Mann, RP orcid.org/0000-0003-0701-1274 (2018) Collective decision making by rational individuals. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 115 (44). E10387-E10396. ISSN 1091-6490
Abstract
The patterns and mechanisms of collective decision making in humans and animals have attracted both empirical and theoretical attention. Of particular interest has been the variety of social feedback rules and the extent to which these behavioral rules can be explained and predicted from theories of rational estimation and decision making. However, models that aim to model the full range of social information use have incorporated ad hoc departures from rational decision-making theory to explain the apparent stochasticity and variability of behavior. In this paper I develop a model of social information use and collective decision making by fully rational agents that reveals how a wide range of apparently stochastic social decision rules emerge from fundamental information asymmetries both between individuals and between the decision makers and the observer of those decisions. As well as showing that rational decision making is consistent with empirical observations of collective behavior, this model makes several testable predictions about how individuals make decisions in groups and offers a valuable perspective on how we view sources of variability in animal, and human, behavior.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
---|---|
Authors/Creators: | |
Editors: |
|
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2018, the author. Published under the PNAS license. This is an author produced version of a paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | agent-based model; collective behavior; rational choice; social information; utility |
Dates: |
|
Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Mathematics (Leeds) > Statistics (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 27 Sep 2018 11:08 |
Last Modified: | 15 Apr 2019 00:43 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | National Academy of Sciences |
Identification Number: | 10.1073/pnas.1811964115 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:136247 |