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This thesis explores the interplay between evidence (in terms of clarity, quantity and order) and source factors in the uptake and maintenance of second-hand, erroneous beliefs. Through a series of online paradigms, we demonstrate the uptake of a communicated belief (e.g., “Option A is better than option B”) is conditional upon early experiences, given an unknown source. Further, we show that such a consolidation of belief then leads to a confirmation bias, wherein beliefs are maintained despite long-run contradictory evidence. Importantly, we demonstrate that such a bias occurs despite participants being motivated towards accuracy (as opposed to belief-maintenance), and the presence of counterfactual information. We accordingly forward an integrative confirmation bias account of consolidated belief maintenance. The focus then turns to explore the gatekeeping role of early experiences. Using short-term fluctuations in evidence, we not only demonstrate the impact of the first few pieces of evidence in consolidating beliefs, but that such effects are interruptible. Taking insights yielded from the Bayesian source credibility model, the perceived expertise and trustworthiness of the source are then manipulated in conjunction with initial evidence. In line with predictions, beliefs from credible sources show consolidation prior to initial evidence, subsuming its role. Conversely, beliefs from dubious sources once again demonstrate the critical impact of initial evidence. Findings are related to the role of source cues and early experiences in increasing the confidence in a belief’s validity, placed within the wider theoretical context, and novel implications for reliability updating are demonstrated. These empirical findings are then extrapolated to belief propagation in online networks using Agent-Based Modelling. This work demonstrates that the structure and incentives present in online networks exacerbate societal level erroneous belief uptake. Implications are drawn to literature including persuasion, placebo effects, and opinion dynamics, along with phenomena including superstition and pseudoscientific beliefs.

Human history is inherently social and the study of groups is fundamental for understanding what it means to be human. Why do we form groups? How do we make sure that groups remain cohesive social entities and do not fall apart? It is the central aim of this thesis to explore the relationship between individuals and groups with a focus on the mechanisms which produce group cohesion. Researchers from different disciplines agree that studying group cohesion is paramount for understanding group dynamics. Here, group cohesion is not approached in relation to its structural properties, but the focus is directed towards its affective and social components. One of the premises is that cohesion plays a crucial role in the process of group formation. While group cohesion is often discussed in relation to social identity and other higher order cognitive processes, findings from the behavioural coordination literature suggest that there is also a physical dimension to group cohesion. Synchronous actions experienced between pairs or small groups of people have been reported to have pro-social consequences, such as increased liking or cooperation, and to create feelings of unity and similarity between people. However, to this date not many researchers have analysed the role of behavioural coordination or synchrony for the emergence and maintenance of cohesion in larger groups. This thesis aims to contribute to a now growing field, looking at this relationship. Novel data is presented, which shows that synchronous behaviour can have positive effects on levels of intragroup affiliation and unity. Group synchrony is portrayed as an important mechanism, which can enhance and signal cohesion in groups. The positive and negative social consequences of group cohesion are discussed and a novel and innovative research paradigm is presented, which has been developed to aid with the scientific investigation of intra- and intergroup dynamics.

Poor literacy is prevalent in the deaf population. This thesis assesses levels of literacy in the deaf population by investigating visual word recognition in deaf readers. For hearing readers, several studies have demonstrated that good visual word recognition skills are crucial for successful literacy attainment and poor readers are likely to have poor word recognition skills. In particular, phonology is known to play an important role in visual word recognition in hearing individuals. The role of phonology in deaf readers has also been addressed extensively. However, these have generated mixed results, which may be partly due to different methodological approaches and lack of control for reading level of participants. Studies reported in this thesis explore the role of orthography, semantics and phonology in deaf skilled readers during visual word recognition and also sentence reading using various methodologies and controlling carefully for reading level. The methodologies used include: lexical decision, masked priming, the visual world and the invisible boundary paradigm. The results from the various tasks described in this thesis show that there are similarities in the way deaf skilled and hearing readers process semantic and orthographic information. However, I found differences in how they process phonological information: deaf and hearing readers show similar effects of phonology in tasks that do not require semantic activation, however, deaf readers do not show phonological activation in tasks that require semantics while hearing readers do. This suggests qualitative differences in reading strategies for the two populations. These differences do not account for differences in literacy attainment across deaf and hearing groups (as our participants where matched for reading levels). Implications for theories of visual word recognition are discussed and in the final chapter, I introduce a proposed model of visual word recognition for deaf readers based on findings reported in this thesis.

As one of the greatest inventions, money has brought profound changes and convenience to economic trading. However, when it comes to interpersonal relationships, money could have a dark underbelly. A growing number of empirical studies have convergingly revealed that money results in unethicality. The aim of this dissertation was to uncover the underneath social cognitive mechanism. In particular, it was proposed that objectification and more broadly outcome maximization were the driving force. Indeed, in the first set of experiments (Exp. 1-5), it was found that love of money led to objectification. In particular, people with a motivation towards money, either demonstrated via their monetary attitudes or temporarily activated by an experimental manipulation, tended to view and treat social targets as tools for their goal attainment (Exp. 1-2), Meanwhile, they denied the mind of irrelevant others, including human, anthropomorphic objects, and animals (Exp. 3-5). In the second set of experiments (exp. 6-11), it was further demonstrated that people’s behaviours were guided by the principle of outcome maximization in economic games in which money, rather than candy (control condition), acted as the mode of exchange. Specifically, participants’ decision-making was less affected by the emotions of their counterplayers when such information was irrelevant to maximizing their gain (Exp. 6-9). Instead, they showed an increased level of strategic consideration, and this effect was due to their motive to maximize their outcome (Exp. 10 and 11). In the final set of experiments (Exp. 12-14), the link between money and agency was demonstrated. As such, assigning economic value to robots shaped the agency (but not experience) people perceived in these targets (Exp. 12 and 13), which unfortunately did not grant them moral rights (Exp. 14). These findings made significant contributions to the money literature both in terms of the empirical findings and the paradigms employed.

Contrary to longstanding assumptions about the arbitrariness of language, recent work has highlighted how much iconicity – i.e. non-arbitrariness – exists in language, in the form of not only onomatopoeia (bang, splash, meow), but also sound-symbolism, signed vocabulary, and (in a paralinguistic channel) mimetic gesture. But is this iconicity ornamental, or does it represent a systematic feature of language important in language acquisition, processing, and evolution? Scholars have begun to address this question, and this thesis adds to that effort, focusing on spoken language (including gesture). After introducing iconicity and reviewing the literature in the introduction, Chapter 2 reviews sound-shape iconicity (the “kiki-bouba” effect), and presents a norming study that verifies the phonetic parameters of the effect, suggesting that it likely involves multiple mechanisms. Chapter 3 shows that sound-shape iconicity helps participants learn in a model of vocabulary acquisition (cross-situational learning) by disambiguating reference. Variations on this experiment show that the round association may be marginally stronger than the spiky, but only barely, suggesting that representations of lip shape may be partly but not entirely responsible for the effect. Chapter 4 models language change using the iterated learning paradigm. It shows that iconicity (both sound-shape and motion) emerges from an arbitrary initial language over ten ‘generations’ of speakers. I argue this shows that psychological biases introduce systematic pressure towards iconicity over language change, and that moreover spoken iconicity can help bootstrap a system of communication. Chapter 5 shifts to children and gesture, attempting to answer whether children can take meaning from iconic action gestures. Results here were null, but definitive conclusions must await new experiments with higher statistical power. The conclusion sums up my findings and their significance, and points towards crucial research for the future.