Influence of male's facial attractiveness, vocal attractiveness and social interest on female's decisions of fairness.

The present study employed dictator game and ultimatum game to investigate the effect of facial attractiveness, vocal attractiveness and social interest in expressing positive ("I like you") versus negative signals ("I don't like you") on decision making. Female participants played against male recipients in dictator game and ultimatum game while played against male proposers in ultimatum game. Results showed that participants offered recipients with attractive faces more money than recipients with unattractive faces. Participants also offered recipients with attractive voices more money than recipients with unattractive voices, especially under the positive social interest condition. Moreover, participants allocated more money to recipients who expressed positive social interest than those who expressed negative social interest, whereas they would also expect proposers who expressed positive social interest to offer them more money than proposers who expressed negative social interest. Overall, the results inform beauty premium for faces and voices on opposite-sex economic bargaining. Social interest also affects decision outcomes. However, the beauty premium and effect of social interest varies with participants' roles.

A premium for positive social interest and attractive voices in the acceptability of unfair offers? An ERP study.

Although the attractiveness of voices plays an important role in social interactions, it is unclear how voice attractiveness and social interest influence social decision-making. Here, we combined the ultimatum game with recording event-related brain potentials (ERPs) and examined the effect of attractive versus unattractive voices of the proposers, expressing positive versus negative social interest ("I like you" vs. "I don't like you"), on the acceptance of the proposal. Overall, fair offers were accepted at significantly higher rates than unfair offers, and high voice attractiveness increased acceptance rates for all proposals. In ERPs in response to the voices, their attractiveness and expressed social interests yielded early additive effects in the N1 component, followed by interactions in the subsequent P2, P3 and N400 components. More importantly, unfair offers elicited a larger Medial Frontal Negativity (MFN) than fair offers but only when the proposer's voice was unattractive or when the voice carried positive social interest. These results suggest that both voice attractiveness and social interest moderate social decision-making and there is a similar "beauty premium" for voices as for faces.

Responses and functions of dopamine in nucleus accumbens core during social behaviors.

Social behaviors are among the most important motivated behaviors. How dopamine (DA), a "reward" signal, releases during social behaviors has been a topic of interest for decades. Here, we use a genetically encoded DA sensor, GRABDA2m, to record DA activity in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) core during various social behaviors in male and female mice. We find that DA releases during approach, investigation and consummation phases of social behaviors signal animals' motivation, familiarity of the social target, and valence of the experience, respectively. Positive and negative social experiences evoke opposite DA patterns. Furthermore, DA releases during mating and fighting are sexually dimorphic with a higher level in males than in females. At the functional level, increasing DA in NAc enhances social interest toward a familiar conspecific and alleviates defeat-induced social avoidance. Altogether, our results reveal complex information encoded by NAc DA activity during social behaviors and their multistage functional roles.

Comparison of Brazilian Social Interest Housing Projects Considering Sustainability.

Considering the importance of the development of new housing projects, the purpose of this research is to provide a model oriented to the identification of the most sustainable alternative in single-family housing projects of social interest from the perspective of life cycle thinking (LCT) and the analytical hierarchical process (AHP). A ceramic masonry project and a concrete masonry project were evaluated. In the environmental dimension, the results showed that the ceramic masonry project had more significant environmental impacts and greater damage to human health and the availability of resources and ecosystems. In the social dimension, it was found that there are discrepancies between the salaries in the construction supply chain and that the concrete masonry project had better social characteristics than the ceramic masonry project. The economic dimension revealed that the concrete masonry project was more attractive. Relating the environmental, social, and economic dimensions' results, through the combination of LCT and AHP, it was found that the concrete masonry project presented a combination of more sustainable characteristics than the ceramic masonry project in the majority of the results. Among the implications of the study carried out here is the advancement of sustainability applied to the construction sector.

Community Feeling and Narcissism as Two Opposite Phenomena.

