Intelligence and Social Cohesiveness – Showing a Correlation through Game Theory
Source: https://theconversation.com/how-clever-people-help-societies-work-together-better-93463
At first glance, this article doesn’t seem to be too relevant to networks – it simply presents a question about what makes a society work together better. It goes on to cite multiple theories, such as how society has a positive feedback cycle where being considerate to others leads to more people showcasing “pro-social attitudes,” or how adhering to good norms lead to people performing more “socially useful behaviors.” However, then the article goes on to support the claim that “intelligence … is the primary condition for a socially cohesive and cooperative society.” And the way in which this claim was supported was by using a game theory approach with a variation of the Prisoner’s Dilemma.
As we discussed in class, the Prisoner’s Dilemma involves two criminals who have been arrested and are in separate rooms. If both prisoners confess, both will be given medium sentences. If one prisoner confesses and another does not, the one that confessed will be let off free while the other will be given a longer sentence (and vice versa). If neither prisoner confesses, both will be given a light sentence. The Prisoner’s Dilemma, as we discussed in class, is a game where the dominant strategy would be for both players to confess – an uncooperative strategy that does not maximize social welfare for the society as a whole (if we were to put this into context of a market where the greatest social welfare occurs when neither prisoner is given jail time, and the more years of jail time the worse the social welfare). Along a similar line of thinking, the social welfare would be maximized if both prisoners played with a cooperative approach – that is, neither confessed.
In this article, the researchers had participants play in a similar game where the best social welfare (which in this case was given by economic incentive) was achieved when played cooperatively. By sorting individuals by intelligence (based on a questionnaire) and their cooperation rate (the number of times the individual chose the less selfish strategy), the researchers noticed a strong positive correlation between intelligence and cooperation. Furthermore, when higher IQ individuals were placed in a room with lower IQ individuals and the game theory experiment was repeated, it was noticed that the lower IQ individuals developed a higher cooperation rate, and that the social welfare of the group was much greater.
Overall, this article shows a unique way of measuring social cohesiveness of a society by using game theory and networks. And this approach was not only very comprehensive and fruitful, but also integral in proving a potential factor in what factors actually make a society work together better. It just goes to show the power of networks, and how far they can be applied.