This thesis gives a formal logical analysis of a social phenomenon; gossip. Gossip can be used to... more This thesis gives a formal logical analysis of a social phenomenon; gossip. Gossip can be used to serve many goals. The Sherlock Holmes’ of our society -always looking for an explanationmight use gossip to find an explanation for a surprising observation. Also for the agents that are not so eager to find the truth, for those who are more concerned about their social position instead, gossip might be helpful. Gossip can be used as a tool to exclude or include a specific person from a group. Further, gossip can help to increase or decrease the social bonding within a group. An agent might start to gossip in order to reach any of these goals. Each of them gives the gossip conversation a different structure. This work formally describes and models the epistemic and social sides of gossip and proceeds by giving formal protocols that correspond to a number of different conversation structures. In the formal part we use dynamic epistemic logic, which is able to model the changes in the kno...
The conflict between pro-self and pro-social behaviour is at the core of many key problems of our... more The conflict between pro-self and pro-social behaviour is at the core of many key problems of our time, as, for example, the reduction of air pollution and the redistribution of scarce resources. For the well-being of our societies, it is thus crucial to find mechanisms to promote pro-social choices over egoistic ones. Particularly important, because cheap and easy to implement, are those mechanisms that can change people’s behaviour without forbidding any options or significantly changing their economic incentives, the so-called “nudges”. Previous research has found that moral nudges (e.g., making social norms salient) can promote pro-social behaviour. However, little is known about whether their effect persists over time and spills across context. This question is key in light of research showing that prosocial actions are often followed by selfish actions, thus suggesting that some moral manipulations may backfire. Here we present a class of simple moral nudges that have a great ...
& iris van de pol 3 The conflict between pro-self and pro-social behaviour is at the core of many... more & iris van de pol 3 The conflict between pro-self and pro-social behaviour is at the core of many key problems of our time, as, for example, the reduction of air pollution and the redistribution of scarce resources. For the wellbeing of our societies, it is thus crucial to find mechanisms to promote pro-social choices over egoistic ones. Particularly important, because cheap and easy to implement, are those mechanisms that can change people's behaviour without forbidding any options or significantly changing their economic incentives, the so-called "nudges". Previous research has found that moral nudges (e.g., making norms salient) can promote pro-social behaviour. However, little is known about whether their effect persists over time and spills across context. This question is key in light of research showing that pro-social actions are often followed by selfish actions, thus suggesting that some moral manipulations may backfire. Here we present a class of simple moral nudges that have a great positive impact on prosociality. In Studies 1-4 (total N = 1,400), we use economic games to demonstrate that asking subjects to self-report "what they think is the morally right thing to do" does not only increase pro-sociality in the choice immediately after, but also in subsequent choices, and even when the social context changes. In Study 5, we explore whether moral nudges promote charity donations to humanitarian organisations in a large (N = 1,800) crowdfunding campaign. We find that, in this context, moral nudges increase donations by about 44 percent.
This thesis gives a formal logical analysis of a social phenomenon; gossip. Gossip can be used to... more This thesis gives a formal logical analysis of a social phenomenon; gossip. Gossip can be used to serve many goals. The Sherlock Holmes’ of our society -always looking for an explanationmight use gossip to find an explanation for a surprising observation. Also for the agents that are not so eager to find the truth, for those who are more concerned about their social position instead, gossip might be helpful. Gossip can be used as a tool to exclude or include a specific person from a group. Further, gossip can help to increase or decrease the social bonding within a group. An agent might start to gossip in order to reach any of these goals. Each of them gives the gossip conversation a different structure. This work formally describes and models the epistemic and social sides of gossip and proceeds by giving formal protocols that correspond to a number of different conversation structures. In the formal part we use dynamic epistemic logic, which is able to model the changes in the kno...
The conflict between pro-self and pro-social behaviour is at the core of many key problems of our... more The conflict between pro-self and pro-social behaviour is at the core of many key problems of our time, as, for example, the reduction of air pollution and the redistribution of scarce resources. For the well-being of our societies, it is thus crucial to find mechanisms to promote pro-social choices over egoistic ones. Particularly important, because cheap and easy to implement, are those mechanisms that can change people’s behaviour without forbidding any options or significantly changing their economic incentives, the so-called “nudges”. Previous research has found that moral nudges (e.g., making social norms salient) can promote pro-social behaviour. However, little is known about whether their effect persists over time and spills across context. This question is key in light of research showing that prosocial actions are often followed by selfish actions, thus suggesting that some moral manipulations may backfire. Here we present a class of simple moral nudges that have a great ...
& iris van de pol 3 The conflict between pro-self and pro-social behaviour is at the core of many... more & iris van de pol 3 The conflict between pro-self and pro-social behaviour is at the core of many key problems of our time, as, for example, the reduction of air pollution and the redistribution of scarce resources. For the wellbeing of our societies, it is thus crucial to find mechanisms to promote pro-social choices over egoistic ones. Particularly important, because cheap and easy to implement, are those mechanisms that can change people's behaviour without forbidding any options or significantly changing their economic incentives, the so-called "nudges". Previous research has found that moral nudges (e.g., making norms salient) can promote pro-social behaviour. However, little is known about whether their effect persists over time and spills across context. This question is key in light of research showing that pro-social actions are often followed by selfish actions, thus suggesting that some moral manipulations may backfire. Here we present a class of simple moral nudges that have a great positive impact on prosociality. In Studies 1-4 (total N = 1,400), we use economic games to demonstrate that asking subjects to self-report "what they think is the morally right thing to do" does not only increase pro-sociality in the choice immediately after, but also in subsequent choices, and even when the social context changes. In Study 5, we explore whether moral nudges promote charity donations to humanitarian organisations in a large (N = 1,800) crowdfunding campaign. We find that, in this context, moral nudges increase donations by about 44 percent.
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Papers by Rana Klein