An investigation of the role of leadership in consensus decision-making
Journal Article
Perret, C., & Powers, S. T. (2022)
An investigation of the role of leadership in consensus decision-making. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 543, Article 111094. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtbi.2022.111094
Leadership is a widespread phenomena in social organisms and it is recognised to facilitate coordination between individuals. While the role of leadership in group foraging or...
Four levers of reciprocity across human societies: concepts, analysis and predictions
Journal Article
Lehmann, L., Powers, S. T., & van Schaik, C. P. (2022)
Four levers of reciprocity across human societies: concepts, analysis and predictions. Evolutionary Human Sciences, 4, Article e11. https://doi.org/10.1017/ehs.2022.7
This paper surveys five human societal types – mobile foragers, horticulturalists, pre-state agriculturalists, state-based agriculturalists and liberal democracies – from the ...
Modelling enduring institutions: The complementarity of evolutionary and agent-based approaches
Journal Article
Powers, S. T., Ekárt, A., & Lewis, P. R. (2018)
Modelling enduring institutions: The complementarity of evolutionary and agent-based approaches. Cognitive Systems Research, 52, 67-81. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogsys.2018.04.012
Empirical work has shown that societies can sometimes avoid antisocial outcomes , such as the Tragedy of the Commons, by establishing institutional rules that govern their int...
The institutional approach for modeling the evolution of human societies
Journal Article
Powers, S. T. (2018)
The institutional approach for modeling the evolution of human societies. Artificial Life, 24(1), 10-28. https://doi.org/10.1162/ARTL_a_00251
Artificial Life is concerned with understanding the dynamics of human societies. A defining feature of any society is its institutions. However, defining exactly what an insti...
The co-evolution of social institutions, demography, and large-scale human cooperation
Journal Article
Powers, S. T., & Lehmann, L. (2013)
The co-evolution of social institutions, demography, and large-scale human cooperation. Ecology Letters, 16(11), 1356-1364. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.12178
Human cooperation is typically coordinated by institutions, which determine the outcome structure of the social interactions individuals engage in. Explaining the Neolithic tr...
Punishment can promote defection in group-structured populations
Journal Article
Powers, S. T., Taylor, D. J., & Bryson, J. J. (2012)
Punishment can promote defection in group-structured populations. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 311, 107-116. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtbi.2012.07.010
Pro-social punishment, whereby cooperators punish defectors, is often suggested as a mechanism that maintains cooperation in large human groups. Importantly, models that suppo...