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Occhipinti JA, Skinner A, Doraiswamy PM, Saxena S, Eyre HA, Hynes W, Geli P, Jeste DV, Graham C, Song C, Prodan A, Ujdur G, Buchanan J, Rosenberg S, Crosland P, Hickie IB. The influence of economic policies on social environments and mental health. Bull World Health Organ 2024; 102:323-329. [PMID: 38680470 PMCID: PMC11046160 DOI: 10.2471/blt.23.290286] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/23/2023] [Revised: 11/01/2023] [Accepted: 11/08/2023] [Indexed: 05/01/2024] Open
Abstract
Despite increased advocacy and investments in mental health systems globally, there has been limited progress in reducing mental disorder prevalence. In this paper, we argue that meaningful advancements in population mental health necessitate addressing the fundamental sources of shared distress. Using a systems perspective, economic structures and policies are identified as the potential cause of causes of mental ill-health. Neoliberal ideologies, prioritizing economic optimization and continuous growth, contribute to the promotion of individualism, job insecurity, increasing demands on workers, parental stress, social disconnection and a broad range of manifestations well-recognized to erode mental health. We emphasize the need for mental health researchers and advocates to increasingly engage with the economic policy discourse to draw attention to mental health and well-being implications. We call for a shift towards a well-being economy to better align commercial interests with collective well-being and social prosperity. The involvement of individuals with lived mental ill-health experiences, practitioners and researchers is needed to mobilize communities for change and influence economic policies to safeguard well-being. Additionally, we call for the establishment of national mental wealth observatories to inform coordinated health, social and economic policies and realize the transition to a more sustainable well-being economy that offers promise for progress on population mental health outcomes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jo-An Occhipinti
- The Brain and Mind Centre, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney, 94 Mallet Street, Camperdown, New South Wales2050, Australia
| | - Adam Skinner
- The Brain and Mind Centre, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney, 94 Mallet Street, Camperdown, New South Wales2050, Australia
| | - P Murali Doraiswamy
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, United States of America (USA)
| | - Shekhar Saxena
- Department of Global Health and Population, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, Boston, USA
| | - Harris A Eyre
- Baker Institute for Public Policy, Rice University, Houston, USA
| | | | - Patricia Geli
- Reform for Resilience Commission, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, USA
| | - Dilip V Jeste
- Global Research Network on Social Determinants of Mental Health and Exposomics, San Diego, USA
| | | | - Christine Song
- The Brain and Mind Centre, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney, 94 Mallet Street, Camperdown, New South Wales2050, Australia
| | - Ante Prodan
- School of Computer, Data and Mathematical Sciences, Western Sydney University, Sydney, Australia
| | - Goran Ujdur
- The Brain and Mind Centre, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney, 94 Mallet Street, Camperdown, New South Wales2050, Australia
| | - John Buchanan
- Business School, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
| | - Sebastian Rosenberg
- The Brain and Mind Centre, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney, 94 Mallet Street, Camperdown, New South Wales2050, Australia
| | - Paul Crosland
- The Brain and Mind Centre, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney, 94 Mallet Street, Camperdown, New South Wales2050, Australia
| | - Ian B Hickie
- The Brain and Mind Centre, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney, 94 Mallet Street, Camperdown, New South Wales2050, Australia
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Gavrilets S, Tverskoi D, Sánchez A. Modelling social norms: an integration of the norm-utility approach with beliefs dynamics. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2024; 379:20230027. [PMID: 38244599 PMCID: PMC10799741 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2023.0027] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/13/2023] [Accepted: 09/09/2023] [Indexed: 01/22/2024] Open
Abstract
We review theoretical approaches for modelling the origin, persistence and change of social norms. The most comprehensive models describe the coevolution of behaviours, personal, descriptive and injunctive norms while considering influences of various authorities and accounting for cognitive processes and between-individual differences. Models show that social norms can improve individual and group well-being. Under some conditions though, deleterious norms can persist in the population through conformity, preference falsification and pluralistic ignorance. Polarization in behaviour and beliefs can be maintained, even when societal advantages of particular behaviours or belief systems over alternatives are clear. Attempts to change social norms can backfire through cognitive processes including cognitive dissonance and psychological reactance. Under some conditions social norms can change rapidly via tipping point dynamics. Norms can be highly susceptible to manipulation, and network structure influences their propagation. Future models should incorporate network structure more thoroughly, explicitly study online norms, consider cultural variations and be applied to real-world processes. This article is part of the theme issue 'Social norm change: drivers and consequences'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sergey Gavrilets
