Evolve ethnocentrism in your spare time

Running an agent based simulation really isn’t that complex. While there’s no shortage of ready-made software packages for ABM (like Repast and NetLogo), all you really need is a good, high-level programming language and a code editor.

As you may have noticed from other blog posts, we have spent quite a bit of time studying agent based models of ethnocentric evolution. To coincide with the publication of our paper (Hartshorn, Kaznatcheev & Shultz, 2013) on the evolution of ethnocentrism in the Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation (JASSS), we thought it would be fun to provide a hands-on tutorial so you can replicate the model yourself. There’s a lot to cover here, so we won’t get into the scientific description of the model itself, but you can read a good synopsis in my executive summary, or Artem’s general overview.

This post assumes no programming background, just a computer, patience, and some curiosity. That being said, you will be compiling a small Java program and modifying its source code, so if words like “compile,” “source code,” and “Java” strike terror in your heart, consider yourself forewarned. It’s actually not that scary. In Estonia they’re teaching kids to program in first grade, and you’re smarter than a first grader…right?!

How ethnocentrism evolves: a simulation of evolutionary dynamics

Cooperation is a paradox—it just doesn’t make sense. Why should I help you when there’s no direct benefit for me? Artem, Professor Tom Shultz, and I have been working for quite some time on a paper about cooperation, and we’re psyched to announce that it’s finally been published in The Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation (JASSS). JASSS is an open web journal, so you can view the full text of our article for free on their website. Or you could skip the 8000 or so words and check out this summary post.