Hipsters and the Cool: A Game Theoretic Analysis of Social Identity, Trends and Fads

TL;DR

This paper models social identity expression through game theory, revealing how the interplay of conformity and uniqueness motives within social networks leads to complex, unpredictable cultural trends rather than static equilibria.

Contribution

It introduces a novel game-theoretic model incorporating both conformity and uniqueness motives, explaining the emergence of dynamic social trends and cycles.

Findings

Social dynamics often follow random walks or cycles, not static equilibrium.

Without network structure or uniqueness motives, dynamics tend to stabilize.

Psychological motives and network structure are crucial for complex trend emergence.

Abstract

Cultural trends and popularity cycles can be observed all around us, yet our theories of social influence and identity expression do not explain what perpetuates these complex, often unpredictable social dynamics. We propose a theory of social identity expression based on the opposing, but not mutually exclusive, motives to conform and to be unique among one's neighbors in a social network. We then model the social dynamics that arise from these motives. We find that the dynamics typically enter random walks or stochastic limit cycles rather than converging to a static equilibrium. We also prove that without social network structure or, alternatively, without the uniqueness motive, reasonable adaptive dynamics would necessarily converge to equilibrium. Thus, we show that nuanced psychological assumptions (recognizing preferences for uniqueness along with conformity) and realistic social network structure are both necessary for explaining how complex, unpredictable cultural trends emerge.