PLoS ONE: Dynamics of Alliance Formation and the Egalitarian Revolution - The Diigo Meta page

• 18 Oct 12
  

  Alexandre Enkerli
• 03 Jun 10
  

  Yann Leroux

  collective action

• 10 Oct 08
  

  Mark Tracy

  evolution cooperation peace anthropology conflict

• 02 Oct 08
  

  group_as_organism evolution game_theory social_network

  • most known hunter-gatherer societies are egalitarian [8]–[10]. Their weak leaders merely assist a consensus-seeking process when the group needs to make decisions
  • In our model, coalitions and alliances emerge from simple processes based on individuals using only limited “local” information
  • modern human behavior is strongly shaped by evolved culture [31] and might not be a good indicator of factors acting during its origin
  • increasing the frequency of interactions (which can be achieved in a number of ways) and decreasing the affinity decay rate. Most interestingly, the model shows that the shift from a state with no alliances to one or more alliances typically occurs in a phase-transition like fashion. Even more surprisingly, under certain conditions (that include some cultural inheritance of social networks) a single alliance comprising all members of the group can emerge in which the resource is divided evenly. That is, the competition among nonequal individuals can paradoxically result in their eventual equality. We emphasize that in our model, egalitarianism emerges from political dynamics of intense competition between individuals for higher social and reproductive success rather than by environmental constraints, social structure, or cultural processes.
  • increasing the frequency of interactions (which can be achieved in a number of ways) and decreasing the affinity decay rate. Most interestingly, the model shows that the shift from a state with no alliances to one or more alliances typically occurs in a phase-transition like fashion. Even more surprisingly, under certain conditions (that include some cultural inheritance of social networks) a single alliance comprising all members of the group can emerge in which the resource is divided evenly. That is, the competition among nonequal individuals can paradoxically result in their eventual equality. We emphasize that in our model, egalitarianism emerges from political dynamics of intense competition between individuals for higher social and reproductive success rather than by environmental constraints, social structure, or cultural processes.
  • approach for studying the dynamics of alliance emergence applicable where game-theoretic methods are not practical
  • they typically do not capture the dynamic nature of coalitions and/or are not directly applicable to individuals lacking the abilities to enter into binding agreements and to obtain, process, and use complex information on costs, benefits, and consequences of different actions involving multiple parties [45]. These approaches do not account for the effects of friendship and the memory of past events and acts which all are important in coalition formation and maintenance.

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