COMM100 FINAL - Jones

UCLA COMM 100 - Communication Science 24W with Professor Gabe Jones

What is the misinformation ecosystem?

The social, political, and technological environment is an ideal environment for the spread of misinformation.

Technological structures have made it ideal for information to be manipulated and abused

What are the 5 features of media effects theories?

1. Selectivity of media use

2. Media properties as predictors

3. Media properties are indirect

4. Media effects are conditional

5. Media effects are transactional

Define “selectivity of media use” as a feature of media effects theories.

• When exposed to messages, people can only attend/pay attention to a limited number

• Media use results from factors such as:

  • Dispositional (needs/personality)

  • Situational (current mood)

  • Social context (environmental norms)

  • Developmental (preferences as child vs adult)

• Selection and cognitive biases

  • Algorithms

  • Selective exposure

• We shape our own media use - we partly shape our own media effects

Define “media properties as predictors” as a feature of media effects theories.

The properties of the media itself will have an influence on how the media affects viewers

Modality: form or medium, how it’s presented (text, auditory, visual)

Content Properties: characteristics of what is presented, which influence audience reactions (beloved character in danger elicits an engaged nervous system)

Structural Properties: elements/technical aspects of media production (special effects, audio effects)

Media producers compete for people’s attention (arms race)

Define “media effects are indirect” as a feature of media effects theories.

They are nuanced and indirect - NOT like the hypodermic needle theory (as previously theorized)

There is a mediating variable between the independent variable and the dependent variable - the effect is not directly between them

• Ex: appearance comparison mediates seeing “thinspiration” posts and lowering your self esteem

3 mediating variable that = indirect media effects:

1. Media use (selectivity)

2. Cognitive, emotional, psychological processes

3. Post-exposure variables (beliefs and attitudes) mediate other post-exposure variables (political and health behaviors)

Define “media effects are conditional” as a feature of media effects theories.

Dispositional, situational, social context, and developmental factors interact with media properties - leading to a media effect

Here we KNOW the mediating variable, we are trying to understand the effect of that condition

Media effects are contingent on various factors, media effects are NOT equal for all media users

• Ex: anti-smoking ads having graphic photos - nonsmokers and smokers react differently (level of smoking influences the reaction)

Define “media effects are transactional” as a feature of media effects theories.

Media use and media effects are reciprocally related (not one-directional)

Reciprocal/causal relationships between:

• Characteristics of media users (self-esteem)

• Selective media use (more likely to seek out certain content)

• Environmental factors (peer pressure)

• Outcomes in media (lowered self esteem)

What is the hypodermic (needle) effects theory?

This theory implies that media has the power to inject highly influential messages directly and instantly into passive and susceptible audiences (outdated)

What are two theories of political communication?

1. Two-step flow model: media effects are community leaders (Priest reads the news and tells the congregation what to believe)

2. Agenda-setting theory: the ability of the news media to influence the importance placed on the topics in the public agenda. If a news item is covered more frequently and prominently, people will begin to regard it as more important (Hilary Clinton emails)

How is the arm’s race used in media effects theories?

Structural features (visuals and sound) have culturally evolved to grab attention - a competition between media producers for people’s attention has resulted in exaggerated features proliferating in an endless one-upmanship

What are the similarities and differences between the cyberspace and real life?

Similarities:

• Relationships both “deep and stable”

• Help people maintain relationships

• Help people have larger social networks

• No simple relationship between internet use and health outcomes

Differences:

• Cyberspace allows interacting with more visual anonymity

• Geographic distance is largely immaterial online

• Fewer time constraints online - we can respond whenever we want

What are input conditions?

The range and characteristics of stimuli that will trigger a certain evolutionary response (such as an upside down triangle representing a face)

What are the two types of domains?

1. Proper domain: what we are evolutionarily evolved to respond to

2. Actual domain: what we actually respond to

What is domain specificity?

