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| How Experiments Can Unveil Cultural Processes? Coevolution, Inequality and Verbal Events |
| Monday, May 26, 2025 |
| 3:00 PM–4:50 PM |
| Convention Center, Street Level, 158 AB |
| Area: CSS/EAB; Domain: Basic Research |
| Chair: Aecio De Borba Vasconcelos Neto (University of North Texas) |
| Discussant: April M. Becker (University of North Texas; University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center) |
| Abstract: The study of cultural-level phenomena in Behavior Analysis has been increasing in the last decades, following the consolidation of a research agenda in what has been called Culturo-Behavior Science. This field has seen advances in conceptual and experimental discussion on the topic. In this symposium, four presenters will discuss different aspects of the area. The first discusses the coevolutionary processes involved in 1) the selection of cultures, where sets of contingencies evolve over time and, in turn, shape individuals' repertoires, namely, 2) cultural selection. The second will discuss the importance and caveats in bringing the study of cultural issues to the laboratory, focusing on the processes rather than the content of cultural phenomena. The third presentation will advance in this discussion, showing results of experimental research program that focused in inequality aversion. The final presentation will debate the role of verbal behavior in metacontingencies’ experiments. We them circle back to the importance of the experimental research to contribute to behavioral discussion of cultural-level phenomena and issues. |
| Instruction Level: Intermediate |
| Keyword(s): Cultural Processes, Metacontingencies, Verbal Events |
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| Cultural Carousel |
| KALLIU CARVALHO COUTO (Oslo Metropolitan University) |
| Abstract: Behavior analysis traditionally examines organisms' behavior as determined by interactions with environmental variables such as antecedents and consequences. This approach aligns with a selectionist perspective, viewing causality as the functional relationship between learning history and contingencies of reinforcement. In humans, learning extends beyond inherited predispositions acquired during phylogenesis and the learning that occurs during ontogenesis to include culturally transmitted practices. Recent literature in behavior analysis has increasingly focused on selection processes at the cultural level from this selectionist viewpoint. Building on previous work (Couto, 2019; Couto & Sandaker, 2016), this presentation discusses the coevolutionary processes involved in 1) the selection of cultures, where sets of contingencies evolve over time and, in turn, shape individuals' repertoires, namely, 2) cultural selection. The history of carousels will be used to illustrate this reciprocal relationship, highlighting how carousels evolved functionally, from their origins as military training devices to their use for entertainment in parade games with horses, and eventually, to modern mechanized amusement rides. |
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Studying the Third Level Selection Processes – From the Reality to the Lab |
| AECIO DE BORBA VASCONCELOS NETO (University of North Texas) |
| Abstract: Abstract: Following Behavior Analysis’ tradition, interest in cultural issues involves efforts in different domains, including the experimental analysis of behavior. This presentation will explore conceptually and with laboratory examples how we can create analogs of cultural phenomena for study in experimental settings, by focusing in the processes involved in the phenomena, not only its content. We’ll debate the function of the experimental analysis of behavior in the field, analyzing basic process that can be described as common to different behavioral content. Then we discuss how experiments that are studying procedures like the metacontingency and macrocontingency can help illustrate the effect of key variables impacting the selection of cultural practices. We’ll show the translation of cultural phenomena to the laboratory in three cases: the importance of clear laws, the study of overuse of resources, and the study of cooperation in asymmetric situations. We finish the discussion by highlighting that, while the study in the lab may suggest important causal relations and key variables impacting cultural issues, there is still a gap to be filled with more translational and applied studies in the analysis of cultural practices to fulfill the communication between domains of behavior analysis. |
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| When Disadvantageous Inequality is Fair |
| MARCELO FROTA LOBATO BENVENUTI (University of São Paulo) |
| Abstract: When two or more people work on a task, the advantages of cooperation can be shared equitably or not, raising questions of fairness. Unequal rewards in shared tasks may be tolerated, but extreme inequality often limits cooperation. Two types of inequality aversion have been reported in the literature: disadvantageous inequality aversion (DI) and advantageous inequality aversion (AI). AI is thought to express a sense of justice, while DI might be a basic competitive mechanism for resource division. Findings show how DI can be modulated by prior successful cooperation. After a participant benefit from favorable gains, they allow their partner to earn more when the situation reverses, placing them in a DI situation. Participants worked with a confederate or a computer simulating another participant’s performance. Conditions varied, placing the participant in either an AI or DI situation. In DI conditions, the confederate's performance either provided or not provided an advantage to the participant. Both intra- and inter-participant results showed reciprocity in DI situations: when previously benefited by the confederate, participants allowed them to earn more when roles reversed; when not previously benefited, they did not. Thus, disadvantageous inequality aversion disappeared when there was a history of successful cooperation |
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