ERC Momentum

Contact Person: Dr. Heinrich Nax

Duration: 06/2013 - 05/2018

Funding: ERC Advanced Grant (324247)

Description:
The Momentum project develops a new perspective on social systems by combining analytical sociology with evolutionary game theory, agent-based modeling, computational social science, complexity science, and experimental research. Our focus on co-evolutionary processes will shed new light on emergent phenomena in social systems to develop a perspective which views our world as a “social ecosystem”. We will overcome the problems of previous approaches by implementing social mechanisms, learning rules, and parameters in an evolutionary way. Our major goal is to show how a “homo socialis” can emerge as the result of evolutionary competition. For this, we will demonstrate that strict payoff maximization or mechanistic, stimulus-response interactions may eventually be replaced by other-regarding behaviors.

In particular, we will study how social cooperation and social norms emerge from repeated social interactions. Furthermore, we will equip agents with small virtual “brains” to simulate the co-evolution of individual and societal complexity. This will add cognitive complexity to our modeling approach and allow us to study the origins and effects of subjectivity, but also the early stages in human social evolution. We plan to demonstrate that, in a complex society, agents with bounded rationality can perform equally well as a perfect “homo economicus”, and that both types of agents emerge and spread under different conditions.

Our project is broad and highly interdisciplinary. It combines various methodologies and pursues an innovative approach which harnesses the power of complexity science to solve long-standing scientific puzzles. It has the potential to bridge previously incompatible research traditions by revealing unexpected and seemingly paradoxical relationships between them. Thereby, it will help to overcome existing controversies and the related fragmentation of the social sciences.

Projects related to the ERC Momentum project are New Economic Thinking, Evolutionary Game Theory, and external page Habitat Lab Maelzel

Work packages

1. Theoretical, analytical considerations regarding the “homo economicus”
2. Co-evolutionary dynamics in social systems
3. Emergence and intensity of social mechanisms
4. Mathematical, analytical derivation of a theory linking the micro- and macro-level description
5. Implementing agents with a brain
6. Evolution of the “homo socialis”

 

S. Bennati, & E. Pournaras, (2018). Privacy-enhancing aggregation of internet of things data via sensors grouping. Sustainable Cities and Society 39C, 387–400.

H. H. Nax (2018). external page Uncoupled aspiration adaptation dynamics into the core. German Economic Review.

S. Bennati, (2018), external page On the role of collective sensing and evolution in group formation. Swarm Intelligence.

O. C. Rouly (2018). external page A computer simulation to investigate the association between gene-based gifting and pair-bonding in early hominins. Journal of Human Evolution, Volume 116, Pages 43-56.

H. H. Nax, R. O. Murphy, S. Duca, and D. Helbing (2017). Contribution-Based Grouping under Noise. Games, 8(4), 50.

R. Amato, A. Díaz-Guilera, and K.-K. Kleineberg (2017). Interplay between social influence and competitive strategical games in multiplex networks Scientific Reports, 7, 7087.

K.-K. Kleineberg, and D. Helbing (2017). Collective navigation of complex networks: Participatory greedy routing. Scientific Reports, 7(1), 2897.

R. P. Mann, and D. Helbing (2017). Optimal incentives for collective intelligence. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 201618722.

K.-K. Kleineberg, L., Buzna, F., Papadopoulos, M., Boguñá, and M. Á. Serrano (2017). Geometric correlations mitigate the extreme vulnerability of multiplex networks against targeted attacks. Physical Review Letters, 118(21), 218301.

M. U. G. Kraemer, N. R. Faria, R. C. Reiner, N. Golding, B. Nikolay, S. Stasse, M. A. Johansson, H. Salje, O. Faye, G. W. Wint, and M. Niedrig (2017). Spread of yellow fever virus outbreak in Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo 2015–16: a modelling study. The Lancet Infectious Diseases, 17(3), pp.330-338.

