What is the origin of
individual differences in ideology and personality? According to the parasite
stress hypothesis, the structure of a society and the values of individuals
within it are both influenced by the prevalence of infectious disease within the
society's geographical region. High levels of infection threat are associated
with more ethnocentric and collectivist social structures and greater adherence
to social norms, as well as with socially conservative political ideology and
less open but more conscientious personalities.
Here we use an agent-based
model to explore a specific opportunities-parasites trade-off (OPTO)
hypothesis, according to which utility-maximizing agents place themselves at an
optimal point on a trade-off between (a) the gains that may be achieved through
accessing the resources of geographically or socially distant out-group members
through openness to out-group interaction, and (b) the losses arising due to
consequently increased risks of exotic infection to which immunity has not been
developed.
We examine the evolution of cooperation and the formation of social
groups within social networks, and we show that the groups that spontaneously
form exhibit greater local rather than global cooperative networks when levels
of infection are high. It is suggested that the OPTO model offers a first step
toward understanding the specific mechanisms through which environmental
conditions may influence cognition, ideology, personality, and social
organization.
Below: Effects of learning on openness for different values of the probability of infection associated with most distant neighbors
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By:
- 1Department of Psychology, University of Warwick.
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