The objective of the current study was to examine the relations between narcissism and Adler's community feeling. Based on theoretical considerations, we claim that community feeling can be treated as an opposite pole of narcissism and we expected that: (1) both grandiose and vulnerable narcissism would be negatively related to community feeling and that (2) grandiose and vulnerable narcissism would be positively related to anti-community domination and isolation. A sample of 520 university students (Mage = 21.37, SDage = 4.31) completed the Community Feeling Questionnaire (CFQ), the Narcissistic Admiration and Rivalry Questionnaire (NARQ) and the Hypersensitive Narcissism Scale (HSNS). Structural equation modeling largely confirmed our expectations. These results suggest that narcissism can be understood in terms of a deficit in community feeling. It turned out that community feeling and narcissism are related constructs but they are not reducible to each other.

A Single Test to Study Social Behavior and Repetitive Self-grooming in Mice.

The ability to recognize and interact with members of the same species is essential for social communication. Investigating the neural substrates of social interest and recognition may offer insights into the behavioral differences present in disorders affecting social behavior. Assays used to study social interest in rodents include the 3-chamber test, a partition test, and a social interaction test. Here, we present a single protocol that can be used to quantify the level of social interest displayed by mice, the ability to distinguish between different individual mice (social recognition), and the level of repetitive self-grooming displayed. In the first part of the protocol, a social habituation/dishabituation test, the time spent by a test mouse sniffing a stimulus mouse is quantified over 9 trials. In the first 8 interactions, the same stimulus mouse is used repeatedly; on the ninth trial, a novel stimulus mouse is presented. Intact social recognition is indicated by a progressive decrease in the investigation time over trials 1-8, and an increase in trial 9. The interval between each social trial is used to quantify self-grooming, a stereotyped repetitive behavior in mice. We also present a method for randomized, blinded analysis of these behaviors to increase rigor and reproducibility of results. Therefore, this single behavioral test enables ready assessment of phenotypes of both social and repetitive behaviors in an integrated manner in the same animals. This feature can be advantageous in understanding interactions between these behaviors and phenotypes in mouse models with genetic variants associated with autism and other neurodevelopmental or neuropsychiatric disorders, which are often characterized by these behavioral differences.

Conformity-like behaviour in mice observing the freezing of other mice: a model of empathy.

BACKGROUND: Empathy refers to the ability to recognise and share emotions with others. Several research groups have recognised observational fear in mice as a useful behavioural model for assessing their ability to empathise. However, in these observation systems, it remains unclear whether the observer mouse truly recognises the movements of, and empathises with, the demonstrator mouse. We examined changes in the behaviour of an observer mouse when a demonstrator mouse was anaesthetised, when the demonstrator's activity was increased, and when the interval of electrical stimulation was altered. If mice exhibit an ability to empathise, then the observer should display empathic behaviour when the demonstrator experiences pain or discomfort under any circumstances. RESULTS: Relative to low-frequency stimulation, frequent electrical stimulation reduced immobility time among observer mice. Moreover, when demonstrators exhibited excessive activity, the activity of the observers significantly increased. In addition, the proportion of immobility time among observer mice significantly increased when demonstrator mice exhibited fear learning and excessive immobility. CONCLUSION: Although our results indicate that observer mice change their behaviour based on the movements of demonstrator mice, increases in immobility time may reflect conformity-like behaviour rather than emotional empathy. Thus, not only visual but also auditory and odour information additionally influenced the conformity-like behaviour shown by observer mice. Thus, our findings suggest that methods other than the fear observation system should be used to investigate rodent empathy-like behaviour.

Differentiating social preference and social anxiety phenotypes in fragile X syndrome using an eye gaze analysis: a pilot study.

BACKGROUND: Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is the leading inherited cause of autism spectrum disorder, but there remains debate regarding the clinical presentation of social deficits in FXS. The aim of this study was to compare individuals with FXS to typically developing controls (TDC) and individuals with idiopathic autism spectrum disorder (ASD) across two social eye tracking paradigms. METHODS: Individuals with FXS and age- and gender-matched TDC and individuals with idiopathic ASD completed emotional face and social preference eye tracking tasks to evaluate gaze aversion and social interest, respectively. Participants completed a battery of cognitive testing and caregiver-reported measures for neurobehavioral characterization. RESULTS: Individuals with FXS exhibited reduced eye and increased mouth gaze to emotional faces compared to TDC. Gaze aversive findings were found to correlate with measures of anxiety, social communication deficits, and behavioral problems. In the social interest task, while individuals with idiopathic ASD showed significantly less social preference, individuals with FXS displayed social preference similar to TDC. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest fragile X syndrome social deficits center on social anxiety without the prominent reduction in social interest associated with autism spectrum disorder. Specifically designed eye tracking techniques clarify the nature of social deficits in fragile X syndrome and may have applications to improve phenotyping and evaluate interventions targeting social functioning impairments.

