Archive Electronique - Institut Jean Nicod
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1997 research outputs found
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Happy Thoughts: The Role of Communion in Accepting and Sharing (Mis)Beliefs
No full textInternational audienceThe negativity bias favors the cultural diffusion of negative beliefs, yet many common (mis)beliefs-naturopathy works, there's a heaven-are positive. Why? People might share 'happy thoughts'-beliefs that might make others happy-to display their kindness. Five experiments conducted among Japanese and English-speaking participants (N = 2412) show that: (i) people higher on communion are more likely to believe and share happier beliefs, by contrast with people higher in competence and dominance; (ii) when they want to appear nice and kind, rather than competent and dominant, people avoid sharing sad beliefs, and instead prefer sharing happy beliefs; (iii) sharing happier beliefs instead of sad beliefs leads to being perceived as nicer and kinder; and (iv) sharing happy beliefs instead of sad beliefs leads to being perceived as less dominant. Happy beliefs could spread, despite a general negativity bias, because they allow their senders to signal kindness
La Saillance symbolique : Analyse d’un récit rituel
No full textAnalyse d'un récit rituel Blaise Aplogan Résumé Dans cette étude, nous avons essayé d'établir, dans les textes oraux à vocation rituelle, l'existence d'un système d'agences dotées de saillance symbolique. Pour ce faire, nous avons d'abord montré que toute élaboration graphique élémentaire peut être considérée comme le résultat d'une saillance chromatique. La saillance chromatique induite par une élaboration graphique élémentaire a été rapportée à une loi binomiale exprimant la consistance ontologique de sa forme et sa densité. Nous avons ensuite considéré le cas de l'écriture, définie comme une forme incrémentielle de saillance graphique à usage communicationnelle. D'un point de vue culturel, les caractéristiques de l'écrit l'opposent à l'oralité. Or, en nous appuyant sur les effets de la saillance symbolique dans les textes oraux, nous avons pu nuancer l'opposition tranchée entre genre oral et genre écrit
Middle-range Theories and the unification problem in social science
No full textInternational audienceThis chapter aims at evaluating the relevance, within the current philosophical and sociological contexts, of the search both for "middle-range theories" (as Robert Merton famously called them) and for a unification of these theories. In his time Merton's view was, on the one hand, a crucial complement to both quantitative and qualitative studies, remarkably illustrated by his colleague at Columbia, Paul Lazarsfeld, and, on the other hand, an alternative to "Grand Theories" such as Talcott Parsons', whose inconvenience was to be too abstract at the risk of being merely verbal. Many contemporary theories in sociology have similar flaws. They are either purely statistical surveys or mere ethnographic case studies, on the one hand, or all-encompassing theories, on the other hand. But not only have middlerange theories been recently rediscovered in the social sciences, some leading figures in philosophy of science have even argued that biologists and physicists regularly use similar methodologies very fruitfully even though they are not fully aware of doing so. Although these philosophers have sometimes gone so far as to support the value of "disunity" in science, which may result from the coexistence of local or partial "middle-range theories", I want to make a plea for unifying middle-range theories in sociology which do not fall back in the false abstraction of Grand Theories
Surenchère dans le signal: Les gages d'appartenance exagérément coûteux peuvent résulter d'un signalement d'ordre deux
No full textInternational audienceTo demonstrate their commitment, for instance during wartime, members of a group will sometimes all engage in the same ruinous display. Such uniform, high-cost signals are hard to reconcile with standard models of signaling. For signals to be stable, they should honestly inform their audience; yet, uniform signals are trivially uninformative. To explain this phenomenon, we design a simple model, which we call the signal runaway game. In this game, senders can express outrage at non-senders. Outrage functions as a second-order signal. By expressing outrage at non-senders, senders draw attention to their own signal, and benefit from its increased visibility. Using our model and a simulation, we show that outrage can stabilize uniform signals, and can lead signal costs to run away. Second-order signaling may explain why groups sometimes demand displays of commitment from all their members, and why these displays can entail extreme costs.Pour démontrer leur engagement, par exemple en temps de guerre, les membres d'un groupe se livrent parfois tous à la même démonstration coûteuse. Ces signaux uniformes et coûteux sont difficiles à concilier avec les modèles standard de signal. Pour que les signaux soient stables, ils doivent informer honnêtement leur public ; or, les signaux uniformes sont trivialement non informatifs. Pour expliquer ce phénomène, nous proposons un modèle simple, que nous appelons le jeu d'emballement du signal. Dans ce jeu, les émetteurs peuvent exprimer leur indignation à l'égard des non-émetteurs. L'indignation fonctionne comme un signal de second ordre. En exprimant leur indignation à l'égard des non-émetteurs, les émetteurs attirent l'attention sur leur propre signal et bénéficient de sa visibilité accrue. À l'aide de ce modèle et d'une simulation, nous montrons que l'indignation peut stabiliser les signaux uniformes et provoquer une fuite en avant du coût des signaux. Le signal de second ordre peut expliquer pourquoi les groupes exigent parfois des gages d'engagement de la part de tous leurs membres, et pourquoi ces gages peuvent impliquer des coûts extrêmes
