I deeply enjoyed reading this, but feel ambivalent toward its conclusion. External pressure and inter-coalitional competition is not the only main factors that impact group cohesion. Norms of cooperation usually enforced through gossip and reputational costs are another one. The exclusion of norms that guide long-term interactions can create a more pessimistic picture of coalitions which in turn can actually lead to a everybody for themselves narrative of social life and lower trust societies. Of course, use of gossip and reputational costs to discipline non-group aligned behavior is never perfect and can be abused. But it doesn't make it useless
We are 100% in agreement. The post doesn’t spell out the role of social norms, but my description of high trust-low conflict situations as being equilibria of social games is in line with my previous posts in social norms as equilibria and the role of reputation in such equilibria. 👍
I deeply enjoyed reading this, but feel ambivalent toward its conclusion. External pressure and inter-coalitional competition is not the only main factors that impact group cohesion. Norms of cooperation usually enforced through gossip and reputational costs are another one. The exclusion of norms that guide long-term interactions can create a more pessimistic picture of coalitions which in turn can actually lead to a everybody for themselves narrative of social life and lower trust societies. Of course, use of gossip and reputational costs to discipline non-group aligned behavior is never perfect and can be abused. But it doesn't make it useless
We are 100% in agreement. The post doesn’t spell out the role of social norms, but my description of high trust-low conflict situations as being equilibria of social games is in line with my previous posts in social norms as equilibria and the role of reputation in such equilibria. 👍