Hertz, U;
Bell, V;
Raihani, N;
(2021)
Trusting and learning from others: immediate and long-term effects of learning from observation and advice.
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
, 288
(1961)
, Article 20211414. 10.1098/rspb.2021.1414.
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Abstract
Social learning underpins our species's extraordinary success. Learning through observation has been investigated in several species, but learning from advice—where information is intentionally broadcast—is less understood. We used a pre-registered, online experiment (n = 1492) combined with computational modelling to examine learning through observation and advice. Participants were more likely to immediately follow advice than to copy an observed choice, but this was dependent upon trust in the adviser: highly paranoid participants were less likely to follow advice in the short term. Reinforcement learning modelling revealed two distinct patterns regarding the long-term effects of social information: some individuals relied fully on social information, whereas others reverted to trial-and-error learning. This variation may affect the prevalence and fidelity of socially transmitted information. Our results highlight the privileged status of advice relative to observation and how the assimilation of intentionally broadcast information is affected by trust in others.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Trusting and learning from others: immediate and long-term effects of learning from observation and advice |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1098/rspb.2021.1414 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2021.1414 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © 2021 The Authors. Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited. |
| Keywords: | Reinforcement learning, advice, reputation, paranoia, trust, social learning |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences > Clinical, Edu and Hlth Psychology |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10137774 |
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