Statistical signals of copying are robust to time- and space-averaging
No full textInternational audienceCattle brands (ownership marks left on animals) are subject to forces influencing other graphic codes: the copying of constituent parts, pressure for distinctiveness and pressure for complexity. The historical record of cattle brands in some US states is complete owing to legal registration, providing a unique opportunity to assess how sampling processes leading to time- and space-averaging influence our ability to make inferences from limited datasets in fields like archaeology. In this preregistered study, we used a dataset of ~81,000 Kansas cattle brands (1990–2016) to explore two aspects: (1) the relative influence of copying, pressure for distinctiveness and pressure for complexity on the creation and diffusion of brand components; and (2) the effects of time- and space-averaging on statistical signals. By conducting generative inference with an agent-based model, we found that the patterns in our data are consistent with copying and pressure for intermediate complexity. In addition, by comparing mixed and structured datasets, we found that these statistical signals of copying are robust to, and possibly boosted by, time- and space-averaging
Misinformation reloaded? Fears about the impact of generative AI on misinformation are overblown
No full textInternational audienceMany observers of the current explosion of generative AI worry about its impact on our information environment, with concerns being raised about the increased quantity, quality, and personalization of misinformation. We assess these arguments with evidence from communication studies, cognitive science, and political science. We argue that current concerns about the effects of generative AI on the misinformation landscape are overblown
Slurs in quarantine
No full textInternational audienceWe investigate experimentally whether the perceived offensiveness of slurs survives when they are reported, by comparing Italian slurs and insults in base utterances (Y is an S), direct speech (X said: "Y is an S"), mixed quotation (X said that Y is "an S"), and indirect speech (X said that Y is an S). For all strategies, reporting decreases the perceived offensiveness without removing it. For slurs, but not insults, indirect speech is perceived as more offensive than direct speech. Our hypothesis is that, because slurs constitute hate speech, speakers employ quotation marks to signal their dissociation from slur use
New perspectives: An Introduction
No full textInternational audienceIn this short Introduction to the present section, I will first briefly point out the reasons why the chapters collected here present original research in the context of the philosophy of the practice of mathematics, and open even newer perspectives. It is important to note that one crucial issue for future research will be to explore the connections within these chapters and with other chapters included in other sectionsin particular, but not exclusively, the sections on Proof, on "Experimental" mathematics, and on the Semiology of Mathematical Practice. Second, I will present a shortand not exhaustivesummary of the themes that are tackled in the chapters. There will be overlaps and common threads: These chapters are indeed the final product of several discussions and exchanges within the community of the philosophers of the mathematical practice, which is extending toward other regions of philosophy thus blurring standard boundaries
Some properties of neg-raising in three sign languages
No full textInternational audienceNeg-raising, the phenomenon whereby a negation in the main clause of a complex constructionis interpreted as if belonging to the embedded clause, has been intensivelystudied in spoken languages. The same cannot be said for sign languages. In this paper,we investigate the properties of Neg-raising constructions in three sign languages:French Sign Language, Italian Sign Language, and Sign Language of the Netherlands.We report on two syntactic tests we applied to disambiguate Neg-raising and non-Negraisingreadings, showing that Neg-raising constructions have similar properties in thethree sign languages that we studied, as well as in comparable constructions in spokenlanguages. We also discuss some intricate headshake spreading patterns we found inNeg-raising constructions in Sign Language of the Netherlands, a non-manual dominantsign language