Berlin 2018 – scientific programme

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DY: Fachverband Dynamik und Statistische Physik

DY 76: Complex Contagion Phenomena II (Focus Session, joint SOE/DY/BP/SNPD) (joint session SOE/DY/BP)

DY 76.5: Talk

Friday, March 16, 2018, 10:45–11:00, MA 001

Complex Social Contagion of Structural Discrimination — •Gorm Gruner Jensen and Stefan Bornholdt — Institute for Theoretical Physics University of Bremen Otto-Hahn-Allee D-28359 Bremen Germany

One approach within evolutionary game theory study the spreading of contagious behaviors in populations of agents distributed on a graphs. Typically the agents interact in well defined games with their nearest neighbors, and the evolutionary dynamics are implemented by letting agents copying the behavior of their neighbors. Here we demonstrate that this modelling approach can be applied in studying the complex social contagion of structural discrimination. Starting from established models designed to study the evolution of behaviors like cooperation and altruism, we split the agents into groups distinguished only by an observable labels. This generally entails an increased strategy-spaces, as strategies may now be discriminating, ie. imply different behaviors towards agents from different groups. Our model approach is fundamentally different from previous theories of the emergence and persistence of discrimination, which usually rely on on an intrinsic preference for helping your own kind, on games with asymmetric Nash equilibria - like the Hawk-Dove Game, or on self-fulfilling prophecies. We do, however, find a strong connection between the evolutionary stability of discriminating strategies and the strength of the evolution pressure, which indicates that an evolutionary perspective coul be an important compliment to the existing theories.