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Tump AN, Deffner D, Pleskac TJ, Romanczuk P, M. Kurvers RHJ. A Cognitive Computational Approach to Social and Collective Decision-Making. PERSPECTIVES ON PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE 2024; 19:538-551. [PMID: 37671891 PMCID: PMC10913326 DOI: 10.1177/17456916231186964] [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] [Indexed: 09/07/2023]
Abstract
Collective dynamics play a key role in everyday decision-making. Whether social influence promotes the spread of accurate information and ultimately results in adaptive behavior or leads to false information cascades and maladaptive social contagion strongly depends on the cognitive mechanisms underlying social interactions. Here we argue that cognitive modeling, in tandem with experiments that allow collective dynamics to emerge, can mechanistically link cognitive processes at the individual and collective levels. We illustrate the strength of this cognitive computational approach with two highly successful cognitive models that have been applied to interactive group experiments: evidence-accumulation and reinforcement-learning models. We show how these approaches make it possible to simultaneously study (a) how individual cognition drives social systems, (b) how social systems drive individual cognition, and (c) the dynamic feedback processes between the two layers.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alan N. Tump
- Center for Adaptive Rationality, Max Planck Institute for Human Development
- Science of Intelligence, Technische Universität Berlin
| | - Dominik Deffner
- Center for Adaptive Rationality, Max Planck Institute for Human Development
- Science of Intelligence, Technische Universität Berlin
| | | | - Pawel Romanczuk
- Science of Intelligence, Technische Universität Berlin
- Institute for Theoretical Biology, Department of Biology, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin
- Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Berlin
| | - Ralf H. J. M. Kurvers
- Center for Adaptive Rationality, Max Planck Institute for Human Development
- Science of Intelligence, Technische Universität Berlin
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Tump AN, Wollny-Huttarsch D, Molleman L, Kurvers RHJM. Earlier social information has a stronger influence on judgments. Sci Rep 2024; 14:105. [PMID: 38168146 PMCID: PMC10762246 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-50345-4] [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: 08/02/2023] [Accepted: 12/19/2023] [Indexed: 01/05/2024] Open
Abstract
People's decisions are often informed by the choices of others. Evidence accumulation models provide a mechanistic account of how such social information enters the choice process. Previous research taking this approach has suggested two fundamentally different cognitive mechanisms by which people incorporate social information. On the one hand, individuals may update their evidence level instantaneously when observing social information. On the other hand, they may gradually integrate social information over time. These accounts make different predictions on how the timing of social information impacts its influence. The former predicts that timing has no impact on social information uptake. The latter predicts that social information which arrives earlier has a stronger impact because its impact increases over time. We tested both predictions in two studies in which participants first observed a perceptual stimulus. They then entered a deliberation phase in which social information arrived either early or late before reporting their judgment. In Experiment 1, early social information remained visible until the end and was thus displayed for longer than late social information. In Experiment 2, which was preregistered, early and late social information were displayed for an equal duration. In both studies, early social information had a larger impact on individuals' judgments. Further, an evidence accumulation analysis found that social information integration was best explained by both an immediate update of evidence and continuous integration over time. Because in social systems, timing plays a key role (e.g., propagation of information in social networks), our findings inform theories explaining the temporal evolution of social impact and the emergent social dynamics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alan Novaes Tump
- Center for Adaptive Rationality, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany.
- Exzellenzcluster Science of Intelligence, Technical University Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
| | - David Wollny-Huttarsch
- Center for Adaptive Rationality, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany
| | - Lucas Molleman
- Amsterdam Brain and Cognition, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Tilburg School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Tilburg University, Tilburg, Netherlands
| | - Ralf H J M Kurvers
- Center for Adaptive Rationality, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany
- Exzellenzcluster Science of Intelligence, Technical University Berlin, Berlin, Germany
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Linn S, Lawley SD, Karamched BR, Kilpatrick ZP, Josić K. Fast decisions reflect biases, slow decisions do not. ARXIV 2024:arXiv:2401.00306v2. [PMID: 38259347 PMCID: PMC10802676] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/24/2024]
Abstract
Decisions are often made by heterogeneous groups of individuals, each with distinct initial biases and access to information of different quality. We show that in large groups of independent agents who accumulate evidence the first to decide are those with the strongest initial biases. Their decisions align with their initial bias, regardless of the underlying truth. In contrast, agents who decide last make decisions as if they were initially unbiased, and hence make better choices. We obtain asymptotic expressions in the large population limit that quantify how agents' initial inclinations shape early decisions. Our analysis shows how bias, information quality, and decision order interact in non-trivial ways to determine the reliability of decisions in a group.