The psychological mechanisms evolved to process input from a specific domain that was invariant across human evolution, and generate functional responses to that input

• We faced an adaptive problem repeatedly so we adapted to that, out body learned to respond in a particular way, but conditions dramatically changed, so our mind is tailored for old evolutionary problems

What are two functions of conversation in the social domain?

• To facilitate the communication of information about yourself to others

• To learn about others through other people

What is the theory of mind?

The ability to recognize and understand that other people have their own thoughts

What is the most common size for a clique?

• 4-5 people

• Allows for equal contribution

  • Need to be able to hear one another, all have contribution, and be able to read non-verbal/facial cues

What happens when group/clique size grows?

Groups split into smaller cliques of 4-5

What is a clique?

A smaller sub-group that broke off from a larger group participating in conversation (listening, affirming, turn-taking) about a shared topic

What happens when the distance between speakers and hearers increases?

The accuracy of speech detection declines

• 5.5 feet is the optimal speaking distance

What is Ostention?

• The quality in some behavior that makes it apparent to an intended audience that the behavior is an act of communication

  • Art is an act of ostention - from artist to audience - act of communication

What 4 themes are mainly told in American stories?

• Mob at the gates - outsiders of society disrupting peace

  • War of the Worlds

• Triumph of the individual - rising up as an individual to succeed

  • American Sniper

• The benevolent community - the community takes care of its own, looks out for each other

  • Dunkirk

• Rot at the top - people in charge are often rotten/corrupted

  • The Wolf of Wall Street

What is entertainment education?

An educational technique that uses videography to change knowledge, attitudes, an behavior with an active approach (engaging audience and promoting conversation)

According to entertainment education, what are the most effective ways to change behavior?

1. Perceived similarity

2. Liking the characters

3. Feeling like you know the characters

4. Strong emotional response

5. Repetition

6. Explicit modeling of behavior

What are the three types of characters depicted in a narrative?

1. Indifferent

2. Enthusiastic

3. Unsure

What is the difference between Narrative and Non-Narrative?

• Narrative - tells a story, more effective

• Non-Narrative - gives dry facts

What is included in the spectrum of misinformation?

• Satire or parody

• False connection

• Misleading content

• False content

• Imposter content

• Manipulated content

• Fabricated content

How does language change?

• Drift

  • Phonological shifts and grammaticalizaiton

  • Typically have predictable direction to a certain degree

  • Doesn’t explain language diversity

• Adaptation

  • Biology: changes in organism that lead to increase in frequency of the trait

  • Cultural Evolution: changes to improve transmissibility of a cultural trait

  • Language: Improvements made to fidelity , greater learn ability, more efficient comprehension

Language adaptation to Social Niche

• Language properties change based on speakers social characteristics

• Languages spoken by more people (more non-native/L2 speakers) and in more diverse environments = simpler morphology

  • More L1: more complex - in-group talks

  • More L2: less complex, more accessible for learning

  • Simpler verbs and gendered terms (or no gender)

• More speakers = increased simplicity for greater possibility of complexity

Language adaptation to ecological/physical niche

• Properties of language change over time based on ecology

  • Whistle languages - communication across long distances

  • Lexical tones - dry climate = less lexical tones, humid climate = more lexical tones

• Predispositions of production and perception abilities can over time lead to language diversity

Language adaptation to the technological niche

• Properties of language change over time depending on technological developments

  • Written language: invention of writing and printing press changed language - punctuation, spaces, spelling consistency

  • Electronic communication: slang use, acronyms, emojis

• Comprehension failures can be quickly repaired

What are the 3 different types of adaptations languages undergo?

Adaptations to the:

1. Social Niche

2. Ecological/Physical Niche

3. Technological Niche

What 3 basic design features do all languages share?

