In three experiments we tested the conformity hypothesis--that subjects' ideas would conform to examples they had been shown--by using a creative generation paradigm in which subjects imagined and sketched new exemplars of experimenter-defined categories. Designs made by subjects who had first seen three examples of ideas were compared with those of control subjects, who received no examples. I...

OBJECTIVES This study aims to establish a "Vertigo Council Diagnosis Questionnaire" for patients with chronic vestibular dysfunction and show the reliability of this questionnaire. MATERIALS AND METHODS A "Vertigo Council Diagnosis Questionnaire" consisting of 10 questions was prepared by 15 specialist physicians and analyzed for reliability using the "translation-back-translation" method. ...

The utilization of Web 2.0 as a platform to comprehend the arduous task of expert identification is an upcoming trend. An open problem is to assess the level of expertise objectively in the web 2.0 communities formed. We propose the “ComEx Miner System” that realizes Expert Mining in Virtual Communities, as a solution for this by quantifying the degree of agreement between the sentiment of blog...

Research has generally supported the existence of familial-genetic factors for male sexual orientation, but has not shed much light on the specific nature of those influences. Gay men with gay brothers provide the opportunity to examine several hypotheses. Sixty-six men, representing 37 gay male sibling pairs, completed questionnaires assessing behavior on various measures including childhood a...

According to Moral Foundations Theory, people endorse “individualizing” foundations (Harm/care, Fairness/reciprocity) or “binding” foundations (Ingroup/loyalty, Authority/respect, Purity/sanctity) to varying degrees. As societies with higher pathogen prevalence have been found to exhibit more pronounced antipathogen psychological tendencies and cultural practices (e.g., conformity, collectivism...

Epidemiological models have been applied to human health-related behaviors that are affected by social interaction. Typically these models have not considered conformity bias, that is, the exaggerated propensity to adopt commonly observed behaviors or opinions, or content biases, where the content of the learned trait affects the probability of adoption. Here we consider an interaction of these...

How many members of a group need to express their anger in order to influence a deviant group member's behavior? In two studies, we examine whether an increase in number of angry group members affects the extent to which a deviant individual feels rejected, and we investigate downstream effects on conformity. We show that each additional angry reaction linearly increases the extent to which a d...

In conformity with our previous work on the measurement process in quantum mechanics in terms of first passage random walks in Hilbert space through interactions with the measuring devices, we here consider the problem of measurement of entangled states at spatially separated measuring devices. We find that Bell’s inequality need not be an obstacle if the set of hidden variables include local o...