Cultural Selection and Behavioral Economics Lab, Oslo (2026)

04/10/2021

Congratulations to Kobla for publishing An Integrity Violation Examined from a Behavior Analytic Perspectivehis as a chapter in the following book "A Scientific Framework for Compassion and Social Justice - Lessons in Applied Behavior Analysis"

A Scientific Framework for Compassion and Social Justice provides readers with an in-depth understanding of the behavior analytic principles that maintain social justice issues and highlights behavior analytic principles that promote self-awareness and compassion. Expanding on the goals of the field...

02/07/2021

Congratulations to Carla Suarez, Marcelo Benvenuti, Kalliu Couto, José Oliveira Siqueira, Josele Abreu-Rodrigues, Karen M. Lionello-DeNolf, and Ingunn Sandaker for their new publication 🎊🎉🎊🎉:

Title: Reciprocity With Unequal Payoffs: Cooperative and Uncooperative Interactions Affect Disadvantageous Inequity Aversion

Abstract: Cooperation among unrelated individuals can evolve through reciprocity. Reciprocal cooperation is the process in which lasting social interactions provide the opportunity to learn about others' behavior, and to further predict the outcome of future encounters. Lasting social interactions may also decrease aversion to unequal distribution of gains – when individuals accept inequity payoffs knowing about the possibility of future encounters. Thus, reciprocal cooperation and aversion to inequity can be complementary phenomena. The present study investigated the effects of cooperative and uncooperative interactions on participants' aversion to disadvantageous inequity. Participants played an experimental task in the presence of a confederate who acted as a second participant. In reality, the participant interacted with a computer programed to make cooperative and uncooperative choices. After interacting with a cooperative or uncooperative computer, participants chose between blue cards to produce larger gains to the computer and smaller for him/her or green cards to produce equal and smaller gains for both. Results confirmed our first hypothesis that uncooperative interactions would produce aversion to disadvantageous inequity. Lastly, half of the participants were informed that points received during the experiment could be later exchanged for money, and half were not. Results indicated that information about monetary outcomes did not affect aversion to inequity, contradicting our second hypothesis. We discuss these results in the light of theories of reciprocal cooperation, inequity aversion, and conformity.

Cooperation among unrelated individuals can evolve through reciprocity. Reciprocal cooperation is the process in which lasting social interactions provide the opportunity to learn about others' behavior, and to further predict the outcome of future encounters. Lasting social interactions may also de...

31/05/2021

Tomorrow's (1. June) Lab meeting will be held at 15:15 on Zoom.

Title: Consortium and BSPA conference

Program: Harald Stokkeland presents his work in in the consortium between Norway and Romania and possible future project involvement.

Marco Tagliabue shares a summary and highlights of the recent behavioral insights and policy association’s (BSPA) annual conference that was held online in May. You may read more about the association here: https://behavioralpolicy.org/

Welcome!

Behavioral Science & Policy Association -

25/05/2021

Congratulations to Marco Tagliabue, Massimo Cesareo, Valeria Squatrito, and Nanni Presti for their new publication!

Title: A Functional Contextualist Account of Behavioral Economics: Relational Frame Theory Applied to Decision-Making and Choice Behavior

Abstract: Behavioral economics is a discipline that is mainly rooted in cognitivism and that is concerned with the study of decision-making processes and choice behavior. These involve addressing the relations between cognition and overt behavior, which comprise one of the most challenging topics in the domain of behavioral sciences at large and have been approached by different epistemological viewpoints. Within the cognitivist tradition, private events have been often treated as causes of behaviors, adopting a mechanistic view. Conversely, a contextual functional behavioral perspective treats them with the same methodology that is adopted for overt behaviors. Relational frame theory, a post-Skinnerian theory of language and cognition, offers a behavioral perspective on cognition and overt behavior and how they influence human behavior, by keeping a high degree of coherence with basic principles and goals of behavior analysis (i.e., effective action). This conceptual paper represents an attempt to offer a perspective drawn from contextual behavioral science on some constructs described in behavioral economics. Furthermore, it provides a common ground for behavior analysts and researchers in other fields of psychology to further expand our knowledge and respective explanations of decision-making processes. Finally, it draws a line for connecting basic research to applied solutions.

