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COMPUTATIONAL
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
Published Titles
Social Metacognition, Briñol & DeMarree
Goal-Directed Behavior, Aarts & Elliot
Social Judgment and Decision Making, Krueger
Intergroup Conflicts and Their Resolution, Bar-Tal
Social Motivation, Dunning
Social Cognition, Strack & Förster
Social Psychology of Consumer Behavior, Wänke
Forthcoming Titles
For continually updated information about published and forthcoming titles in
the Frontiers of Social Psychology series, please visit: https://www.routledge.com/
psychology/series/FSP
COMPUTATIONAL
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
Typeset in Bembo
by Swales & Willis Ltd, Exeter, Devon, UK
CONTENTS
List of Contributors x
Prefacexii
Acknowledgmentsxvi
Overview1
PART I
Intrapersonal Dynamics 13
PART II
Interpersonal Dynamics 103
PART III
Collective Dynamics 229
PART IV
Transforming Social Psychology 309
Index368
CONTRIBUTORS
Brian A. Eiler, Center for Cognition, Action and Perception, University of Cincinnati
Ilya Farber, Institute of High Performance Computing (IHPC): Agency for Science,
Technology, and Research (A*STAR), Singapore
Jinyan Guan, University of Arizona
Rachel W. Kallen, Center for Cognition, Action and Perception, University of Cincinnati
Andrzej Nowak, Warsaw University and Warsaw School of Social Sciences and Humanities
for traditional research (e.g. analyses of variance, significance testing) have been
available for over a century, the powerful computers, sophisticated software, and
electronic communications technology defining the computational approach
have been around for a mere generation and have only recently found their way
into the conduct of research in social psychology. Tremendous progress has been
made in reframing social psychological phenomena in computational terms, but
this work is still in its nascent stage, so it is unclear at this point how the selec-
tive pressures of theoretical and applied gain will sort out the winners and losers.
To showcase the computational approach and demonstrate its added value,
we have brought together social psychologists with varying topical interests who
are taking the lead in this redirection of the field. Operating within the computa-
tional framework, each contributor brings to bear a unique method focusing on a
distinct facet of human experience. Collectively, the contributions illustrate how
the diverse topical landscape of social psychology can be investigated with the
benefits of the methods and tools associated with the computational approach.
In so doing, the book goes beyond providing new strategies for how to investi-
gate social processes to provide direction for what should be investigated. Human
experience is inherently complex and dynamic, defining features that were
emphasized in the formative years of social psychology. Because complexity and
dynamism have proven difficult to investigate with traditional methods, how-
ever, social psychological theory and research have tended instead to focus on
simple causal relations and one-step processes. Computational social psychology,
by contrast, is explicitly concerned with the multidimensional nature of human
experience that unfolds in accordance with different temporal patterns on differ-
ent timescales. In effect, the computational approach represents a rediscovery of
the themes that launched the field over a century ago.
Overview of Chapters
The contributions we have assembled each provide a unique way of showcasing
the computational approach to social psychology. Most present formal mod-
els that are implemented in computer simulations to test basic assumptions and
investigate the emergence of higher-order properties, but some develop models
to fit the real-time evolution of people’s inner states, overt behavior, and social
interactions. The diversity of methods is essential at this stage in the development
of computational social psychology, but it is also testament to the flexibility of
this approach in tackling how psychological systems behave.
In an introductory chapter, we provide an overview of the computational
approach and its contrast to the traditional approach that has defined social psy-
chological research for decades. We emphasize that this emerging paradigm not
only provides precise tools for assessing social processes, it also shines the light on
important features of human experience that have gone largely unexamined in
xiv Preface
give rise to the complexity of human experience at all levels of psychological reality.
Serfass, Nowak, and Sherman (Chapter 15) discuss the recent emergence of Big
Data as a tool for understanding social processes, and consider the expanding
role that this approach is destined to have in the years to come. In a concluding
chapter, Nowak and Vallacher (Chapter 16) forecast future developments in the
computational approach and suggest how these emerging trends are likely, in
combination with traditional approaches, to provide a new paradigm for social
psychology.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
To an important extent, this book has its genesis in the pre-conference, Dynamical
Systems and Computational Modeling in Social Psychology, that was initiated at the
annual meeting of the Society of Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP) in
2012. This pre-conference has attracted increased attention since that time and is
now a regular feature of the annual meeting of the SPSP. Many of the contribu-
tors to the pre-conference are represented in this book.
