Evolution of Trust and Discrimination: Difference between revisions
From Santa Fe Institute Events Wiki
mNo edit summary |
mNo edit summary |
||
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
Why do people tend to trust some people but not the others? Why is there | Why do people tend to trust some people but not the others? Why is there discrimination between "us" and "others" even if the group distinction is arbitrary and trivial? Instead of digging into deep details, we think uneven social interactions and biased information sharing could be enough to lead to the universal phenomenon, even if everybody is exactly the same. | ||
As Tom said, let's begin with something simple. We have a homogeneous population, in which everyone has equal probability to be good (or bad). However, individuals are naive at the beginning and have to learn about the social environment from experience directly (individual learning) or indirectly (social learning). Because individual learning is costly, each individual only takes a small sample which is likely to be biased. Proto-clusters form as friends get together. Individuals then learn from their friends about those who they do not know by themselves. As a result, one's friends' friends become one's friends, and one's friends' enemies become one's enemies. Social groups thus form. | As Tom said, let's begin with something simple. We have a homogeneous population, in which everyone has equal probability to be good (or bad). However, individuals are naive at the beginning and have to learn about the social environment from experience directly (individual learning) or indirectly (social learning). Because individual learning is costly, each individual only takes a small sample which is likely to be biased. Proto-clusters form as friends get together. Individuals then learn from their friends about those who they do not know by themselves. As a result, one's friends' friends become one's friends, and one's friends' enemies become one's enemies. Social groups thus form. | ||
Contributors: Bruno Abrahao, Bogdan State, Zhiyuan Song | Contributors: Bruno Abrahao, Bogdan State, Zhiyuan Song | ||
Latest revision as of 08:22, 11 June 2010
Why do people tend to trust some people but not the others? Why is there discrimination between "us" and "others" even if the group distinction is arbitrary and trivial? Instead of digging into deep details, we think uneven social interactions and biased information sharing could be enough to lead to the universal phenomenon, even if everybody is exactly the same.
As Tom said, let's begin with something simple. We have a homogeneous population, in which everyone has equal probability to be good (or bad). However, individuals are naive at the beginning and have to learn about the social environment from experience directly (individual learning) or indirectly (social learning). Because individual learning is costly, each individual only takes a small sample which is likely to be biased. Proto-clusters form as friends get together. Individuals then learn from their friends about those who they do not know by themselves. As a result, one's friends' friends become one's friends, and one's friends' enemies become one's enemies. Social groups thus form.
Contributors: Bruno Abrahao, Bogdan State, Zhiyuan Song