Events Calendar

Emergent Hierarchies and Social Stability

Speaker: Márton Pósfai , Complexity Sciences Center and Department of Computer Science, University of California, Davis

Talk Title: Emergent Hierarchies and Social Stability

Series: Center for Cyber-Physical Systems and Internet of Things

Abstract: Hierarchy of social organization is a ubiquitous property of animal and human groups, linked to resource allocation, collective decisions, individual health, and even to social instability. In my talk, I will discuss aspects of modelling the dynamics of hierarchy formation. I will first focus on the role of talent versus social feedback in obtaining rank. Experimental evidence shows that both impact hierarchies; existing mathematical models, however, focus on the latter. I will introduce a rigorous model that incorporates both features and show effects that arise from the interaction of the two. In the second half of my talk, I will discuss our collaboration with the California National Primate Research Center, this joint work aims to model the social structure and stability of rhesus macaque groups. Rhesus macaques live in cohesive hierarchically-structured groups of approximately one hundred individuals. Their social organization is regulated by a multiplex network defined by kinship and a number of interactions including grooming, fighting and formal submission. A notable property of macaque societies is that they can become unstable: the hierarchical organization may collapse, culminating in large-scale fighting, dissolution of social order and disbanding of entire groups. I will briefly describe the structure of their social networks and how modelling their dynamics help us understand social collapse.

Biography: Márton Pósfai received his PhD in statistical physics at the Eötvös University, Budapest. During his PhD he spent two years at the Northeastern University, Boston in the lab of Prof. Albert-László Barabási and six months at TU Berlin as German Academic Exchange Service scholarship-holder. Currently, he is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Davis working together with Prof. Raissa D'Souza. He is interested in complex systems and network science, with focus on network control, phase transitions in complex networks, emergence in social systems, and social organization of non-human primates.

Host: Professor Paul Bogdan

Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 132

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Talyia White