1. Compositionality

2. Productivity

3. Categorical denotation

Define Compositionality of language

• The possibility of combining a smaller set of units (morphemes) into a larger set of expressions (words, utterances) through structured recombination

• Aspect of combining meaningless segments (sounds) into meaningful morphemes along with Compositionality = “duality of patterning”

What is Productivity of language

• The ability of natural language to convey novel information

  • In combination with Compositionality, the productive capacity of language allows hearers to understand and produce novel utterances

What is Categorical Denotation of language

• Words and larger expressions can denote categories rather than specific goals or perceptual events

  • Unlike sensorimotor experiences, which are always specific

• This property allows language to transcend specifics (talking about crying versus tearing up)

Why are there different languages?

• Languages drifted apart due to gradual accumulation of changes

• Languages adapt to different environments = diversity

  • Social context

  • Ecology

  • Genetics

  • Communication technologies

• Languages with greater learnability, fidelity of transmission, efficiency of comprehension = more likely to spread

What are Memes?

Cultural units that can be transmitted from one individual to another

• Ideas

• Beliefs

• Behaviors

• Phrases

• Images

Differences between Memetics and GCCE (Gene Culture CoEvolution theory)

• Memetics: culture is reducible to gene-like units of cultural selection, spread at expense of human fitness

• GCCE: no discrete units, cultural traits studied generally, cultural transmission is adaptation, and emphasis on potential adaptive values cultural traits might have for bearers

How did Memeticists believe memes replicated?

• Gene = biological replicator, Meme = cultural replicator

• Believed memes were transmitted through social learning, and regaled a link between biological and memetic fitness

• Social learning facilitates transmission - contains random errors, international changes to content of memes = many evolved features may not increase fitness, or even decrease it

• Memes successful through attractive attention (fear, hunger, anger, lust) or evangelism (containing instructions for spreading)

Main components of GCCE?

Feedback loop between culture and genes = genetically adaptations

• Dual-Inheritance theory

• Flexibility for theoretical development

Incorporates both genetic and cultural variants in explaining transmission of traits/behaviors

• Culture transmits faster than genes

• Social learning biases reduce cultural variation and allows learners to learn most adaptive traits

• Adaptationism - Allows formulating the coevolutionary aspect of the theory with clear cut predictions about variation in gene frequencies in world populations

What is the Dual-Inheritance Theory?

Used in GCCE

• Individuals are understood as entities subject to TWO systems of inheritance:

  • Biological traits

  • Cultural traits

• There is no separation between cultural and genetic natural selection

• They are two sides of the same coin - no reason to treat them separately

• Operates on both cultural variants and individuals/groups - cultural and genetic variants that were less adaptive don’t continue

What are the four types of agenda issues?

1. Media Agenda: issues discussed on media (TV, radio, newspapers)

2. Public Agenda: issues discussed and personally relevant to the public

3. Policy Agenda: issues that policy makers consider important

4. Corporate Agenda: issues that big business and corporations consider important

Define morphology

The study of the structure and formation of words in a language. It involves analyzing how words are constructed from smaller meaningful units called morphemes, and how these morphemes combine to create different forms of words.

What are the 5 main differences between Memetics and GCCE?

1. Coherence

2. Ontology

3. Adaptationist View of Culture

4. Cultural Group Selection

5. Diachronic Development

Define Cultural Group Selection (CGS)

• Cultural groups with certain advantageous traits outcompete other groups = spread cultural traits more effectively

  • Shared beliefs/ norms/rituals/institutions that facilitate collective action & support - such as religious groups

• Traits are transmitted both vertically (parents to kids) and horizontally (across individuals and groups) and at rapid speeds - leading to the culture rapidly spreading throughout the group

How do Memetics and GCCE differ in ontology?

• Memetics: Cultural traits (memes) = discrete, replicable units and focuses on their transmission & selection = reductionist ontology where culture is broken down into individual meme

• GCCE: Cultural traits are interconnected with genetic traits = holistic view of relationship between culture and biology

  • Examines complex interplay between genes & culture

How do Memetics and GCCE differ in coherence?