A Functional Contextualist Account of Behavioral Economics: Relational Frame Theory Applied to Decision-Making and Choice Behavior Marco Tagliabue Massimo Cesareo Valeria Squatrito Giovambattista Presti DOI: https://doi.org/10.18761/PAC.2021.v12.RFT.05 Palavras-chave: relational frame theory, behavi...

19/04/2021

Seminar: Culturo-behavior and Complexity Perspectives on Responses to the Covid-19 Pandemic

20/04
15:15 (CEST)

The purpose of the Seminar is to promote a dialogue between researchers and policymakers on variables involved in mitigation, contagion containment, resilience, and decision making in outbreaks situations. The Seminar will focus on topics such as (a) Risk and decision making during the Covid-19 pandemic, (b) Behavioral principles underlying protective and risk behaviors, and culturo-behavior strategies for promoting sustainable coordinated responses, (c) Community resilience in the case of Paraisópolis/SP, and (d) Organizational responses to the Coronavirus in schools and education.

Invited Discussants (EDITED):

Cláudio Maierovitch: Sanitary doctor from Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, former president of the National Health Surveillance Agency of Brazil and former director of the Department of Communicable Disease Surveillance, from the Brazilian Ministry of Health.

Fernando Augusto Bozza, M.D., Ph.D - Senior Scientist and Head of Critical Care at the National Institute of Infectious Disease Evandro Chagas, Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, Ministry of Health, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Bozza’s research team activities involve clinical and translational research on severe emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases. During the COVID-19 pandemic his group has worked on the impact of pandemic in Brazilian health system, iniquity in hospital mortality, evolution of mortality in critical care, host immune response, and the development of new therapies. Bozza developed an initiative for test, track and trace COVID-19 cases with more than 2 million downloads and 350,000 free testing (app Dados do Bem). “Dados do Bem” has also been applied in an integrated model of surveillance and health care to mitigate the impact of pandemic in vulnerable communities.

Browse our meetings schedule and other pages here: https://uni.oslomet.no/csbelab/schedule/newschedule/ (Links to an external site.)

Join Zoom Meeting here: https://oslomet.zoom.us/j/65337042171?pwd=MzdpOEN4eTF3NEIwTTBNTmg4QWc3UT09 (Links to an external site.)

Zoom is the leader in modern enterprise video communications, with an easy, reliable cloud platform for video and audio conferencing, chat, and webinars across mobile, desktop, and room systems. Zoom Rooms is the original software-based conference room solution used around the world in board, confer...

08/04/2021

Public Defense from our lab: Magnus Johansson

Magnus Johansson will defend his thesis “Evolving Nurturing Societies” for the Ph.D. in Behavior Analysis.

Magnus Johansson will defend his thesis “Evolving Nurturing Societies” for the PhD in Behavior Analysis.

10/03/2021

Congratulations to Puspa Khanal, Fabio Bento, and Marco Tagliabue for their new publication!

Title: A Scoping Review of Organizational Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic in Schools: A Complex Systems Perspective

Abstract: This study is a scoping review of the literature on organizational adaptation in school settings during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Dramatic and unexpected environmental changes raise questions about the capacity of schooling organizations to adapt to in response to the pandemic. Different management practices have implications for the selection of organizational behaviors, electively in school settings. The research literature on school responses is analyzed from a selectionist perspective. The aim of this study is to identify and describe three constituting elements of this perspective: variation, interaction, and selection. An additional element is considered in this analysis and comprises the mechanisms of exploration and exploitation in the context of organizational adaptation. Sixteen studies met the selection criteria of describing emergent processes in schools. The findings highlight the emergence of exploration, as teachers actively experimented with a range of strategies and methods in order to maintain educational activities in the complex and uncertain context of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, several questions are raised regarding the effects and maintenance of new practices in the post-pandemic scenario. Management practices that facilitate variation and open communication about learning processes can contribute to the process of organizational adaptation.

This study is a scoping review of the literature on organizational adaptation in school settings during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Dramatic and unexpected environmental changes raise questions about the capacity of schooling organizations to adapt to in response to the pandemic. Diff...

