Oxytocin (OT) plays a key role in the mediation of social and stress behaviors across many species; however, the mechanism is still unclear. The present study investigated the influence of prenatal levels of mesotocin (MT; avian homologue of OT) on postnatal social and stress behavior in Northern bobwhite quail. Experiment one determined endogenous levels of MT during prenatal development using an enzyme-linked immunoassay kit. Experiment two examined the influence of increased MT during prenatal development on chicks' individual recognition ability and stress response to a novel environment. Experiment one showed MT levels increased significantly throughout embryonic development. Experiment two showed significant differences in stress behavior for chicks with increased MT during prenatal development; however, no significant differences were found for social behavior. This study suggests MT serves different functions depending on the stage of embryonic development and that increasing MT levels affects postnatal stress behavior, but not social behavior.

Prisoners have high rates of physical and mental morbidity and of re-offending. There have been concerns that autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) may be overrepresented and under-diagnosed in this population. The aims of this study were to examine the effectiveness of an instrument which was developed to screen for ASDs in prisons and to establish whether male Scottish prisoners differ from community controls with respect to facial emotion recognition, as measured by behavioural testing, and differ on a neural basis while performing complex social judgements, as measured using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). A total of 2458 prisoners (approximately 40% of the convicted prison population) were examined using the screening tool, of whom a further 127 were interviewed in depth and were assessed for facial emotion recognition ability. FMRI was used to examine haemodynamic changes in a small sample of liberated prisoners (9) during a social judgement (approachability) versus control (gender judgments) task. The screening tool had poor sensitivity (28.6%) and specificity (75.6%) and was not effective or useful in screening for ASDs in this population. Significant deficits in negative facial emotion recognition were found in the prisoner group in comparison with age- and sex-matched community controls. Region of interest analysis of fMRI data in the bilateral amygdala revealed significantly greater activation in the left amygdala in ex-prisoners versus controls during the social judgement task. The identification of these abnormalities in facial emotion recognition and social judgement are in keeping with current literature on antisocial populations. They may offer the opportunity for development of interventions aimed at reducing re-offending in the future.

Formålet med dette studie var at undersøge, hvordan nye veganere oplevede deres ændring fra et ikke-vegansk liv. Målet var at få indsigt i, hvordan nye veganere oplevede at engagere sig i sociale interaktioner med andre mennesker, når de vidste, at de kunne opfattes som en ekstrem gruppe. Hensigten var at få et indblik i, hvordan de oplevede at håndtere deres ønskede selv, når de skulle inkludere andre mennesker i deres nye veganske livsstil. Samtidig handlede det også om,  hvordan de planlagde deres sociale interaktioner for at undgå konflikter eller fordømmelser fra andre mennesker. Gennem semistrukturerede interviews med 8 nye veganere blev der gennemført data som basis for analysen. Deltagerne blev valgt målrettet ud fra at de var nye veganere i en overgang fra en ikke-vegansk livsstil. En fortolkende fænomenologisk analyse blev foretaget som den metodologiske tilgang og der blev fundet 3 temaer "Transformation of wanted self in social interactions", "Social distancing from friends and family in the transformation" og "Et stærkere ønsket selv i sociale interaktioner". Deltagerne udtrykte, hvordan de oplevede at skulle forberede sig på at kunne spise ude med andre og hvordan, de håndterede at afvise animalske fødevarer der også kunne resultere i  konflikter med andre mennesker. De oplevede at de var nødt til at forberede fortællinger for at undgå disse konflikter og fordomme fra deres omgivelser. Samtidig måtte de også tænke på andres tanker og sætte sig ind i andres sted for at forstå, hvordan de tænkte. De var opmærksomme på, hvordan de præsenterede deres veganske livsstil, og det endte i en social afstand fra de mennesker de normalt var sammen med. Det viste sig, at nogle af deltagerne med tiden fik erfaring med sociale interaktioner, der førte til et stærkere ønsket sig selv som veganer. Fund blev diskuteret i forhold til eksisterende litteratur, psykologisk teori og andre studier om emnet. Konklusionerne i undersøgelsen førte til refleksioner om, hvordan forståelsen af ​​sociale interaktioner for fremtidige studier af stigmatiserede eller stereotype grupper kan forstås, ikke kun i forskellige kostvaner, men også i andre former for grupper, hvor folk kan føle sig ekskluderede på grund af deres beslutninger eller ændringer af livsstil. / The purpose of this study was to investigate how new vegans experienced their transformation from a non-vegan life. The aim was to gain insight into how new vegans experienced engaging in social interactions with other people, when they knew they could be perceived as an extreme group . The intention was to get an insight into how they experienced dealing with their wanted self when they included people in their new vegan diet and how they planned their social interactions to avoid conflicts or judgments. Through semi-structured interviews with 8 new vegans, data were conducted as a basis for the analysis. Participants were selected purposefully, according to the research study, and here it was important that they were new vegans in a transformation from a non-vegan life. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was adopted as the methodological approach and 3 themes “Transformation of wanted self in social interactions”, ``Social distancing from friends and family in the transformation “ and “A stronger wanted self in social interactions” were found. Participants expressed how they experienced having to prepare themselves to be able to eat out with others and how they handled rejecting certain animal based food could result in judgments from other people. They experienced that they had to prepare narratives to avoid conflicts and judgment from their surroundings, but at the same time they also had to think about others thoughts and understand how they might react. They were aware of how they presented their vegan lifestyle and it ended up in social distancing, but also over time they had enough experience with social interactions that led to a stronger wanted self as a vegan. Findings were discussed in relation to existing literature and psychological theory and other studies upon the topic. The conclusions in the study led to reflections on how the understanding of social interactions for future studies of stigmatized or stereotyped groups can be understood, not only in different diets but also in other forms of groups where people might feel excluded because of their decisions or change of lifestyle.

