Researchers utilized a powerful supercomputer to simulate the development of social norms, enhancing our understanding of their evolution and their impact on promoting cooperative behavior.
A team from the RIKEN Center for Computational Science in Japan and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology in Germany has released new insights regarding the evolution of social norms over time. They modeled how these norms influence various social behaviors and how the norms themselves can change or disappear. Given the vast array of possible norms, the simulations were conducted on Fugaku, one of the fastest supercomputers globally.
Models that focus on indirect reciprocity explain how social norms encourage cooperation among individuals. The studies indicate that people engage in cooperative behaviors partly to foster a favorable reputation, which can be beneficial for future interactions. For instance, individuals may support charitable causes not only due to altruism but also to enhance or maintain their social standing. The relationship between a person’s cooperative actions and their social status varies based on the prevailing social norms.
Some communities enforce strict guidelines on expected behaviors and how individuals’ actions are judged, while others adopt a more lenient approach. Notably, social norms within a community can undergo evolutionary changes. Norms that are advantageous or can be effectively enforced tend to be stable, whereas harmful or weakly supported norms are likely to fade away.
Understanding the dynamics of social norms can be approached through the lens of evolutionary theory. Norms that are more effective tend to spread, leading to the decline of less effective ones. While there has been significant effort to quantify these dynamics, existing models often have limitations. Typically, they only allow individuals to choose from a limited set of norms due to the complexity introduced by including more options.
Computer simulations
To overcome this limitation, the research team conducted extensive computer simulations. They explored the reputation dynamics across all 2,080 norms within a specific complexity class known as “third-order norms.” The findings are noteworthy. The study indicates that cooperative norms struggle to thrive in a single, well-mixed community. However, when the population is divided into smaller groups, cooperative norms are more likely to evolve successfully. The simulation identified a particularly effective norm, which regards cooperation as inherently positive and defection as generally negative, unless defection is used as a strategy to discipline other defectors.
This research provides valuable insights into the intricate relationships between social norms, the dynamics of reputation they create, and the structure of populations. It underscores the significant impact that population structure has on which social norms become dominant and how enduring cooperation can be.