We wish to thank Joseph Forgas and Arie Kruglanski, the co-editors of the
Frontiers of Social Psychology series, for the invitation to prepare this volume. They
appreciated the potential of the computational approach to become a dominant
paradigm for the field, and they felt that the time was right to showcase the vari-
ety of strategies that have emerged in recent years. They entrusted us to assemble
the set of contributions to provide this showcase. Their foresight, support, and
trust in this endeavor are greatly appreciated.
Andrzej Nowak acknowledges the support of a grant from the Polish
Committee for Scientific Research [DEC-2011/02/A/HS6/00231].
Overview
1
RETHINKING HUMAN
EXPERIENCE
The Promise of Computational
Social Psychology
Social psychology adopted the scientific method over a hundred years ago, and
in that time has generated an enormous literature concerning every conceivable
aspect of human experience, from internal mechanisms of mind and emotion to
basic principles that underlie societal functioning. Although the field consists of
numerous theories, some of which are mutually contradictory, researchers for
the most part have not called into question the means by which such theories
are generated. After all, for psychological research to be published in the field’s
top journals, it must meet stringent standards of scientific practice. The results
emanating from psychology labs over the past decades are thus beyond reproach
and can be assumed to capture important features of how people think, feel, and
behave. If there is conflict among theoretical interpretations, all one need do is
perform further research to settle the conflict. Like every other scientific field,
psychology is built upon the resolution of such conflicts, and through this dia-
lectic provides progressive understanding, with increases in both the nuance and
generality of the phenomena it is designed to investigate.
Or so we thought. In recent years, the meaningfulness of effects generated
in psychology labs, and hence the value of theories based on such efforts, has
come under intense scrutiny. Most notably, the findings of the Open Science
Collaboration (OSC, 2015) have raised concerns that what are presented as solid
generalizations about psychological processes may instead be unreliable effects
observed under idiosyncratic laboratory conditions, often analyzed with inad-
equate statistical methods. These concerns have generated considerable discussion
and created a crisis of confidence among many in the field. Not surprisingly,
there has been pushback against the conclusions of the OSC (e.g., Gilbert, King,
Pettigrew, & Wilson, 2016). But even if the OSC findings are eventually quali-
fied, one can ask whether the standard paradigm of psychological research is
4 Vallacher, Nowak, and Read
sufficient for generating important insights into the complexity and dynamism
at the heart of human experience in real-world contexts. People’s internal states
and overt actions are embedded in a multidimensional context, unfold over time
in accordance with temporal patterns on various timescales, and often display
reciprocal rather than unidirectional causality. Standard experimental designs that
isolate specific relationships and concentrate on the immediate effect of inde-
pendent variables are not designed to capture these defining features of human
experience.
In recent years, a viable alternative to the traditional approach has begun to
gain acceptance in social psychology. This approach is made possible by the
explosive growth in computer technology and sophisticated software that enables
researchers to identify fundamental principles that incorporate the complexity
and dynamism of human thought, emotion, and behavior. Because this approach
uses computers and rule-based algorithms to model and quantify psychological
processes, we refer to it as computational social psychology.2 The contributions to
this volume, though different in their respective topics of interest and specific
research strategies, are all built on the assumption that formal models can be
generated to provide quantitative rather than merely qualitative understanding of
social psychological phenomena.
effect, it is a blueprint for what can be investigated. For one thing, more complex
theories can be formulated and tested. Theorists no longer need to be bound
by independent, moderating, mediating, and dependent variables. Instead, they
can formulate theories in terms of multiple feedback loops, reciprocal causality,
complex interactions, and temporal changes in these properties.
It is particularly noteworthy that the topics and issues rendered open to inves-
tigation within the computational approach represent central concerns that were
at the forefront during the field’s formative years (e.g., Cooley, 1902; James,
1890; Lewin, 1936; Mead, 1934). Psychologists have known all along that human
experience is embedded in a multidimensional field of forces and displays inter-
nally generated change on various timescales, but they did not have the tools
necessary to capture the complexity and dynamism of mind and action. Largely
due to the sophistication and availability of computer technology and software,
we can now observe behavior unfold in ecologically meaningful settings and we
can implement the rules for such behavior in computer simulations that reveal
the consequences of these rules on relevant time scales. In a concrete sense, the
availability of modern technological advances enables psychologists to finally
address questions that have gone unanswered since they were raised in the early
20th century.
