The Research Center for Educational and Network Studies (RECENS) and the Institute for Sociology CSS HAS are pleased to invite you to their joint event, the lecture of Jeroen Bruggeman (>>University of Amsterdam):

Cooperation based on Noisy Information in War and Peace

at 10.30, 22 June, 2017.

Venue: Meeting room of the Institute for Sociology, B.1.15. (Budapest district 9,  4 Tóth Kálmán u.)

Abstract:

Cells in a body or insects in a group have no difficulty to cooperate, but genetically unrelated individuals, e.g. humans, first need a great deal of information about one another (gossip), a network to transmit this information, and some more. Nevertheless, they often do manage to cooperate. An understudied question is how noise is resolved - errors in transmission and interpretation, plus strategic manipulation, for example "alternative facts." How can network topology (partly) compensate? Another understudied question is how people unite when going to fight while the turmoil of events produces noise. Hand-in-hand fights between opposing groups happen in short bursts wherein small subgroups briefly attack small numbers of opponents, while the majority of participants forms a supportive audience. The mechanism seems to be fighters' mutual alignment of rhythmic movements during preliminary interactions, by which they overcome their fear. These bursts and subgroups' small sizes can be explained by Kuramoto's synchronization model. In both violent and peaceful collective actions, the connectivity of participants' network seems to be crucial.