Cooperation is seen across all biological scales ranging from cells to societies. In organisms like bacteria, the decision-making process is genetically hardwired but higher animals endowed with cognitive abilities have to make choices that can affect not only their own survival but also that of their group.
Uncovering the organizing principles that lead to evolution of cooperation is an issue of fundamental importance that transcends disciplinary boundaries. Insights can be obtained from studying biological communities, through mathematical and agent-based modeling, cognitive science, social network dynamics and behavioral economics. Such investigations can also lead to the understanding of other intriguing evolutionary phenomena like opinion dynamics, evolution of fairness and spiteful behaviour. Evolutionary Game Theory provides a powerful framework for addressing such questions in the context of both biological and cultural evolution. In this program, we will therefore be addressing the following questions through different lenses: How are individual choices in a social conflict affected by the nature of the local environment and the network structure of the population in which individuals are embedded? How does the evolution of individual behaviour shape population-level outcomes? What is the role played by learning in the evolution of individual choices? How do different learning strategies affect collective outcomes and population heterogeneity?
The aim of this workshop is to bring together Biologists, Cognitive scientists, Economists and Physicists so that each group may benefit from the perspectives provided by others. This will allow cross-fertilization of ideas and promote collaboration between diverse academic communities that have a shared interest in understanding decision making across all scales.
1. Evolutionary game theoretic models of cooperation in human societies
2. Effect of inequalities, biases, sanctioning etc. in social dilemmas: Insights from behavioural experiments
3.Cultural evolution, opinion formation, belief spreading on networks and other social phenomena
4. Eco-evolutionary dynamics: Decision-making and cooperation in microbial and animal societies
5. Cognitive aspects of decision-making
Accommodation will be provided for outstation participants at our on campus guest house.
Eligiblity criteria: Ph.D. students, postdoctoral fellows, and faculty members who are working in a related field. Some advanced masters students may also be considered on a case-by-case-basis.
ICTS is committed to building an environment that is inclusive, non discriminatory and welcoming of diverse individuals. We especially encourage the participation of women and other under-represented groups.
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