The Neuroscience and Psychology of Open Source

Healthy open source communities are vital to the success and growth of an open source project. Those with toxic, closed communities will find it more difficult to be innovative, to attract contributors (and in some cases, users), and to keep up with expanding technologies. Because people are complex, diverse creatures, ensuring that your community is healthy, vibrant, and welcoming can be challenging.

The good news is, science can help you understand how people think and why they act the way they do. Knowing the effect your words and actions have on your fellow community members can guide the way you interact with, and shape the communities in which you're a member.

In this talk, we will discuss cognitive biases such as negativity bias, rejection sensitivity, in-group favoritism, illusion of transparency, and impostor syndrome. We will also talk about the neural and chemical affects of feeling misunderstood and disrespected, social bonding, and tribalism.

You'll come away from this talk with a better understanding of yourself and your fellow humans, an increased feeling of empathy, and the knowledge to improve personal interactions and your communities.

Transcript

1. The
   Neuroscience
   g PSYCHOLOGY
   of
   Open Source
   ;
   ;
   

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2. What Makes Open Source
   Open?
   

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3. What Makes Open Source
   Open?
   People
   Code
   g
   ;
   ;
   

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4. What Makes Open Source
   Open?
   g
   S
   People
   Code
   g
   ;
   ;
   

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5. How People Make Open Source:
   Individuals working in groups,
   collaborating together online.
   

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6. How People Make Open Source
   individuals
   

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7. How People Make Open Source
   individuals
   working in groups
   

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8. How People Make Open Source
   individuals
   working in groups
   collaborating
   

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9. How People Make Open Source
   individuals
   working in groups
   collaborating
   ONLINE
   

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10. How People Make Open Source
    individuals
    S
    

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11. Cognitive Biases
    (The ways in which we commonly act
    irrationally.1)
    107 Y
    Y
    

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12. #58: Negativity Bias
    We place more importance on
    negative experiences and
    feedback.2
    

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13. #58: Negativity Bias
    Negative experiences register
    quicker, and they go into our
    long term memory faster.3
    

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14. #58: Negativity Bias
    Negative experiences
    have a greater impact on us.4
    

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15. #58: Negativity Bias
    Negative experiences adversely
    affect our happiness by
    more than 2 times over
    positive experiences.5
    

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16. #58: Negativity Bias
    We learn faster from
    negative experiences.6
    

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17. #58: Negativity Bias
    We have 5 times more
    neural networks dedicated to
    negative affect
    over positive affect.7
    

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19. #58: Negativity Bias
    problem solvers
    Y
    Y
    

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20. #58: Negativity Bias
    “The fundamental difference between
    creating and problem solving is simple. In
    problem solving, we seek to make
    something we do not like go away. In
    creating, we seek to make what we truly
    care about exist.”
    - Peter Senge, Systems Scientist
    

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21. #26: Dunning-Kruger
    We aren’t very good at judging our
    own expertise.8
    see also: impostor syndrome9
    

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22. #15: Confirmation Bias
    We see what we want to see and
    we focus on what
    jives with our beliefs.10,11
    

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23. #15: Confirmation Bias
    t
    Dorsolateral
    Prefrontal Cortex
    activates when
    irrelevant information
    should be filtered.
    Anterior Cingulate
    Cortex activates
    when something is
    very wrong.
    

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24. #107: Illusion of Transparency
    We overestimate the ability for
    others to know what’s in our head,
    and our ability to know what’s in
    theirs.12, 13
    

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25. #21: Curse of Knowledge
    The more we learn,
    the harder it is for us to
    empathize with beginners.14,15
    

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26. #100: False Consensus Effect
    We overestimate how much
    people agree with us, and we
    assume our beliefs, habits, and
    values are “normal.”16
    

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27. Rejection Sensitivity
    Rejection Sensitivity:
    The degree to which we are
    affected by social rejection.17
    

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28. Rejection Sensitivity
    Overlapping areas of the brain
    become active when we
    experience physical pain and
    social rejection.18,19, 20
    

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29. Rejection Sensitivity
    Our brain releases the
    same pain killers.18, 20
    

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30. INDIVIDUALS
    It’s complicated.
    

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31. How People Make Open Source
    individuals
    working in groups
    S
    

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32. In-Group Favoritism
    In-group favoritism (or out-group
    bias) refers to our tendency to give
    preference to those in our group,
    and have negative feelings toward
    those who are not.21
    

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33. In-Group Favoritism
    When we process information
    about in-group people versus out-
    group people, we use different
    parts of our brain.22
    

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34. Tribalism
    When we identify so heavily with
    one group, we are more loyal to
    them than other social groups
    (including friends or family).23
    

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35. Feeling Understood
    When we feel understood, the
    parts of our brain associated with
    reward and social connection
    become active.24
    

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36. Feeling Understood
    When we feel misunderstood, the
    parts of our brain associated with
    negative affect become active.24
    

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37. Feeling Understood
    Our attitudes toward feeling
    understood are moderated by our
    sensitivity to rejection.24
    

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38. Belonging
    We are so driven to bond socially,
    when we change to fit the norms
    of our group, electrophysiological
    changes happen in our brains.25
    

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39. Group Dynamics
    It’s complicated.
    

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40. How People Make Open Source
    individuals
    working in groups
    collaborating
    S
    

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41. 5 Domains of SCARF
    SCARF helps us understand what
    motivates people in groups
    who are working
    toward a common goal.26
    

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42. 5 Domains of SCARF
    “The domains of SCARF all affect
    the extent to which a person feels
    threatened or rewarded
    in social settings, and therefore
    the extent to which a person is
    able to collaborate effectively
    with others.” 26
    

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43. 5 Domains of SCARF
    Status
    Certainty
    Autonomy
    Relatedness
    Fairness
    

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44. Status
    Status refers to people’s feeling of
    importance in relation to others in
    the group.
    