Being versus appearing socially uninterested: Challenging assumptions about social motivation in autism.

Progress in psychological science can be limited by a number of factors, not least of which are the starting assumptions of scientists themselves. We believe that some influential accounts of autism rest on a questionable assumption that many of its behavioral characteristics indicate a lack of social interest - an assumption that is flatly contradicted by the testimony of many autistic people themselves. In this article, we challenge this assumption by describing alternative explanations for four such behaviors: (a) low levels of eye contact, (b) infrequent pointing, (c) motor stereotypies, and (d) echolalia. The assumption that autistic people's unusual behaviors indicate diminished social motivation has had profound and often negative effects on the ways they are studied and treated. We argue that understanding and supporting autistic individuals will require interrogating this assumption, taking autistic testimony seriously, considering alternative explanations for unusual behaviors, and investigating unconventional - even idiosyncratic - ways in which autistic individuals may express their social interest. These steps are crucial, we believe, for creating a more accurate, humane, and useful science of autism.

Genetic loss of diazepam binding inhibitor in mice impairs social interest.

Neuropsychiatric disorders in which reduced social interest is a common symptom, such as autism, depression, and anxiety, are frequently associated with genetic mutations affecting γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA)ergic transmission. Benzodiazepine treatment, acting via GABA type-A receptors, improves social interaction in male mouse models with autism-like features. The protein diazepam binding inhibitor (DBI) can act as an endogenous benzodiazepine, but a role for DBI in social behavior has not been described. Here, we investigated the role of DBI in the social interest and recognition behavior of mice. The responses of DBI wild-type and knockout male and female mice to ovariectomized female wild-type mice (a neutral social stimulus) were evaluated in a habituation/dishabituation task. Both male and female knockout mice exhibited reduced social interest, and DBI knockout mice lacked the sex difference in social interest levels observed in wild-type mice, in which males showed higher social interest levels than females. The ability to discriminate between familiar and novel stimulus mice (social recognition) was not impaired in DBI-deficient mice of either sex. DBI knockouts could learn a rotarod motor task, and could discriminate between social and nonsocial odors. Both sexes of DBI knockout mice showed increased repetitive grooming behavior, but not in a manner that would account for the decrease in social investigation time. Genetic loss of DBI did not alter seminal vesicle weight, indicating that the social interest phenotype of males lacking DBI is not due to reduced circulating testosterone. Together, these studies show a novel role of DBI in driving social interest and motivation.

What a difference a day makes-female behaviour is less predictable near ovulation.

'Animal personalities' have been shown to exist in many species. Yet, fluctuations in the stability of these inter-individual behavioural differences are not well understood. Against this background, we wondered whether behavioural consistency over time is affected by the reproductive cycle. Female mice were tested twice at an interval of eight weeks in four paradigms assessing social interest as well as anxiety-like behaviour and exploratory locomotion. Twenty-two individuals were tested repeatedly near ovulation, whereas another twenty-two were tested repeatedly in the non-receptive phase. While we found no major behavioural effects at the group level, the reproductive state indeed had profound effects on behavioural stability over time: social interest as well as anxiety-like behaviour proved to be significantly less predictable near ovulation. It is generally believed that phenotypic plasticity is limited due to the costs it brings about. In this context, our data indicate that females accept higher costs in phases directly related to fitness maximization.

Brief Report: Diminished Gaze Preference for Dynamic Social Interaction Scenes in Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorders.

