Adoption as a social marker: Innovation diffusion with outgroup aversion
Authored by Jenna Bednar, Marco A Janssen, Paul E Smaldino, Vicken Hillis
Date Published: 2017
DOI: 10.1080/0022250x.2016.1250083
Sponsors:
United States National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis (NIMBioS)
United States National Science Foundation (NSF)
Platforms:
Java
NetLogo
Model Documentation:
Other Narrative
Mathematical description
Model Code URLs:
http://smaldino.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/AdoptionAsSocialMarker.zip
Abstract
Social identities are among the key factors driving behavior in complex
societies. Signals of social identity are known to influence individual
behaviors in the adoption of innovations. Yet the population-level
consequences of identity signaling on the diffusion of innovations are
largely unknown. Here we use both analytical and agent-based modeling to
consider the spread of a beneficial innovation in a structured
population in which there exist two groups who are averse to being
mistaken for each other. We investigate the dynamics of adoption and
consider the role of structural factors such as demographic skew and
communication scale on population-level outcomes. We find that outgroup
aversion can lead to adoption being delayed or suppressed in one group,
and that population-wide underadoption is common. Comparing the two
models, we find that differential adoption can arise due to structural
constraints on information flow even in the absence of intrinsic
between-group differences in adoption rates. Further, we find that
patterns of polarization in adoption at both local and global scales
depend on the details of demographic organization and the scale of
communication. This research has particular relevance to widely
beneficial but identity-relevant products and behaviors, such as green
technologies, where overall levels of adoption determine the positive
benefits that accrue to society at large.
Tags
Agent-based model
Simulation
Complex networks
Evolution
behavior
polarization
identity
networks
Innovation Diffusion
Model
Impact
Spread
Social identity
Attitude polarization
Identity signaling
Others