The overarching goal of this thesis was to examine the behavioral, computational, and neural mechanisms underlying social learning in adolescence. The first aim was to examine developmental... Show moreThe overarching goal of this thesis was to examine the behavioral, computational, and neural mechanisms underlying social learning in adolescence. The first aim was to examine developmental patterns across adolescence of two forms of social learning: (1) learning about other people, specifically, whether they are (un)cooperative and (un)trustworthy, and (2) learning for other people (prosocial learning) to know what actions may benefit or help others. I made use of multiple experimental paradigms based on well-known economic games and/or probabilistic reinforcement learning paradigms to assess these forms of social learning. Secondly, I aimed to examine underlying mechanisms and factors that account for age-related and individual differences in social learning. Applying computational modeling and functional neuroimaging as additional tools contributed to a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms and how these develop across adolescence. The findings in this thesis converge to early-to-mid adolescence as a key developmental period for developing well-adjusted social behaviors, and especially in the cooperative domain there are pronounced improvements. These studies make an important contribution to the literature on social development and learning, and may eventually contribute to interventions targeted at promoting well-adjusted behavior in typically developing adolescents, as well as youth with maladaptive social tendencies. Show less
Facial expressions play a fundamental role in social interactions, as demonstrated by our spontaneous inclination to mimic emotional expressions of others. In this thesis, I take a broad... Show moreFacial expressions play a fundamental role in social interactions, as demonstrated by our spontaneous inclination to mimic emotional expressions of others. In this thesis, I take a broad perspective and show that people mimic each other on many more levels than previously thought. Special attention is given to autonomic mimicry (synchrony in heart rate, skin conductance and pupil diameter), which is an underexplored area of research. In the first empirical chapter, I show that pupil mimicry activates social brain regions and when the pupils of interacting partners synchronously dilate, trust is promoted. In the subsequent real-life experiment, I demonstrate that synchrony in heart rate and skin conductance boost attraction between people on a date. In the remaining chapters, I manipulate mimicry with optical illusion and brain stimulation to provide evidence that autonomic and facial mimicry are controlled by distinct neurological pathways. Together, these findings implicate that the tendency to automatically mimic and physiologically align with others can result in emotional contagion – the tendency to ‘catch’ another person’s emotion, which in return encourages trust and affiliation. In sum, this research takes a fundamental step towards the understanding of the neurobehavioral pathways through which mimicry influence (pro)social behaviors. Show less
This thesis studies the role of trust in the Catholic Reformation in seventeenth-century Genoa. It explores the way in which many reform-minded Catholics consciously tried to find an answer to the... Show moreThis thesis studies the role of trust in the Catholic Reformation in seventeenth-century Genoa. It explores the way in which many reform-minded Catholics consciously tried to find an answer to the crisis of trust that dominated post-Reformation Europe by means of reforms and new initiatives. In particular, this dissertation examines how the effectiveness of these reforms and initiatives was impacted by practices of trust and distrust, as well as the reformers’ own perception of their strategies. Several features of the Catholic Reformation are analysed: the attempt to reform the secular clergy; new female religious initiatives; the effort to reform female cloistered life; and the establishment of new religious congregations. The trust approach used in this thesis constitutes an antidote to the current Italian paradigm in which the focus on power and discipline tends to obscure the plurality of the Italian Church in the seventeenth century. The concept moreover provides a key to explain several contradictions with which the current historiography confronts us such as the juxtaposition of instances of freedom and compulsion in the realm of female religiosity and the paradoxical coexistence of very ineffective and very successful attempts to reform. Show less