In this study, we present an eye-tracking paradigm, adapted from previous work with toddlers, for assessing social-interaction looking preferences in youth ages 5-17 with ASD and typically-developing controls (TDC). Videos of children playing together (Social Scenes, SS) were presented side-by-side with animated geometric shapes (GS). Participants with ASD demonstrated reduced SS preferences compared to TDC, results also represented continuously by associations between higher SS preferences and fewer social difficulties across the combined sample. Exploratory analyses identified associations between increased SS preferences and higher Vineland Daily Living Skills in ASD and suggested SS preferences in TDC females might drive ASD versus TDC between-group differences. These findings describe potentially sex-linked couplings between preferences for social information and social functioning in school-aged children.

Avaliação pós-ocupação sob o aspecto do saneamento ambiental em área de interesse social urbanizada no município de Campina Grande, Paraíba / Post-occupancy evaluation with regard to the environmental sanitation in an urbanized area of social concern in the municipality of Campina Grande, Paraíba

RESUMO: Nos últimos dez anos, o município de Campina Grande, Paraíba, foi beneficiado com inúmeros programas de urbanização em áreas de interesse social. Com a publicação da Lei nº 11.445/2007 (Lei do Saneamento), dada a centralidade que o saneamento ambiental tem na vida das pessoas, é fundamental que processos de Avaliação Pós-Ocupação sejam procedidos. Esta pesquisa objetivou avaliar a infraestrutura de saneamento em área de interesse social sob diversos cenários de urbanização. O caso de estudo foi a comunidade Novo Horizonte, localizada na zona sul do município, por se tratar de uma área urbanizada com recursos do Orçamento Geral da União. Propõe-se uma metodologia para a aferição da salubridade ambiental, na qual é definido um Índice de Salubridade Ambiental para a comunidade Novo Horizonte, composto por sete indicadores relacionados com o saneamento ambiental, a saúde pública e aspectos socioeconômicos. Os resultados mostraram que a urbanização não ocorreu na amplitude desejada e que dentre os indicadores analisados houve destaque para o abastecimento de água e os resíduos sólidos, enquanto os relacionados aos aspectos socioeconômicos foram os que apresentaram os piores resultados dentre os cenários pesquisados. A pesquisa constatou quão nefasta é a execução de uma obra de urbanização segmentada no tempo, e realizada por empresas distintas, sobretudo quando os serviços de esgotamento sanitário são realizados em um primeiro instante. Conclui-se que a efetivação de avaliação pós-ocupacional é necessária para realimentar os projetos de urbanização em execução, ou a executar, quer seja com recursos públicos ou privados.

ABSTRACT: For the last ten years, the city of Campina Grande, Paraíba, has been benefited from a large number of urbanization programs of social concern. With the Federal Act 11,445/2007 (Sanitation Act), considering that environmental sanitation plays a central hole for the population, it is essential the development of Post-Occupancy Evaluation processes. This research aimed to evaluate the environmental performance of social interest under distinguished scenarios of urbanization. The Novo Horizonte community was chosen as case study, located in the southern part of the municipality, because the Federal government sponsored its urbanization process. A methodology for the assessment of environmental health is proposed, which is defined in one Index of Environmental Health for the community Novo Horizonte, composed of seven indicators related to environmental sanitation, public health and socioeconomic aspects. The results showed that urbanization did not occur at the desired amplitude. Among the analyzed indicators, the ones for the water supply and solid waste were more evident, while those related to socioeconomic factors were those that presented the worst results. This research showed how harmful is the execution of a work of segmented urbanization in time, and carried out by separate undertakings, especially when sewage services are done in the first instance. It is concluded that the effectiveness of occupational Post-Occupancy Evaluation is needed to feedback the urbanization projects with funds from the public sector.

Role of the oxytocin system in amygdala subregions in the regulation of social interest in male and female rats.