This potential has been realized in recent years in the adaptation of complex-
ity science and nonlinear dynamical systems to social processes (e.g., Guastello,
Koopmans, & Pincus, 2009; Vallacher, Read, & Nowak, 2002). This perspec-
tive introduces such concepts as self-organization, emergence, attractors, fractals,
and nonlinearity, which are central to the study of complex systems in the nat-
ural sciences (e.g., Schuster, 1984; Strogatz, 1994; Waldrop, 1992; Wolfram,
2002; Weisbuch, 1992), to theory construction and research in social psychol-
ogy (Nowak & Vallacher, 1998; Read & Miller, 1998; Vallacher & Nowak,
1994, 1997, 2007). The methods and tools made available by the computational
approach have been indispensable in this endeavor.
Computer simulations employing agent-based modeling, for example, have
shown how higher-order structures emerge in both mental systems and social
systems through the self-organization of the system’s basic elements. With respect
to mental systems, computer simulations have shown how the mutual influence
among specific thoughts and feelings give rise to higher-order mental states such
as attitudes (e.g., Read, Vanman, & Miller, 1997; Monroe & Read, 2008), self-
concepts (e.g., Nowak, Vallacher, Tesser, & Borkowski, 2000), stereotypes (e.g.,
Queller, 2002), and enduring moods (Thagard & Nerb, 2002). With respect to
social systems, simulation work has revealed how the local interactions among
individuals in a society promote the emergence of public opinion (e.g., Nowak,
Szamrej, & Latané, 1990), cooperation versus competition in social dilemmas
(e.g., Messick & Liebrand, 1995), social norms surrounding mating (e.g., Kenrick,
Li, & Butner, 2003), societal change (e.g., Nowak & Vallacher, 2001), and the
survival versus collapse of minority opinions (e.g., Jarman et al., 2015).
8 Vallacher, Nowak, and Read
norms, preferences, and values. And at each level, a shared tool kit is available for
identifying and modeling the phenomenon of interest.
By viewing social processes through the lens of computational models, then, it
may be possible to establish commonalities among topics as seemingly distinct as
attitudes, close relations, and social change. Beyond providing redirection for the
field, computational social psychology holds potential for integrating a field that
is acknowledged as fragmented and in need of such integration. We are not there
yet, but there is reason to be optimistic that the scalability of the computational
approach will someday create the foundational science that the field has lacked
all these years.
Notes
1 Andrzej Nowak acknowledges the support of a grant from the Polish Committee for
Scientific Research [DEC-2011/02/A/HS6/00231].
2 Nowak, Vallacher, and Burnstein (1998) coined this term to describe the approach of
computer simulations in investigating social processes. “Computational social psychology”
as employed in this book encompasses a wider range of approaches.
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12 Vallacher, Nowak, and Read
"No, jos joskus otin pikku muiskun, tein sen siksi, että sinun teki
niin kovin mielesi."
"Ohoo, isäseni! Vai teki minun mieleni! Tämä menee liian pitkälle!"
soimasi Katri ja antoi nuorille rohkaisevia silmäniskuja aivan kuin
olisi sanonut: muiskailkaa te vaan, ei siitä huulet kulu!
Tyttö nauroi.
Madonna ja lapsi.
Taaskin oli pari onnellista vuotta vierinyt. Meillä oli sillävälin ollut
sanomalehdessä ilmoitus:
"SYNTYNYT.
Me istuimme kauan. Sydämeni oli niin täysi, että oli vaikea olla
puhumatta.
"Miten olisi minun käynyt, ellet sinä olisi ollut minua tukemassa,
Katri! Sinua minun tulee kiittää kaikesta."
Hän vastasi:
Sitte hän meni ja toi sylyksen puita ja latoi pesään. Olimme siksi
vanhanaikaisia, että pidimme runollista, räiskyvää takkavalkeata
kaikkia kehuttuja keskuslämmityslaitoksia parempana.
Nuorin lapsi heräsi. Hän otti pienokaisen syliinsä, siirsi tuolin takan
ääreen ja istui antaen loimottavan pystyvalkean lämmittää lasta.
Ilta oli pimennyt. Kadulla syttyi lyhty toisensa perästä. Meren pinta
välkehti iltaruskon sammuvassa hohteessa, ulapalla kynti laiva
aaltoja kymmenien tulien tuikkiessa.
Kun taas käännyin ja loin katseeni Katriin, joka istui lapsi sylissä
syrjittäin minuun, näin kuvan, joka monin verroin voitti edellisen.
Siinä oli jotakin niin tutunomaista, kodikasta, elettyä, että minä aivan
hätkähdin ja kysyin itseltäni, missä olin ennen nähnyt samanlaista.
Äkkiä, vaistomaisesti minulta pääsi huudahdus:
"Madonna!"
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