26/02/2021

Congratulations to Siv Nergaard and Kalliu Couto for their new paper titled: Effects of reinforcement and response‐cost history on instructional control

This study was a collaboration between the Experimental analysis of behavior - Translational and conceptual research and the CS&BE Lab.

The paper is free to access thanks to an agreement between Norwegian institutions and Wiley.

The present study compared the effects of reinforcement or punishment versus no additional consequences for instruction following on instructional control and subsequent rule‐governed insensitivity. ...

17/02/2021

Congratulations to Massimo Cesareo , Marco Tagliabue , Annalisa Oppo and Paolo Moderato for their new paper:

Title: The ubiquity of social reinforcement: A nudging exploratory study to reduce the overuse of smartphones in social contexts

Abstract: In this study, we analyze the interaction between smartphones and their users as contingencies of reinforcement underpinning social behavior. We posit the introduction of a nudge: an environmental intervention meant to guide behavior that can be easily avoided in a social context. Our experiment takes us to an Italian pub with the hypothesis that a simple environmental factor (a basket featuring a social cue) will contribute to a reduction in digital social interactions in favor of physical social interactions. Data were collected employing a momentary time sampling where we recorded an increase in estimated time with no smartphone interactions and a decrease in estimated time with all the customers seated at one table using their smartphones in the experimental condition. These results were significant and suggest that the nudge was effective at reducing smartphone use among the patrons. Moreover, the estimates of these digital interactions were shorter for the statistical unit when compared to the control. Together, the results of study demonstrate that a nudge can reduce smartphone use in contexts of social interaction. However, it may be difficult to sustain alternative behavior without providing consequences that reinforce its future occurrences.

(2021). The ubiquity of social reinforcement: A nudging exploratory study to reduce the overuse of smartphones in social contexts. Cogent Psychology: Vol. 8, No. 1, 1880304.

30/01/2021

Congratulations to Fabio Bento and Kalliu Couto for their new paper:

Title: A Behavioral Perspective on Community Resilience During the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Case of Paraisópolis in São Paulo, Brazil

Abstract: The present article discusses the emergence and dynamics of community resilience by empirically investigating the case of the favela of Paraisópolis in São Paulo, Brazil. The emergence of innovative practices that initially contributed to significantly lower rates of COVID-19 infection and mortality when compared to the city average is described. The analytical framework combines two conceptual perspectives in the study of complex systems. First, resilience in socio-ecological systems highlights the adaptation processes characterized by an interplay of previous experience and emerging new knowledge. Second, the metacontingency framework describes the interplay between a cultural milieu, as a context for cultural practices; an aggregate product; and a selecting environment that embed the acquisition and continuity of interlocking behavioral contingencies. Research methods that combine elements of the descriptive analysis and an exploratory basic qualitative study are employed to understand how the community has self-organized during this period. The findings demonstrate how previous experience with social challenges facilitated self-organization and the emergence of innovative practices in the context of uncoordinated public health measures during the pandemic in Brazil. Furthermore, findings from interviews indicate the existence of positive feedback loops at the community level that facilitated the emergence of innovative practices. This study aims at contributing to the understanding of community resilience by identifying the geographic, psychological, and ecological factors (contextual variables) that facilitate responses to the pandemic.

The present article discusses the emergence and dynamics of community resilience by empirically investigating the case of the favela of Paraisópolis in São Paulo, Brazil. The emergence of innovative practices that initially contributed to significantly lower rates of COVID-19 infection...

14/12/2020

Congratulations to Jan Wright for his new publication titled:

Disaster Mitigation Under Complex Contingencies: Risk Management Outline for a Connected World

Disasters have always been part of human history. Although global safety has increased over the years, it is a question if the positive trend will continue. The most discussed major uncertainty is climate change, temporarily dwarfed by the COVID-19 virus pandemic. There are however many other challe...

Cultural Selection and Behavioral Economics Lab

04/10/2021

02/07/2021

31/05/2021

25/05/2021

19/04/2021

08/04/2021

10/03/2021

26/02/2021

17/02/2021

30/01/2021

14/12/2020

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Nettsted

Varslinger

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Del

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