Mate Copying , cognitive biases, and our networks.

Mate Copying , cognitive biases, and our networks.

I’ve always been intrigued by the idea, and the reality, of humans’ cognitive biases such as confirmation and the framing effect. In our last class Dr. Skyler presented us with an interesting lecture on mate copying through their studies on speed dating. One of the key ideas was that people (observers) will tend to copy in their mating for the simple reason that it’s easier or faster. In other words, it’s a shortcut which is a good alternative word for a cognitive bias. The idea of mate copying is one of these issues that we always knew it existed but somehow never thought deeply about it until it’s pointed out to us. A cognitive bias from an evolutionary perspective is quite interesting in that although it might lead to unwanted results it still persists in humans, meaning that it actually works sometime. Mate copying which can be quite an appealing shortcut, from a network point of view I think it makes networks unstable. In a given triad of a network if you were the observer, and both the target and the model were close friends of yours , and you couldn’t “win” in this copying, tension will arise which might ultimately cause the triad to break affecting the entire network at that side, especially because it involves a sensitive issue as mating. As opposed to other cognitive biases that I can think of, this one brings special danger as it’s tied to our social networks in which it’s hard to get a “one one” situation as someone has eventually to walk away without the target. There is also what Christakis calls the “structural effect” of networks as just in the case of happiness where the existence of social relationships increases happiness, it can increase tension, envy and eventually destruction in the network. They do say that the sea has so much fish in it, but we being humans will usually choose willingly to ignore that fact. So in a given social network if we took a strong cluster in it, and one person X started having strong interest for another person Y, and Z noticed, then Z will have strong interest, according to mate copying. But maybe A, B, and C will also notice Z or notice one another noticing Z in a vicious cycle. Ultimately all will lose except for one , leaving the others feeling disappointed, and maybe carrying a grudge, which again takes me back to my first question of how mate copying a cognitive bias which evolved with human, can persist from an evolutionary point of view, how can it be sustainable if it can potentially lead to the destruction of our networks. Or in our priorities, a shortcut for mating is more important than sustaining networks.