The evolution of social cohesion

People Involved

• Andrew Bell
• Simon Angus
• Will Ludington
• Paul Hooper
• Alenjandro Balbin

Concept

We often study the effect of certain social institutions, and sometimes look at transitions, but what effect does passed-on cultural institutions play in the evolution and formation of cohesive social institutions?

Proposition

Suppose that a set of agents have choices over the following

• within an institutional period: how to behave towards each other
• between institutional periods: which institution to have (and pass on?) to the next generation

Of interest is whether memory (cultural, historical, heritage) affects agents' long-term decisions about social institutions?

Research Questions follow:

• is there a stable (long-run) social institution that is selected?
• does this institutional structure have a path-dependance (i.e. must institutaion A then B then C preceed the selection and stabilisation of institution X)?
• do agents operate heterogeneosly within a period (e.g. old agents who have cultural knnowledge prefer institution X, but young agents, with shorter memories, or trust in passed-on heritage select institution Y?
• what scaling? do small vs. large population affect these decisions?
• what about a two-population model? do we see group selection occuring to promote a certain institution in both camps? or is there a stable complimentary institutional framework (e.g. E. vs. W. Germany)?