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45. Status
    Research suggests that the role
    status plays in our interpersonal
    group lies in a conscious and
    subconscious level.27
    

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46. Certainty
    Certainty refers to the known
    outcomes, processes, structures,
    goals, etc. of the group.
    

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47. Certainty
    Increased certainty activates the
    reward and positive affect centers
    of the brain.28
    

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48. Certainty
    Increased ambiguity (or,
    decreased certainty) activates the
    threat neural circuits of the brain.28
    

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49. Certainty
    Ambiguous social situations can
    cause stress and anxiety (and
    higher levels of cortisol).29
    

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50. Autonomy
    Autonomy refers to one’s feeling
    of control over life
    outcomes and events.
    

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51. Autonomy
    Increased feelings of autonomy
    improve well-being, health, and
    cognitive functions.30
    

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52. Autonomy
    People need either a
    sense of power over others,
    or a sense of choice.
    If they have neither,
    dissatisfaction is the result.31
    

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53. Relatedness
    Relatedness refers to the sense of
    belonging and identification one
    has to the group.
    

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54. Fairness
    Fairness relates to the perceived
    level of equality across outcomes.
    

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55. Fairness
    The idea of “fairness” is
    emotional, not rational.
    It is affected by, and effects our
    moods and emotional state.32
    

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56. Fairness
    When something is “unfair,”
    we will show a strong activity in the
    emotional and empathetic hotspot
    of the brain.32
    

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57. collaborating
    It’s complicated.
    

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58. How People Make Open Source
    individuals
    working in groups
    collaborating
    ONLINE
    S
    

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59. Online Community
    Membership Lifecycle
    1. Peripheral (Lurker)
    2. Inbound (Novice)
    3. Insider (Regular)
    4. Boundary (Leader)
    5. Outbound (Elder)
    

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60. Online Community
    Membership Lifecycle
    How does SCARF
    relate to each group?
    

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61. Online Disinhibition Effect
    What makes a troll,
    a troll?
    

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62. Online Disinhibition Effect
    The Online Disinhibition
    Effect attempts to explain
    bad behaviors online.34, 35
    

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63. Online Disinhibition Effect
    #1: You don’t know me
    

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64. Online Disinhibition Effect
    #2: You can’t see me
    

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65. Online Disinhibition Effect
    #3: See you later
    

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66. Online Disinhibition Effect
    #4: It’s all in my head
    

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67. Online Disinhibition Effect
    #5: It’s just a game
    

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68. Online Disinhibition Effect
    #6: Your rules don’t apply here
    

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69. Body Language
    We haven’t yet figured out an
    accurate percentage
    of communication
    that is non-verbal.36
    

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70. Body Language
    But one could safely say that
    it’s nonzero.
    

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71. ONLINE
    It’s complicated.
    

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72. How People Make Open Source
    individuals
    working in groups
    collaborating
    ONLINE
    

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73. TL;DR:
    There are hundreds of factors
    that affect how people
    work in open source.
    

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74. Let’s keep our own
    biases and behaviors in check.
    

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75. Let’s give each other a break.
    e
    ;
    ;
    @elizabethn
    

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76. Resources for a Curious Mind
    1.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases
    2.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negativity_bias
    3.http://www.rickhanson.net/how-your-brain-makes-you-easily-intimidated/
    4.http://www.carlsonschool.umn.edu/Assets/71516.pdf
    5.http://hbr.org/2011/05/the-power-of-small-wins/ar/1
    6.http://journals.lww.com/academicmedicine/Fulltext/2012/09000/
    Perspective___The_Negativity_Bias,_Medical.19.aspx
    7.http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/sept11/vol69/
    num01/Respect%E2%80%94Where-Do-We-Start%C2%A2.aspx
    8.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning-Kruger_effect
    9.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impostor_syndrome
    10.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias
    11. http://www.wired.com/2009/12/fail_accept_defeat/all/
    

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77. Resources for a Curious Mind
    12. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illusion_of_transparency
    13. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022103103000568
    14. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_of_knowledge
    15. http://www.gsigma.ufsc.br/~loss/download/km/Beyond-Knowledge
    %20Management.pdf
    16. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_consensus_effect
    17. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_rejection#Rejection_sensitivity
    18. http://www.nature.com/mp/journal/v18/n11/full/mp201396a.html
    19. http://www.scn.ucla.edu/pdf/Lieberman%20&%20Eisenberger
    %20(2008)%20Neuroleadership.pdf
    20. http://socialrelations.psych.columbia.edu/images/stories/docs/
    publications/(14)RS_Intimate_Relationships.pdf
    21. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In-group_favoritism
    22. http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/364/1521/1309
    23. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribalism
    

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78. Resources for a Curious Mind
    24. http://scan.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2014/02/14/scan.nst191.full?
    sid=41b7e2f1-9e94-41b2-9c14-e167d219ac76
    25. http://scan.oxfordjournals.org/content/8/7/756.abstract
    26. http://www.davidrock.net/files/09_SCARF_in_2012_US.pdf
    27. http://pages.uoregon.edu/sanjay/pubs/poweraccuracy.pdf
    28. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2723053/
    29. https://psycnet.apa.org/journals/psp/98/3/405/
    30. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20565185
    31. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21705519
    32. http://jom.sagepub.com/content/37/1/248.abstract
    33. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20822437
    34. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_disinhibition_effect
    35. http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/1094931041291295
    36. http://www.spring.org.uk/2007/05/busting-myth-93-of-communication-
    is.php
    

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