Science, Space and Technology News 2024
Researchers have created a model to study the impact of gossip on cooperation. They found a mathematical relationship between different forms of gossip, showing how understanding single-source gossip helps understand peer gossip. Their model reveals that sufficient gossip can foster cooperation by improving consensus on reputations. They also noted that biased gossip can affect cooperation positively or negatively.
Gossip often has a negative connotation, but imagine you are part of a group deciding on a job candidate to hire or local political candidate to back. Candidates who get a good reputation by helping others may be more likely to receive help in the form of a job offer or endorsement, a feedback loop known as indirect reciprocity. Gossip can facilitate cooperation.
studied this issue by creating a model that incorporates two sources of gossip: randomly selected people versus a single source. They show that there is a mathematical relationship between these forms of gossip—meaning that understanding gossip with a single source also allows them to understand gossip with peers—and developed an analytical expression for the amount of gossip required to reach sufficient consensus and sustain cooperation.
The authors note that behavioral strategies vary. Some always cooperate, some always defect, and some discriminate, meaning they cooperate when the recipient has a good reputation and defect when the recipient has a bad one. The researchers found that both forms of gossip tend to increase agreement about reputations, which in turn improves the equilibrium reputations of discriminators.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
To accelerate biosphere science, researchers say reconnect three scientific culturesResearchers who study Earth's biosphere tend to operate from one of three scientific cultures, each with distinct ways of conducting science, and which have been operating mostly independently from one another, find the authors of a Perspective published in PNAS on April 19, 2024.
Read more »
Random processes shape science and math: Researchers propose a unified, probabilistic frameworkWill a certain tritium atom decay by a certain time? According to our current science, this question concerning physical phenomena should be answered by sampling from a probability distribution, a process not unlike spinning a roulette wheel or rolling dice.
Read more »
Researchers describe how philosophers can bridge the gap between science and policyPublic policy should be based on scientific evidence—but scientists often lament the gap between science and policy, while policy-makers feel that scientists don't deliver the evidence that is needed.
Read more »
New tools from NOAA and CDC show heat forecasts and risk levelsDenise Chow is a reporter for NBC News Science focused on general science and climate change.
Read more »
Meet the NASA astronauts who will be first to launch on Boeing's spaceshipDenise Chow is a reporter for NBC News Science focused on general science and climate change.
Read more »
Cities look for new ways to keep people safe — and alive — as extreme summer heat loomsDenise Chow is a reporter for NBC News Science focused on general science and climate change.
Read more »