Nieuwe ontwikkelingen in wetenschap en technologie roepen naast positieve ook negatieve reacties en twijfel op. De reacties worden geuit in debatten. Deze debatten verlopen vaak volgens hetzelfde... Show moreNieuwe ontwikkelingen in wetenschap en technologie roepen naast positieve ook negatieve reacties en twijfel op. De reacties worden geuit in debatten. Deze debatten verlopen vaak volgens hetzelfde stramien: er is een nieuwe ontwikkeling, daarover moet een standpunt worden ingenomen, dit roept vragen op, vragen die vaak gaan over wat 'natuurlijk' is, waar onze grenzen liggen, of alles mag wat kan. Over mogelijke antwoorden bestaan ernstige meningsverschillen. Het debat bloedt dood en er wordt een besluit genomen waarbij aan de (potentiële) rijkheid van de debatten wordt voorbijgegaan. Waarom verlopen debatten op deze manier? Waarom worden deelnemers en argumenten zo vaak gestereotypeerd, uitgesloten of onredelijk genoemd? Dat valt eigenlijk pas goed te begrijpen door te kijken naar wat onder de oppervlakte speelt: de manier waarop we met elkaar in gesprek gaan in publieke discussies. De kwaliteit van debatten kan worden verbeterd. Dat kan door ruimte te creëren voor morele democratisering. Dit vereist een driedubbele verbreding van publieke debatten. Een verbreding van deelnemers, van vragen en argumenten. Hiervoor is redelijkheid, inclusiviteit en moed nodig. Show less
Deze dissertatie gaat over antecedenten en consequenties van publiek vertrouwen in organisaties die betrokken zijn bij de ontwikkeling van en de besluitvorming over koolstofdioxide afvang transport... Show moreDeze dissertatie gaat over antecedenten en consequenties van publiek vertrouwen in organisaties die betrokken zijn bij de ontwikkeling van en de besluitvorming over koolstofdioxide afvang transport en opslag (CCS) technologie. Het doel van CCS technologie is het verminderen van de alsmaar toenemende concentratie koolstofdioxide in de atmosfeer, de voornaamste oorzaak van klimaatverandering. Publieke acceptatie van CCS technologie is cruciaal voor het succesvol implementeren van deze technologie. De redenering die in deze dissertatie centraal staat is dat publieke acceptatie zal afhangen van de mate van publiek vertrouwen in organisaties die betrokken zijn bij CCS (zoals industriële organisaties, milieuorganisaties en overheidsorganisaties). Publiek vertrouwen in organisaties blijkt inderdaad publieke acceptatie van CCS te beïnvloeden. Aangezien uit het onderzoek blijkt dat publiek vertrouwen in industriële organisaties te wensen over laat, is het voornamelijk voor deze organisaties van belang om door middel van communicatie naar het publiek het vertrouwen van mensen te vergroten. Communicatie lijkt effectiever wanneer de suggestie van sociale wenselijkheid in communicatie wordt vermeden door naast publiekdienende (milieu)argumenten voor de inzet van CCS geven ook "eerlijk" aan te geven dat organisatiedienende motieven een rol spelen. Overheidsorganisaties wekken vertrouwen door aan te geven dat zowel milieuorganisaties als industriële organisaties bij de besluitvorming over CCS betrokken zijn. Show less
=========ABSTRACT=========It is tempting to think of precolonial India as a harmonious society, but was it? This study brings evidence from new and unexpected sources to take position in the... Show more=========ABSTRACT=========It is tempting to think of precolonial India as a harmonious society, but was it? This study brings evidence from new and unexpected sources to take position in the sensitive debate over that question. From the investigation of six conflicts in the Deccan region it draws conclusions about group behaviour that put modern clashes in context. Some of the conflicts under investigation appear odd today but were very real to the involved, as the antagonism between Left and Right Hand castes was for about a thousand years. Other conflicts continue to the present day: the seventeenth century saw lasting changes in the relationship between Hindus and Muslims as well as the rise of patriotism and early nationalism in both India and Europe. This book carefully brings to life the famous and obscure people who made the era, from the Dutch painter Heda to queen Khadija and from maharaja Shivaji to the English rebel Keigwin=========NOTES=========First Leiden University Press edition, 2009. Entirely revised from the author’s dissertation Xenophobia and Consciousness in Seventeenth-Century India: Six Cases from the Deccan, 12-Mar-2008. Show less
Trust research has become vitally important in the study of public administration. Many scholars emphasize the importance of trust for society, because it may improve co-operation. The relation... Show moreTrust research has become vitally important in the study of public administration. Many scholars emphasize the importance of trust for society, because it may improve co-operation. The relation between trust and policy making, however, has not yet been discussed very thoroughly. This is remarkable because the formulation of public policies can both increase and decrease trust. A new policy could satisfy one group of citizens while at the same time antagonizing another group. Policies can give hope, but they might also result in frustration; policies can satisfy expectations, but they can also confirm prior cynicism. In other words, administrators and politicians may both establish and lose trust while formulating and adjusting policies. The aim in this study is to understand how these competing processes play out through the study of the history of agricultural policy making in the Netherlands. Show less