• Memetics: Criticized for lacking consensus, clear theoretical framework, and seen more as a metaphor than a scientific theory

• GCCE: Combines well-known principles from evolutionary biology & cultural anthropology to explain how genetic and cultural traits coevolve over time

How do Memetics and GCCE differ in terms of adaptationist view of culture?

Memetics:

• focuses on the transmission and evolution of cultural information, known as memes, analogous to genes in biological evolution.

• emphasizes the spread and replication of memes through cultural transmission mechanisms such as imitation, language, and social learning.

• often applies principles from evolutionary biology, such as natural selection and replication, to understand how cultural traits evolve and spread within human populations.

GCCE:

• examines the dynamic interplay between genetic and cultural evolution and how they influence each other over time.

• It acknowledges that culture can shape genetic evolution by influencing selective pressures, while genetic factors can also influence the transmission and evolution of cultural traits.

• emphasizes the reciprocal relationship between genes and culture, viewing them as interconnected and coevolving systems.

In summary, while both adopt an adaptationist view of culture, Memetics focuses primarily on the transmission and evolution of cultural information, while GCCE considers the complex interactions between genetic and cultural evolution.

How do Memetics and GCCE differ in diachronic development?

• Memetics: Cultural traits spread & evolve over time, focus on short term changes and the replication dynamics of memes

• GCCE: Genetic and cultural traits can co-evolve over extended periods (changes in one domain can influence the other, mutually reinforcing each other) longer term view

Memetics focus on separation of memetic & genetic fitness?

Hypotheses were based on decoupling the link between biological and memetic fitness

Dawkins incentivized Memetics scholars to focus on strict separation of memetic & genetic fitness and ontology of memes (as opposed to formulation of testable hypotheses)

How do Memetics and GCCE differ in view of cultural group selection?

• Memetics: does not typically incorporate concept of CGS

• GCCE: Includes concept of CGS as the central component. Success of groups that hold traits = spread or decline of certain cultural features

How do Memetics and GCCE differ in diachronic development?

• Memetics: Cultural traits spread & evolve over time, focus on short term changes and the replication dynamics of memes

• GCCE: Genetic and cultural traits can co-evolve over extended periods (changes in one domain can influence the other, mutually reinforcing each other) longer term view

What is Big Data?

The data is so large, complex, and/or variable that tools must be invented to understand it

What are the 3 types of big data?

1. Structured Data

2. Semi-unstructured Data

3. Unstructured Data

Define Structured Data

Typically numbers or labels stored in structured framework of columns and rows

• Easy to manipulate

• Examples: ID Codes in databases, numerical data in Google Sheets, Star ratings

Define Semi-Unstructured Data

Data that is loosely organized intro categories

• Examples: Social media posts organized by hashtags, emails in sent vs. inbox vs. draft, folders categorizing content by topic

Define Unstructured Data

Text-heavy information that’s not organized in clearly defined framework (most of the data we have)

• Examples: Content of emails we sent, social media posts, and star ratings, videos, images, speech, sounds

External vs Internal Validity?

External Validity: extent to which results can be generalized to other people/situations

Internal Validity: extent to which results represent truth in population we’re studying (affects causal inferences)

What is an example of a question computational communication can generate and answer?

• Predict weather (using past data to inform present conditions)

• Business & cultural trends (Google Analytics - find looks/patterns to predict new fashion trends)

• Social media platforms (predict content recommendation systems)

• Sentiment analysis in Tweets

What are the 4 research paradigms in Computational Communication Science?

