Doctoral Dissertation Research: Prosocial Reputation Dynamics in Social Networks

拥有合作、值得信赖和慷慨的声誉，社会科学家称之为“亲社会声誉”，可以促进范围惊人的社会重要交易。例如，亲社会的声誉与增加的社会支持，更好的健康，以及互利伙伴关系和经济关系的更多机会有关。然而，声誉可能会发生变化，当这种情况发生时，其影响也可能发生变化。人们认为，当个人之间交换关于他人的意见和信息，声誉通过社交网络传播时，声誉就具有了这种可塑性。该奖项资助的研究将调查这种传播何时以及如何发生;其对健康，福祉，合作关系和社会地位的影响;以及亲社会声誉是否以不同的方式传播，并对女性和男性产生不同的生活后果。 网络研究中的一个关键问题是难以收集包含特定个体群体所有显著社会关系的整个网络数据。例如，在美国，社交网络跨越很大的地理距离，并且由于各种网络的增加的移动性和对诸如组织、社区和家庭的不同社交领域的划分，通常不具有明确划分的边界。这使得整个网络的映射非常困难。因此，研究人员将在苏格兰奥克尼群岛进行研究。该群岛有多个岛屿，人口不多（160人），日常社会关系在地理上是有限的，而且由于基础设施的限制，相对孤立。这种程度的孤立意味着，大多数声誉的社会影响起源于社区，使其成为一个近乎理想的环境，以研究社交网络和声誉对个人生活的总体影响。埃默里大学博士生Hanne货车der Iest，由Paul L.胡珀将在奥克尼岛的一个岛屿社区进行这项研究。在这个社区内，她将通过收集六波双月调查和一年内合作和集体行动的行为观察，全面绘制多个社交网络。通过访谈和观察的规模发展将调查管理之前，到达当地有效的测量工具的研究结构。这项研究的结果将有助于我们了解女性和男性之间亲社会声誉的动态传播，以及它们对健康，福祉，社会地位和生产性交换的不断变化的影响。这些发现对于那些想要了解亲社会行为在人类社会中的作用的社会科学家以及那些关注改善社区生活质量和个人福祉的人来说非常重要。

Having a reputation for being cooperative, trustworthy, and generous, which social scientists call a "prosocial reputation," is known to facilitate a surprisingly wide range of socially important transactions. For example, pro-social reputations are associated with increased social support, better health, and more opportunities for mutually beneficial partnerships and economic relationships. However, reputations may change and when that happens, it is likely that their effects change, too. This malleability of reputations is thought to come about when opinions and information about others are exchanged between individuals and reputations spread through social networks. The research funded by this awards will investigate when and how such spread occurs; its consequences for health, well-being, cooperative relationships, and social status; and whether prosocial reputations spread differently and have different life consequences for women and for men. A critical problem in network research is the difficulty of collecting whole network data that contain all salient social relationships of a particular group of individuals. For instance, in the United States social networks span large geographic distances and due to increased mobility and compartmentalization of various networks to differentiated social realms such as organizations, neighborhoods, and family, often do not have clearly demarcated boundaries. This makes the mapping of whole networks very difficult. Therefore, the researcher will conduct the research in the Orkney archipelago of Scotland. The archipelago contains multiple islands with small populations ( 160 individuals), for whom day-to-day social relations are geographically bounded and, because of infrastructural constraints, relatively isolated. This degree of isolation implies that most social effects of reputations originate within the community, making it a near ideal environment to study the overarching implications of social networks and reputations on individuals' lives. Emory University doctoral student Hanne van der Iest, supervised by Dr. Paul L. Hooper, will carry out this research in one island community in Orkney. Within this community, she will comprehensively map multiple social networks through the collection of six waves of bimonthly surveys and behavioral observations of cooperation and collective action over a one year period. Scale development through interviews and observation will precede survey administration to arrive at locally valid measurement instruments for study constructs. Findings from this research will contribute to our understanding of the dynamic spread of prosocial reputations among women and men, and their changing effects on health, well-being, social status, and productive exchange. These findings are important for social scientists who want to understand the role of prosocial behavior in human societies as well as for those concerned with improving the quality of community life and individual well-being.