K.-K. Kleineberg (2017). Metric clusters in evolutionary games on scale-free networks. Nature communications, 8(1), 1888.

H. H. Nax, S. Balietti, R. O. Murphy, and D. Helbing (2017). Adding noise to the institution: an experimental welfare investigation of the contribution-based grouping mechanism. Social Choice and Welfare, 1-33.

S. Duca, D. Helbing, and H. H. Nax (2017). Assortative matching with inequality in voluntary contribution games. Computational Economics, 1-15.

K.-K. Kleineberg, and D. Helbing (2016). A “Social Bitcoin” could sustain a democratic digital world. The European Physical Journal Special Topics, 225(17-18), 3231-3241.

M. Moussaïd, M. Kapadia, T. Thrash, R. W. Sumner,  M. Gross, D. Helbing, and C. Hölscher (2016). Crowd behaviour during high-stress evacuations in an immersive virtual environment. Journal of The Royal Society Interface, 13(122), 20160414.

M.U.G. Kraemer, N.R. Faria, R.C.Reiner Jr., N. Golding, B. Nikolay, M. A. Johansson, H. Salje, O. Faye,  G.R.W. Wint, M. Niedrig, F.M. Shearer, D. Bisanzio, H.H. Nax, B.S.R. Pradelski, N.R. Murphy, J.S. Brownstein, A.J. Tatem, T. de Oliveira, D.L. Smith, O.G. Pybus, S.I. Hay, and S. Cauchemez (2016). Spread of Yellow Fever Virus outbreak in Central Africa 2015-2016. Lancet Infectious Diseases. Forthcoming.

H. H. Nax,  M. N. Burton-Chellew, Stuart A. West and H. Peyton Young (2016). external page Learning in a black box. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 127: 1-15.

H. H. Nax, and B. S.R. Pradelski (2016). external page Core stability and core selection in a decentralized labor matching market. Games, 7.10: 1-16.

T. Sakamoto (2016). external page Computational Research on Mobile Pastoralism Using Agent-Based Modeling and Satellite Imagery. PloS one 11.3.

T. Sakamoto (2016). external page Mobility and Sustainability: A Computational Model of African Pastoralists. Journal of Management and Sustainability 6: 1.

H. H. Nax and A. Rigos (2016). external page Assortativity evolving from social dilemmas. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 395: 194–203.

Micheal Mäs and Heinrich H Nax (2016). external page A behavioral study of “noise” in coordination games. Journal of Economic Theory 162: 195-208.

D. Helbing (2015). external page The Automation of Society is Next: How to Survive the Digital Revolution.

L. Böttcher, O. Woolley-Meza, N. A. Araújo, H. J. Herrmann and D. Helbing (2015). external page Disease-induced resource constraints can trigger explosive epidemics. Scientific reports, 5.

M. Leiss, H. H. Nax, and D. Sornette (2015). external page Super-exponential growth expectations and the Global Financial Crisis. Journal of Economic Dynamics & Control 55: 1-13.

R. P. Mann, R. Garnett (2015). external page The entropic basis of collective behaviour. Journal of the Royal Society Interface 12: 20150037.

S. Müller, M. Kapadia, S. Frey, S. Klinger, R. P. Mann, B.Solenthaler, R. W. Sumner and M. Gross (2015a). external page Statistical Analysis of Player Behavior in Minecraft. Proceedings of the International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games.

S. Müller, M. Kapadia, S. Frey, S. Klinger, R. P. Mann, B.Solenthaler, R. W. Sumner and M. Gross (2015b). external page HeapCraft: Understanding and Improving Player Collaboration in Minecraft. Proceedings of the International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games.

S. Müller, M. Kapadia, S. Frey, S. Klinger, R. P. Mann, B.Solenthaler, R. W. Sumner and M. Gross (2015c). external page Quantifying and Predicting Collaboration in Shared Virtual Worlds. Forthcoming in Proceedings of AIII Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment

H. H. Nax, R.  O. Murphy, and K. A. Ackermann (2015a). external page Interactive preferences. Economics Letters 135: 133-136.