1. Observational approaches

2. Theoretical approaches

3. Experimental research

4. Computational communication

What are the opportunities and challenges for observational approaches? (In Computational Communication Science)

Digital trace data

• Opportunities:

  • Revisit long-standing theories

  • Accelerate & generalize observational findings

  • Inform policymakers & practitioners

• Challenges:

  • Biased data (sampling)

  • Being aware of incorporating different levels of analysis (individual, interpersonal, organizational, societal)

What are the opportunities and challenges for theoretical approaches? (In Computational Communication Science)

Computer simulations

• Opportunities:

  • Build increasingly complex models

  • Model individual actors (Spotify users)

  • Examine hypothetical situations (computer simulations)

  • Inform policymakers & practitioners

• Challenges:

  • Lacks empirical validation = though they can be viewed as complementary rather than competitive

  • Translating verbal theories to formal code requires being more precise

What are the opportunities and challenges for experimental research? (In Computational Communication Science)

Virtual experiments

• Opportunities:

  • Online laboratories & field experiments

  • Large scale (more efficient) = improves external validity, understanding group-level behavior

  • Novel measures for previously unobservable phenomena

• Challenges:

  • Replication crisis: reduction in environmental control = lowers internal validity = reduces accuracy/reliability of causes inferences

  • Ethical concerns: privacy concerns, perpetuating biases & stereotypes

What are examples of questions that computational communication can generate and answer?

• Predict weather (using past data to inform present conditions)

• Business & cultural trends (Google Analytics - find looks/patterns to predict new fashion trends)

• Social media platforms (predict content recommendation systems)

• Sentiment analysis in Tweets

What is the tribal instincts hypothesis?

Serves to explain human cooperation in large groups

If an individual doesn’t follow the group - they get ousted

Individuals are most likely to survive in a norm-structured society if they follow those norms

Serves to explains why behaviors spread rapidly in large groups

Describe the interplay between Culture Group Selection (CGS) and Genetic Evolution.

Cultural practices that affect survival and reproductive success can lead to actual genetic changes in populations over time

Genetic predispositions can influence adoption and maintenance of cultural traits

How are Memetics and GCCE similar?

Both account for and attempt to define how culture evolves

• GCCE simply better fits the current “paradigm” (Thomas Kuhn)

Both understand culture as being subject to evolutionary dynamics and reducible to some sort of cultural units

How does GCCE explain evolved differences?

• Genetic variability

• Cultural transmission (what is watched or listened to)

• Epigenetics (change of genetics from personal choices)

• Gene-environment interactions

• Niche construction (loving rock music - incorporates you into that niche)

• Differential learning & adaptation

What is Cultural Evolution?

Culture is subject to evolutionary dynamics, and can be reduced to cultural units such as memes or cultural variants

Why is Thomas Kuhn important?

• He challenged the traditional view of scientific progress as a gradual accumulation of facts

• Instead, Kuhn argued that scientific progress is a series of paradigm shifts, and can change drastically given one big shift in understanding

What is a Paradigm?

• A dominant framework or model shaping a scientific community’s worldview

• A standard perspective or set of ideas, a way of looking at something

• Represent drastic changes in how scientists perceive and approach their fields

• When paradigms accumulate and become significant, they lead to scientific revolutions/revolutionary changes

Explain the concept of imitation and mirror neurons, including how they are related.

Imitation: more advanced in humans, advantageous for survival (especially when you can discern who and what successful behaviors to replicate)

Mirror neurons match action perception with action execution and recognition

• Found in other primate species

Humans activate motor regions when observing actions or hearing words related to actions, indicating a link between imitation and mirror neurons.

IMPORTANCE: Allows for cultural evolution to take place (spread of memes by replication/imitation)

What is the “Black Box” in Memetics?

• A “black box” is a system with unknown or unobservable internal processes, where inputs lead to certain outputs

• Communication theorists propose “explanemes” to understand the internal processes of the “black box” in communication

What are the 6 empirical and theoretical challenges with Memes?

1. No Direct Evidence

2. Discreteness of Cultural Units

3. Meme-Gene Comparison - debates on their true similarity and inheritance

4. Linear Transmission Challenges - complexities in defining linear transmission

5. Accuracy in Copying - Comparing biological and cultural inheritance - transformations during transmission

6. Mental Structures and Material Carriers - questions about pre-existing mental structures that house memes and if there is a material carrier

Give an example of an Algorithmic Prediciton?