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Individuals with schizophrenia exhibit marked impairments on tasks assessing theory of mind (ToM) and autobiographical memory (AM) qualities, and preliminary research has indicated a positive link between these abilities. This study is the first to systematically explore this relationship in the related personality trait of schizotypy. In a study of 47 undergraduate students (23 males) reporting a wide continuous range of schizotypy, we found that females, but not males, exhibited a negative correlation between ToM and schizotypy, and an unexpected positive correlation between AM qualities and schizotypy. Factor score analysis within females indicated that disorganized schizotypy was the strongest correlate of both ToM (i.e., affective ToM; ability to infer emotions), and AM qualities (i.e., mental imagery vividness). Finally, independent of schizotypy and sex, ToM was negatively correlated with AM qualities. This negative association between ToM and AM as well as the positive relationship between schizotypy and AM (in females) distinguish findings in schizotypy from those in schizophrenia. Although, the qualities of AM in schizotypy are relatively unexplored in schizotypy, overlapping and AM-related constructs (e.g., mental image vividness, creativity) are enhanced in schizotypy. This phenomenon is theorized to occur due to a reduced latent inhibition process, which also reveals distinct patterns of sexual dimorphism in schizotypy. In sum, the current study found sex to be a critical variable in each hypothesis, demonstrating a unique pattern in females, but not males. It could be that distinct underlying mechanisms account for sex differences on ToM and AM tasks in schizophrenia-related disorders.

Two psychological variables are of interest in the study of consumers: brand personality perceptions (per social cognition, beliefs that brands exhibit human-like attributes) and nudges (per behavioral economics, an attempt to influence behavioral change that benefits the consumer without taking away their right to choose). However, no known research exists about whether these variables explain behavioral intentions to consume podcasts, specifically. This is relevant because perceptions of mass media brands are historically negative, and consumers increasingly seek out independent media (e.g., Breaking Points). Therefore, this dissertation’s purpose was to use Breaking Points as an example to study the influence of brand personality and nudges on behavioral intentions to subscribe to a podcast. In two survey experiments (total N = 486 United States adults recruited via CloudResearch’s Connect), brand personality perceptions (i.e., sincerity, competence, status) were hypothesized to explain intentions to subscribe. Likewise, those exposed to the potential nudge were expected to report stronger intentions, compared to those unexposed. All participants viewed a description about and a clip from the podcast. Some were also randomly assigned to view a potential nudge from Breaking Points’ YouTube channel. Then, all participants answered questions about the podcast’s brand personality, about intentions to subscribe, and about psychographics. In both experiments, hierarchical regression revealed that brand personality significantly explained behavioral intentions while controlling for potential confounds (average R2 = 40%). The findings provide evidence that brand personality knowledge can expand into podcasts. In contrast, future research should investigate other stimuli that could potentially nudge podcast consumers.

Three studies examined the impact of social stimuli on visual attention. Chapter two confirmed that, hands, feet, and bodies exhibited equivalent attentional pull in a dot probe detection, two-alternative forced choice paradigm. Chapter three utilized a Posner style covert attentional cueing paradigm to examine the impact of directed human action (throwing a ball) on spatial attention. We manipulated the effect of context by including social (humans) or non-social (trees) flanking images and probed the uniquely social nature of the processing in this task by including individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a group with known social deficits, as a comparison group. We also manipulated predictability using predictive and non-predictive cue blocks between subjects. Participants with and without ASD demonstrated similar cueing effects when cues were predictive. ASD participants showed no cueing advantage when cues were non-predictive while neurotypical participants experienced cueing only in social contexts when cues were non-predictive – consistent with automatic social processing. Intelligence as measured by the FSIQ from the WAIS 4 was also analyzed. Unexpectedly, higher IQ resulted in slower RTs with the ASD group. We examined this relationship further by examining severity of diagnosis measured by ADOS-G and FSIQ in participants with ASD. In a final study we looked at the relationship between RT and eye movements in visual search for social stimuli like faces and bodies. Consistent with previous results, faces resulted in faster RTs when they were the targets. They also elicited more first fixations and shorter fixation durations. Faces were not, however, more distracting when they appeared in irrelevant singleton frames. Unexpectedly, the bodies images used in this experiment did not result in attentional capture. Possible reasons for this are discussed. / Dissertation / Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) / As humans, other humans are among the most important things we visually perceive. They are sources of threat, alliance, uncertainty, and love. Because we cannot attend to all of the things we see at once, evolution has prepared us with mental traits that favour rapid processing of complex social scenes. Across three studies, we examine how other humans affect our attention. In the first study we confirm that human bodies and their parts (like feet or hands) are equally capable of drawing our attention. Our second study examines the ability of dynamic human poses to direct our attention in the direction of the depicted action. We note that an implied social interaction leads to better performance among typically developing individuals, but leads to deficits in individuals with autism spectrum disorder, a condition characterized by social delays and impairments. Finally, we look at how important social images, like human faces or bodies, unconsciously attract and influence our eyes movements when searching among distracting images.

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