Social familiarity and reinforcement value: a behavioral-economic analysis of demand for social interaction with cagemate and non-cagemate female rats
Social interaction holds value for rats, yet knowing the partner does not make them press more.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team worked with 16 female rats. They let each rat press a lever for 30 seconds of social time.
Sometimes the social partner was a cagemate, sometimes a stranger. The price went up every block: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 presses.
They tracked how many times the rat pressed at each price and drew a demand curve.
What they found
When the lever price grew, the rats quickly stopped pressing. Their demand curves looked like ski slopes.
Cagemate or stranger made no clear difference. The curves for familiar and unfamiliar partners landed on top of each other.
Social time works as a reinforcer, but friendship does not raise its value.
How this fits with other research
Huntington et al. (2022) showed that WHO gives the social reward changes value for humans with autism. Mom versus stranger shifted preference. The rat data say WHO does not matter when both partners are other rats. Species and setting explain the gap.
Tyrer et al. (2009) found that bigger sugar pellets pushed rats to press far longer on progressive-ratio schedules. Schulingkamp used the same cost-escalation idea but swapped sugar for social contact. The takeaway: magnitude matters for food, yet familiarity does not matter for social.
Hamm et al. (1978) got humans to work harder for leisure activities when access was contingent. Both studies show that rising cost kills demand, whether the payoff is a video game or a rat buddy.
Why it matters
If you are building social reinforcement programs, do not assume the client will work harder just because the partner is familiar. Test the demand curve instead. Start with easy response requirements and watch the rate drop as you add cost. Use that breakpoint to set realistic social-reinforcer schedules in classrooms or clinics.
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Run a brief progressive-ratio probe: let your learner earn 30 s of peer time by completing 1, then 2, then 4 tasks; note when they stop and set daily requirements just below that breakpoint.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
Rats were studied in social reinforcement procedures in which lever presses opened a door separating two adjacent spaces, permitting access to social interaction with a partner rat. The number of lever presses required for social interaction was systematically increased across blocks of sessions according to fixed-ratio schedules, generating demand functions at three different social reinforcement durations: 10 s, 30 s, and 60 s. The social partner rats were cagemates in one phase, and non-cagemates in a second phase. The rate at which social interactions were produced declined with the fixed-ratio price, and was well described by an exponential model that has been successfully employed with a range of social and non-social reinforcers. None of the main parameters of the model varied systematically with social interaction duration or with the social familiarity of the partner rat. On the whole, the results provide further evidence of the reinforcing value of social interaction, and its functional parallels with non-social reinforcers.
Frontiers in Psychology, 2023 · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1158365