Diversity-induced resonance in the response to social norms

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that diversity in individual sensitivity to social norms can enhance societal adherence to these norms, using a model of cooperation and defecting agents analyzed through simulations and mean-field theory.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of diversity-induced resonance in social norm response within an economic model, supported by analytical and numerical methods.

Findings

Diversity leads to a maximum response in social norm adherence.

Analytical mean-field results agree with numerical simulations.

Diversity can improve societal norm compliance despite individual differences.

Abstract

In this paper we focus on diversity-induced resonance, which was recently found in bistable, excitable and other physical systems. We study the appearance of this phenomenon in a purely economic model of cooperating and defecting agents. Agent's contribution to a public good is seen as a social norm. So defecting agents face a social pressure, which decreases if free-riding becomes widespread. In this model, diversity among agents naturally appears because of the different sensitivity towards the social norm. We study the evolution of cooperation as a response to the social norm (i) for the replicator dynamics, and (ii) for the logit dynamics by means of numerical simulations. Diversity-induced resonance is observed as a maximum in the response of agents to changes in the social norm as a function of the degree of heterogeneity in the population. We provide an analytical, mean-field approach for the logit dynamics and find very good agreement with the simulations. From a socio-economic perspective, our results show that, counter-intuitively, diversity in the individual sensitivity to social norms may result in a society that better follows such norms as a whole, even if part of the population is less prone to follow them.