We previously found that oxytocin (OT) receptor (OTR) binding density in the medial amygdala (MeA) correlated positively with social interest (i.e., the motivation to investigate a conspecific) in male rats, while OTR binding density in the central amygdala (CeA) correlated negatively with social interest in female rats. Here, we determined the causal involvement of OTR in the MeA and CeA in the sex-specific regulation of social interest in adult rats by injecting an OTR antagonist (5ng/0.5µl/side) or OT (100pg/0.5µl/side) before the social interest test (4-min same-sex juvenile exposure). OTR blockade in the CeA decreased social interest in males but not females, while all other treatments had no behavioral effect. To further explore the sex-specific involvement of the OT system in the CeA in social interest, we used in vivo microdialysis to determine possible sex differences in endogenous OT release in the CeA during social interest. Interestingly, males and females showed similar levels of extracellular OT release at baseline and during social interest, suggesting that factors other than local OT release mediate the sex-specific role of CeA-OTR in social interest. Moreover, we found a positive correlation between CeA-OT release and social investigation time in females. This was further reflected by reduced CeA-OT release during social interest in females that expressed low compared to high social interest. We discuss the possibility that this reduction in OT release may be a consequence, rather than a cause, of exposure to a social stimulus. Overall, our findings show for the first time that extracellular OT release in the CeA is similar between males and females and that OTR in the CeA plays a causal role in the regulation of social interest toward juvenile conspecifics in males.

Examination of the Adlerian constructs of activity and social interest with depression among recent Korean retirees: Meaning in life as a mediator.

The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether (a) the Adlerian construct of activity and social interest would be related to decreased depression and (b) meaning in life would mediate these relationships among Korean retirees. A total of 219 Korean retirees who had retired within the last three years completed the survey. The survey included the Activity Scale, Social Interest Scale, The Meaning in Life Questionnaire, and Center for Epidemiology Depression Scale. Structural equation modeling was conducted to analyze data. The results indicated that activity was directly associated with depression (ß=-.453, p<.001) and indirectly related to depression through meaning in life (indirect path: ß=-.279, p< .05, 95% CI=-.483, ∼-.145). Similarly, social interest was found to be directly related to depression (ß=-.710, p<.001) and indirectly related to depression through meaning in life (indirect path: ß=-.227, p<.05, 95% CI=-.427, ∼-.086). These findings suggest that meaning in life is an important avenue through which activity and social interest are linked to a lower level of depression among Korean retirees.

Neural evidence for an association between social proficiency and sensitivity to social reward.

Data from developmental psychology suggests a link between the growth of socio-emotional competences and the infant's sensitivity to the salience of social stimuli. The aim of the present study was to find evidence for this relationship in healthy adults. Thirty-five participants were recruited based on their score above the 85th or below the 15th percentile of the empathy quotient questionnaire (EQ, Baron-Cohen and Wheelwright, 2004). Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to compare neural responses to cues of social and non-social (monetary) reward. When compared to the high-EQ group, the low-EQ group showed reduced activity of the brain s reward system, specifically the right nucleus accumbens, in response to cues predictive of social reward (videos showing gestures of approval)-but increased activation in this area for monetary incentives. Our data provide evidence for a link between self-reported deficits in social proficiency and reduced sensitivity to the motivational salience of positive social stimuli.

Sex differences in oxytocin receptor binding in forebrain regions: correlations with social interest in brain region- and sex- specific ways.

Social interest reflects the motivation to approach a conspecific for the assessment of social cues and is measured in rats by the amount of time spent investigating conspecifics. Virgin female rats show lower social interest towards unfamiliar juvenile conspecifics than virgin male rats. We hypothesized that the neuropeptide oxytocin (OT) may modulate sex differences in social interest because of the involvement of OT in pro-social behaviors. We determined whether there are sex differences in OT system parameters in the brain and whether these parameters would correlate with social interest. We also determined whether estrus phase or maternal experience would alter low social interest and whether this would correlate with changes in OT system parameters. Our results show that regardless of estrus phase, females have significantly lower OT receptor (OTR) binding densities than males in the majority of forebrain regions analyzed, including the nucleus accumbens, caudate putamen, lateral septum, bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, medial amygdala, and ventromedial hypothalamus. Interestingly, male social interest correlated positively with OTR binding densities in the medial amygdala, while female social interest correlated negatively with OTR binding densities in the central amygdala. Proestrus/estrus females showed similar social interest to non-estrus females despite increased OTR binding densities in several forebrain areas. Maternal experience had no immediate or long-lasting effects on social interest or OT brain parameters except for higher OTR binding in the medial amygdala in primiparous females. Together, these findings demonstrate that there are robust sex differences in OTR binding densities in multiple forebrain regions of rats and that OTR binding densities correlate with social interest in brain region- and sex-specific ways.