#social-cognition

#social-cognition

Our brain is constantly assessing risk and safety. Being judged, rejected, or demoted within a group can register as a threat to belonging, something that, for most of human history, meant a threat to survival. Thus, silence may merely be an intuitive default response while the brain assesses the safety of the social situation. When we sense danger, however subtle, say an unpredictable leader or a dismissive tone, the amygdala becomes alert, and the brain shifts into a state of heightened vigilance and self-protection mode.

Partying the night before a big exam. Preparing last-minute for a work presentation. Running a 5K in a 10-pound Halloween costume. All are examples of what psychologists call "self-handicapping" - creating obstacles to success to order to bolster or protect one's own reputation. "It's actually very common," said Yang Xiang, a psychology Ph.D. candidate in the Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. "There have been many decades of work documenting this behavior."

What do social climbers and gossipmongers have in common? My mother would tell me that both are morally suspect. This moral umbrage is etched into lessons from fairy tales and scripture that we readily pass on to our children: Avoid the schemer and the whisperer. But stories are known to simplify reality. The truth is that that the most effective gossipers and social climbers possess a remarkable grasp of social structure, knowledge they use to cleverly navigate their social worlds.

By and large, reading is a solitary activity. True, on a nightly basis, plenty of folks tuck little ones in with enchanting bedtime stories. (Apparently, my favorite as a toddler was called "The White Cat," an old yarn involving-of course-a cat, one whose head had to be lopped off by his ladylove before he could turn into a human prince, but let's drop that and move on.)

When Everett Rogers introduced the S-shaped diffusion curve in the first edition of his book, he was directly following the data. Researchers like Elihu Katz had already begun studying how change spreads and noticed a consistent pattern in the adoption of hybrid corn and the antibiotic tetracycline. Yet it was Rogers who shaped our understanding of how ideas spread. Publishing more than 30 books and 500 articles, he studied everything from technology adoption to family planning in remote societies.