASD is characterized by overweighting of prediction errors, and is potentially linked to low contextual sensitivity.
Synthesizing these perspectives, we propose that predictive differences in ASD manifest in a fundamentally context-dependent manner, rather than constituting a pervasive, domain-general impairment. Individuals with ASD may demonstrate competence in generating predictions within deterministic, rule-based environments, yet exhibit significant difficulties in flexibly adjusting predictions within uncertain, ambiguous, or dynamically changing contexts. This context-dependent deficit profile may arise through at least two potentially dissociable pathways: (1) Neuromodulation Mechanisms: Directly impacting prediction precision estimation, potentially influencing how individuals with ASD process and respond to complex social information, which is inherently dynamic and probabilistic. (2) Information Extraction Challenges: Difficulties in efficiently extracting and utilizing relevant information from past experiences, which is crucial for estimating prediction precision and adjusting priors in novel or uncertain situations.
Future research could address the limitations of prediction processing theories in accounting for the pervasive core deficit in individuals with ASD via simulation of computational models. Furthermore, appropriate paradigms could be explored in the fields of sensorimotor learning and sensorimotor adaptation to test the plausibility of different prediction processing theories. Finally, the three prediction processing theories should be systematically validated by considering contextual factors and examining whether the anticipations formed by individuals with ASD can be generalized and adapted to different situational demands.