Algorithms, with sufficient data, surpass human participants in predicting personality traits

• Data Requirement: Minimal data (10 likes) sufficient to outperform humans in certain predictions

What was the significance of “Computer-Based Personality Judgements”

Significance: Demonstrates that computer models, using digital footprints, make more accurate personality judgments than humans.

Findings: Computers outperform close others (friends, family, etc.) in personality predictions.

What was the significance of “Big Data and Social Impact”

Potential of Big Datasets: Uncover individual and group behavior patterns.

Analytical Power: Enables analysis, pattern recognition, and early identification of behavioral patterns.

Applications:

• Solving human communication problems.

• Understanding communication behavior.

• Investigating cause-and-effect relationships between communication signals and people's beliefs/behaviors.

What are the three sources of big data?

Digital Life: Captures digitally mediated social behaviors.

• Examples: Platforms: Email, social networks, Twitter, Google flu trends.

Digital Trace Data: Records automatically created by digital systems and devices.

• Examples: Web browsing data, social media data, location data, transactional data.

Digitalized Life Data: Analog behavior transformed into digital form.

• Examples: Video recordings of cities, scanning pre-digital informational objects.

List the challenges in constructing sampling frames in social media data collection.

• The potential difficulty in creating comprehensive sampling frameworks.

• Distinguishing Bots from Humans: Identifying and eliminating automated accounts.

• Platform Effects: Acknowledging the impact of the platform on data representation.

• API Variability: Recognizing fluctuations in data transmitted through APIs.

What are some examples of uses of big data?

• Prediction of Major Weather Phenomena: Utilizing extensive data sets to enhance weather forecasting and predict significant meteorological events.

• Spotting Business and Cultural Trends: Analyzing vast data pools to identify emerging trends in both the business and cultural landscapes.

• Framing Ads to Personality or Mood of Customers: Tailoring advertising strategies based on big data insights into the personality traits and moods of consumers.

• Prevention of Diseases and Health Risks: Leveraging data for disease prevention by identifying health risks, predicting conditions, and understanding medication interactions.

• Predictive Law Enforcement: Employing data analytics to recognize patterns of communication that may indicate potential extremist or terrorist activities.

• Targeting Voter Groups for Maximum Impact: Optimizing political messaging by targeting specific voter groups through data-driven strategies.

• Tracking Public Opinion for Informed Policy-Making: Monitoring and analyzing public sentiment on various issues to inform policy-making decisions.

• Tracking (or Manipulating) Market Sentiment: Understanding and influencing market sentiment through data analysis for strategic decision-making.

What are some specific examples in social media of public opinion analysis?

• Emotion Contagion on Facebook

• Predicting the Election outcomes via Twitter (volume of tweets in support)

• Public Sentiment and Health Crises via Twitter

• Fake News Detection - Leveraging Machine Learning (analyzing content of text)

• Rapid Spread of Fake News on social media (due to emotionally charged content of fake news)

What are some examples of Sentiment Analysis of Public Discourse?

• Real time shift in political sentiment on twitter

• Consumer sentiment in product reviews

• Sentiment and stock market movements

• Case study on Taylor Swift’s overexposure

  • Data collection of posts and articles about Swift

  • Natural Language Processing (NLP) to categorize mentions as positive, negative, or neutral

  • Network Analysis to map the spread of information and sentiment across the internet, identify key’s influencers and nodes contributing to her overexposure

What are the opportunities and challenges for observational approaches? (In Computational Communication Science)

Digital trace data

• Opportunities:

  • Revisit long-standing theories

  • Accelerate & generalize observational findings

  • Inform policymakers & practitioners

• Challenges:

  • Biased data (sampling)

  • Being aware of incorporating different levels of analysis (individual, interpersonal, organizational, societal)

What constitutes media use?

Use of:

• media channels (tv, email)

• Devices (phones, game consoles)

• Content/messages (games narratives, advertising, news)

• all types of platforms, tools, apps (Facebook, Instagram, Uber)

A media effect is when media use results in …?