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996, USA
- Department of Mathematics, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996, USA
- Center for the Dynamics of Social Complexity, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996, USA
| | - Denis Tverskoi
- Department of Mathematics, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996, USA
- Center for the Dynamics of Social Complexity, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996, USA
| | - Angel Sánchez
- Grupo Interdisciplinar de Sistemas Complejos, Departamento de Matemáticas Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Leganés, Madrid 28911, Spain
- Instituto de Biocomputación y Física de Sistemas Complejos, Universidad de Zaragoza, Zaragoza 50018, Spain
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Chen F, Zhou L, Wang L. Cooperation among unequal players with aspiration-driven learning. J R Soc Interface 2024; 21:20230723. [PMID: 38471536 PMCID: PMC10932695 DOI: 10.1098/rsif.2023.0723] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/07/2023] [Accepted: 02/14/2024] [Indexed: 03/14/2024] Open
Abstract
Direct reciprocity promotes the evolution of cooperation when players are sufficiently equal, such that they have similar influence on each other. In the light of ubiquitous inequality, this raises the question of how reciprocity evolves among unequal players. Existing studies on inequality mainly focus on payoff-driven learning rules, which rely on the knowledge of others' strategies. However, inferring one's strategy is a difficult task even if the whole interaction history is known. Here, we consider aspiration-driven learning rules, where players seek strategies that satisfy their aspirations based on their own information. Under aspiration-driven learning rules, we explore the evolutionary dynamics among players with inequality in endowments and productivity. We model the interactions among unequal players with asymmetric games and characterize the condition where cooperation is feasible. Remarkably, we find that aspiration-driven learning rules lead to a higher level of cooperation than payoff-driven ones over a wide range of inequality. Moreover, our results show that high aspiration levels are conducive to the evolution of cooperation when more productive players are equipped with higher endowments. Our work highlights the advantages of aspiration-driven learning for promoting cooperation among unequal players and suggests that aspiration-based decision-making may be more beneficial for the collective.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fang Chen
- Center for Systems and Control, College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, People’s Republic of China
| | - Lei Zhou
- School of Automation, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, People’s Republic of China
| | - Long Wang
- Center for Systems and Control, College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, People’s Republic of China
- Center for Multi-Agent Research, Institute for Artificial Intelligence, Peking University, Beijing 100871, People’s Republic of China
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Nyman R, Ormerod P, Bentley RA. A Simple Model of the Rise and Fall of Civilizations. ENTROPY (BASEL, SWITZERLAND) 2023; 25:1298. [PMID: 37761597 PMCID: PMC10529410 DOI: 10.3390/e25091298] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/12/2023] [Revised: 08/24/2023] [Accepted: 08/29/2023] [Indexed: 09/29/2023]
Abstract
The literature on the fall of civilizations spans from the archaeology of early state societies to the history of the 20th century. Explanations for the fall of civilizations abound, from general extrinsic causes (drought, warfare) to general intrinsic causes (intergroup competition, socioeconomic inequality, collapse of trade networks) and combinations of these, to case-specific explanations for the specific demise of early state societies. Here, we focus on ancient civilizations, which archaeologists typically define by a set of characteristics including hierarchical organization, standardization of specialized knowledge, occupation and technologies, and hierarchical exchange networks and settlements. We take a general approach, with a model suggesting that state societies arise and dissolve through the same processes of innovation. Drawing on the field of cumulative cultural evolution, we demonstrate a model that replicates the essence of a civilization's rise and fall, in which agents at various scales-individuals, households, specialist communities, polities-copy each other in an unbiased manner but with varying degrees of institutional memory, invention rate, and propensity to copy locally versus globally. The results, which produce an increasingly extreme hierarchy of success among agents, suggest that civilizations become increasingly vulnerable to even small increases in propensity to copy locally.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rickard Nyman
- Centre for Decision Making Uncertainty, University College London, London WC1H 0PY, UK;
| | - Paul Ormerod
- Department of Computer Science, University College London, London WC1 0PY, UK
- Volterra Partners LLP, London SW9 6DE, UK
| | - R. Alexander Bentley
- College of Emerging and Collaborative Studies, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996, USA;
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