{"id":58845,"date":"2022-02-04T18:36:58","date_gmt":"2022-02-04T22:36:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=58845"},"modified":"2022-02-17T10:25:21","modified_gmt":"2022-02-17T14:25:21","slug":"social-programming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/social-programming\/","title":{"rendered":"How Social Programming Drives Interactions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What is social programming? Where does social programming stem from?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his book Games People Play, <\/em>Dr. Eric Berne says that people play different kinds of social games depending on their social programming. This programming can come from multiple sources including culture and genetics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here’s how social programming drives social interactions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Eric Berne on Social Programming<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Transactional Analysis<\/a> views a social interaction as a series of exchanges. In many forms of interaction the exchanges are the same type, usually reciprocal\u2014people tend to get along. So Berne distinguishes distinct \u201cgenres\u201d of interactions based on differences in their social \u201cprogramming.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eric Berne isn\u2019t clear on where social programming comes from, but we can infer that it\u2019s a bit like genetics. Programming is to social interaction as gene encoding is to expression of human traits: It\u2019s an underlying pattern that determines what comes to be and what doesn\u2019t. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, the Western handshake is a long-standing greeting, passed down through thousands of years. We now receive it\u2014Berne calls this \u201csocial\u201d programming. We inherit the patterns of interaction embedded in our culture\u2019s traditions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like your genes determine the traits that you express, an interaction\u2019s programming determines its content.<\/strong> So the way a dinner conversation works in China differs from the same interaction in America, due to differences in each culture\u2019s inherited scripts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Berne, three sources can determine the content of an interaction:<\/p>\n\n\n\n