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Affiliation(s)
- Samantha Linn
- Department of Mathematics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
| | - Sean D. Lawley
- Department of Mathematics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
| | - Bhargav R. Karamched
- Department of Mathematics, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida 32306, USA
- Institute of Molecular Biophysics, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida 32306, USA
- Program in Neuroscience, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida 32306, USA
| | - Zachary P. Kilpatrick
- Department of Applied Mathematics, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA
| | - Krešimir Josić
- Department of Mathematics, University of Houston, Houston, Texas 77004, USA
- Department of Biology and Biochemistry, University of Houston, Houston, Texas 77004, USA
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Reina A, Bose T, Srivastava V, Marshall JAR. Asynchrony rescues statistically optimal group decisions from information cascades through emergent leaders. ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE 2023; 10:230175. [PMID: 36938538 PMCID: PMC10014242 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.230175] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/13/2023] [Accepted: 02/21/2023] [Indexed: 06/18/2023]
Abstract
It is usually assumed that information cascades are most likely to occur when an early but incorrect opinion spreads through the group. Here, we analyse models of confidence-sharing in groups and reveal the opposite result: simple but plausible models of naive-Bayesian decision-making exhibit information cascades when group decisions are synchronous; however, when group decisions are asynchronous, the early decisions reached by Bayesian decision-makers tend to be correct and dominate the group consensus dynamics. Thus early decisions actually rescue the group from making errors, rather than contribute to it. We explore the likely realism of our assumed decision-making rule with reference to the evolution of mechanisms for aggregating social information, and known psychological and neuroscientific mechanisms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andreagiovanni Reina
- Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies on Artificial Intelligence (IRIDIA), Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels 1050, Belgium
- Department of Computer Science, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, S1 4DP, UK
| | - Thomas Bose
- Department of Computer Science, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, S1 4DP, UK
| | - Vaibhav Srivastava
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824-1226, USA
| | - James A. R. Marshall
- Department of Computer Science, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, S1 4DP, UK
- Opteran Technologies Limited, Sheffield, UK
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Tump AN, Wolf M, Romanczuk P, Kurvers RHJM. Avoiding costly mistakes in groups: The evolution of error management in collective decision making. PLoS Comput Biol 2022; 18:e1010442. [PMID: 35984855 PMCID: PMC9432742 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1010442] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/22/2022] [Revised: 08/31/2022] [Accepted: 07/27/2022] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Individuals continuously have to balance the error costs of alternative decisions. A wealth of research has studied how single individuals navigate this, showing that individuals develop response biases to avoid the more costly error. We, however, know little about the dynamics in groups facing asymmetrical error costs and when social influence amplifies either safe or risky behavior. Here, we investigate this by modeling the decision process and information flow with a drift-diffusion model extended to the social domain. In the model individuals first gather independent personal information; they then enter a social phase in which they can either decide early based on personal information, or wait for additional social information. We combined the model with an evolutionary algorithm to derive adaptive behavior. We find that under asymmetric costs, individuals in large cooperative groups do not develop response biases because such biases amplify at the collective level, triggering false information cascades. Selfish individuals, however, undermine the group's performance for their own benefit by developing higher response biases and waiting for more information. Our results have implications for our understanding of the social dynamics in groups facing asymmetrical errors costs, such as animal groups evading predation or police officers holding a suspect at gunpoint.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alan N. Tump
- Center for Adaptive Rationality, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany
- Science of Intelligence, Technische Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | - Max Wolf
- Science of Intelligence, Technische Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany
- Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries, Berlin, Germany
| | - Pawel Romanczuk
- Science of Intelligence, Technische Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany
- Institute for Theoretical Biology, Department of Biology, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
- Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | - Ralf H. J. M. Kurvers
- Center for Adaptive Rationality, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany
- Science of Intelligence, Technische Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany
- Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries, Berlin, Germany
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Bidari S, El Hady A, Davidson JD, Kilpatrick ZP. Stochastic dynamics of social patch foraging decisions. PHYSICAL REVIEW RESEARCH 2022; 4:033128. [PMID: 36090768 PMCID: PMC9461581 DOI: 10.1103/physrevresearch.4.033128] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Animals typically forage in groups. Social foraging can help animals avoid predation and decrease their uncertainty about the richness of food resources. Despite this, theoretical mechanistic models of patch foraging have overwhelmingly focused on the behavior of single foragers. In this study, we develop a mechanistic model that accounts for the behavior of individuals foraging together and departing food patches following an evidence accumulation process. Each individual's belief about patch quality is represented by a stochastically accumulating variable, which is coupled to another's belief to represent the transfer of information. We consider a cohesive group, and model information sharing by considering both intermittent pulsatile coupling (only communicate decision to leave) and continuous diffusive coupling (communicate throughout the deliberation process). Groups employing pulsatile coupling can obtain higher foraging efficiency, which depends more strongly on the coupling parameter compared to those using diffusive coupling. Conversely, groups using diffusive coupling are more robust to changes and heterogeneities in belief weighting and departure criteria. Efficiency is measured by a reward rate function that balances the amount of energy accumulated against the time spent in a patch, computed by solving an ordered first passage time problem for the patch departures of each individual. Using synthetic departure time data, we can distinguish between the two modes of communication and identify the model parameters. Our model establishes a social patch foraging framework to identify deliberative decision strategies and forms of social communication, and to allow model fitting to field data from foraging animal groups.
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Affiliation(s)
- Subekshya Bidari
- Department of Applied Mathematics, University of Colorado Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA
| | - Ahmed El Hady
- Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton, New Jersey 08540, USA
- Department of Collective Behavior, Max Planck Institute for Animal Behavior, Konstanz D-78457, Germany
- Cluster for Advanced Study of Collective Behavior, Max Planck Institute for Animal Behavior, Konstanz D-78457, Germany
| | - Jacob D. Davidson
- Department of Collective Behavior, Max Planck Institute for Animal Behavior, Konstanz D-78457, Germany
| | - Zachary P. Kilpatrick
- Department of Applied Mathematics, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA
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Karamched B, Stickler M, Ott W, Lindner B, Kilpatrick ZP, Josić K. Heterogeneity Improves Speed and Accuracy in Social Networks. PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 2020; 125:218302. [PMID: 33274999 PMCID: PMC9477403 DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.125.218302] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/11/2020] [Revised: 09/04/2020] [Accepted: 09/24/2020] [Indexed: 05/02/2023]
Abstract
How does temporally structured private and social information shape collective decisions? To address this question we consider a network of rational agents who independently accumulate private evidence that triggers a decision upon reaching a threshold. When seen by the whole network, the first agent's choice initiates a wave of new decisions; later decisions have less impact. In heterogeneous networks, first decisions are made quickly by impulsive individuals who need little evidence to make a choice but, even when wrong, can reveal the correct options to nearly everyone else. We conclude that groups comprised of diverse individuals can make more efficient decisions than homogenous ones.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bhargav Karamched
- Department of Mathematics, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida 32306, USA
- Institute of Molecular Biophysics, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida 32306, USA
| | - Megan Stickler
- Department of Mathematics, University of Houston, Houston, Texas 77004, USA
| | - William Ott
- Department of Mathematics, University of Houston, Houston, Texas 77004, USA
| | - Benjamin Lindner
- Physics Department of Humboldt University Berlin, Newtonstraβe 15, 12489 Berlin, Germany
- Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Berlin, Philippstraβe 13, Haus 2, 10115 Berlin, Germany
| | - Zachary P. Kilpatrick
- Department of Applied Mathematics, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA
| | - Krešimir Josić
- Department of Mathematics, University of Houston, Houston, Texas 77004, USA
- Department of Biology and Biochemistry, University of Houston, Houston, Texas 77004, USA
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