• Potential changes in cognitions, emotions, attitudes behaviors

  • Changes can be: deliberate or non-deliberate, short or long term, individual, group or societal level

What are the 3 main types of media effects?

1. Agenda-setting effects

2. Priming effects

3. Framing effects

Define agenda-setting media effects.

Media influences:

• Salience of issues on public agenda (what people think about, not what to think)

• Perceptions of what issues are important (issues in media & voters perceptions)

Define priming media effects.

Media coverage increases accessibility of certain issues in peoples minds (increase salience) - which primes people to use those considerations to evaluate politicians and policies

Priming influences:

• What considerations are a basis for evaluations

• How people evaluate political leaders and issues

Ex: consistently seeing a candidate portrayed as incompetent makes you not vote for them

Define framing media effects.

How an issue if portrayed and “framed” by the media

It can influence:

• What people focus on

• People’s perceptions & interpretations about issues

Ex: framing climate change as an environmental issues vs. an economic issue

What are 3 possible explanations for the evolution of art?

The same in the basic theory of evolution of species’ cognitive and neural architecture:

1. Adaptations (for survival - avoiding a poisonous snake)

2. Byproducts (of survival adaptations - avoiding non-poisonous snakes)

3. Genetic noise (by chance)

Why is adaptation a possible explanation for the evolution of art?

Engagement in fictional experiences is a functional product of adaptation that are designed to produce this engagement

Adaptive and functional process:

• Builds tribal connections

• Prepares us psychologically for other scenarios

Why are byproducts a possible explanation for the evolution of art?

Engagement in fictional experiences is an accidental and functionless byproduct of adaptations (that evolved to serve functions that have nothing to do with the arts)

Coupled with traits that were selected for/functional

Why is genetic noise a possible explanation for the evolution of art?

Genetic drift = by chance, some genes get passed on more than others

Engagement in fictional experiences is the result of underlying genes that spread by chance in evolution

Random mutation

Define evolutionary cyberpsychology.

Integration of evolutionary psychology and cyberpsychology

Evolutionary psychology: Integration of cognitive psych and evoltuionary bio, focuses on the psychological adaptations (mechanisms of mind that have evolved to solve certain evolutionary problems) - ultimate explanations

Cyberpsychology: study of CMC and internet behavior, relies on standard social theories (cyberbullying, parasocial relationships) - proximate explanations

What are the 5 themes evolutionary cyberpsychology?

1. Mating and intrasexual competition

2. Parenting and kinship

3. Trust and social exchange

4. Personal information management

5. Friendships

What is the Evolutionary Psychology background of mating & intrasexual competition (as an evolutionary cyberpsychology theme)?

Sexual strategies theory - focus on men and women’s differences in mating preferences/strategies

Parental Investment - sex that invests more (women) will be more selective, sex that invests less (men) will have more intrasexual competition

Intersexual selection - evolution of characteristics because of its mating advantage & result of one sex exerting pressure on opposite sex

Intrasexual competition - occurs when members of one sex compete agains each other for a mete, men and women expected to generate different signals

What are some potential hypotheses for mating & intrasexual competition as an evolutionary cyberpsychology theme?

Parental investment

• men are primary initiators of short-term sexting behaviors

• differences in perceptions of online sexual infidelity (men care more) and online emotional infidelity (women care more)

Sexual over-perception bias

• fewer women reach out to men on dating apps (men reach out more)

Intersexual behavior

• women disproportionately victims of cyber stalking

Intrasexual competition

What is the Evolutionary Psychology background of parenting & kinship (as an evolutionary cyberpsychology theme)?

Selective pressures on parents to monitor children’s interactions (to increase genetic fitness)

Predicts that mothers will be more concerned with children’s social interactions than fathers, due to certainty about maternity (less risk) and greater levels of parental care

What are some potential hypotheses for parenting & kinship as an evolutionary cyberpsychology theme?

People use high-cost communications to contact relatives more than non-kin

Women have a more active role in monitoring children’s online behavior than fathers