H. H. Nax, M. Perc, A. Szolnoki, D. Helbing (2015). external page Stability of cooperation under image scoring in group interactions. Scientific Reports 5: 12145.

C. Gershenson, D. Helbing (2015). external page When slower is faster. Complexity, 21(2), 9-15.

H. H Nax (2015). external page Equity dynamics in bargaining without information exchange. Journal of Evolutionary Economics, 25(5), 1011-1026.

C. Efferson, C. P. Roca, S. Vogt & D. Helbing (2015). external page Sustained cooperation by running away from bad behavior. Evolution and Human Behavior.

S. Balietti, M. Mäs, D. Helbing (2015). external page On Disciplinary Fragmentation and Scientific Progress. PLoS ONE 10(3), e0118747.

D. Helbing, D. Brockmann, T. Chadefaux, K. Donnay, U. Blanke, O. Woolley-Meza,M. Moussaid, A. Johansson, J. Krause, S. Schutte and M. Perc (2015). external page Saving Human Lives: What Complexity Science and Information Systems can Contribute. Journal of Statistical Physics 158(3), 735-781.

H. H. Nax, M. Perc (2015). external page Directional learning and the provisioning of public goods. Scientific Reports 5: 8010.

M. N. Burton-Chellew, H. H. Nax, S. A. West (2015). external page Payoff-based learning explains the decline in cooperation in public goods games. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 282(1801), 20142678.

H. H. Nax, B. S. R. Pradelski (2015). external page Evolutionary dynamics and equitable core selection in assignment games. International Journal of Game Theory, 1-30.

H. H. Nax (2014). external page A Note on the Core of TU-cooperative Games with Multiple Membership Externalities. Games 5(4), 191-203.

R. Mani, L. Böttcher, H. J. Herrmann, and D. Helbing (2014). external page Extreme power law in a driven many-particle system without threshold dynamics. Physical Review E 90(4), 042201.

D. Helbing, W. Yu, K. D. Opp, H. Rauhut (2014). external page Conditions for the Emergence of Shared Norms in Populations with Incompatible Preferences. PLOS ONE 9(8), e104207.

T. Kuhn, M. Perc, D. Helbing (2014). external page Inheritance patterns in citation networks reveal scientific memes. Physical Review X 4, 041036.

M. Schich, C. Song, Y. Y. Ahn, A. Mirsky, M. Martino, A. L. Barabási, and D. Helbing (2014). external page A network framework of cultural history. Science 345(6196), 558-562.

G. L. Ciampaglia, S. Lozano, D. Helbing (2014). external page Power and fairness in a generalized ultimatum game. PLOS ONE 9(6), e99039.

R. Bhavnani, K. Donnay, D. Miodownik, M. Mor, and D. Helbing (2014). external page Group Segregation and Urban Violence. American Journal of Political Science 58(1): 226–245

A. Emanuele Biondo, A. Pluchino, A. Rapisarda, and D. Helbing (2013). external page Reducing financial avalanches by random investments. Physical Review Letters 88, 062814.M.

M. Perc, K. Donnay, D. Helbing (2013). external page Understanding Recurrent Crime as System-Immanent Collective Behavior PLOS ONE 8(10): e76063.

T. Grund, C. Waloszek, D. Helbing (2013). external page How natural selection can create both self- and other-regarding preferences, and networked minds, Scientific Reports 3, 1480.

D. Helbing (2013). external page Economics 2.0: The natural step towards a self-regulating, participatory market society. Evolutionary and Institutional Economics Review 10(1), 3-41.

 

S. Balietti (nodeGame). nodeGame: Real-Time Social Experiments in the Browser. external page nodegame.org

Subprojects

Evolutionary Game Theory

New Economic Thinking

external page Habitat Lab Maelzel