IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jgames/v13y2022i5p60-d907764.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Social Learning between Groups: Imitation and the Role of Experience

Author

Listed:
  • Karl H. Schlag

    (Economics Department, University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria)

Abstract

Social learning often occurs between groups with different levels of experience. Yet little is known about the ideal behavioral rules in such contexts. Existing insights only apply when individuals learn from each other in the same group. In this paper, we close this gap and consider two groups, novices and experienced. Experienced should not learn from novices. For novices learning from experienced, a particular form of probabilistic imitation is selected. Novices should imitate any experienced who is more successful, and sometimes but not always imitate an experienced who is less successful.

Suggested Citation

  • Karl H. Schlag, 2022. "Social Learning between Groups: Imitation and the Role of Experience," Games, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-14, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jgames:v:13:y:2022:i:5:p:60-:d:907764
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4336/13/5/60/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4336/13/5/60/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Apesteguia, Jose & Huck, Steffen & Oechssler, Jorg, 2007. "Imitation--theory and experimental evidence," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 136(1), pages 217-235, September.
    2. Schlag, Karl H., 1999. "Which one should I imitate?," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 493-522, May.
    3. Josef Hofbauer & Karl H. Schlag, 2000. "Sophisticated imitation in cyclic games," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 10(5), pages 523-543.
    4. Bisin, Alberto & Verdier, Thierry, 2001. "The Economics of Cultural Transmission and the Dynamics of Preferences," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 97(2), pages 298-319, April.
    5. Schlag, Karl H., 1998. "Why Imitate, and If So, How?, : A Boundedly Rational Approach to Multi-armed Bandits," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 78(1), pages 130-156, January.
    6. Schlag, Karl H., 1998. "Why Imitate, and If So, How?, : A Boundedly Rational Approach to Multi-armed Bandits," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 78(1), pages 130-156, January.
    7. Thomas W. Pike & Jeremy R. Kendal & Luke E. Rendell & Kevin N. Laland, 2010. "Learning by proportional observation in a species of fish," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 21(3), pages 570-575.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Offerman, Theo & Schotter, Andrew, 2009. "Imitation and luck: An experimental study on social sampling," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 65(2), pages 461-502, March.
    2. Eftichios S. Sartzetakis & Anastasios Xepapadeas & Athanasios Yannacopoulos, 2015. "Regulating the Environmental Consequences of Preferences for Social Status within an Evolutionary Framework," Working Papers 2015.34, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    3. Ana B. Ania, 2000. "Learning by Imitation when Playing the Field," Vienna Economics Papers vie0005, University of Vienna, Department of Economics.
    4. Elvio Accinelli & Silvia London & Edgar J. Sanchez Carrera, 2009. "A Model of Imitative Behavior in the Population of Firms and Workers," Department of Economics University of Siena 554, Department of Economics, University of Siena.
    5. Selten, Reinhard & Apesteguia, Jose, 2005. "Experimentally observed imitation and cooperation in price competition on the circle," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 51(1), pages 171-192, April.
    6. Edgar J. Sanchez Carrera, 2019. "Evolutionary dynamics of poverty traps," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 29(2), pages 611-630, April.
    7. Elvio Accinelli & Laura Policardo & Edgar J. Sánchez Carrera, 2012. "On the Dynamics and Effects of Corruption on Environmental Protection," Documentos de Trabajo (working papers) 1312, Department of Economics - dECON.
    8. Tsakas, Nikolas, 2012. "Naive learning in social networks: Imitating the most successful neighbor," MPRA Paper 37796, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Ana B. Ania, 2000. "Learning by Imitation when Playing the Field," Vienna Economics Papers 0005, University of Vienna, Department of Economics.
    10. Mark Armstrong & Steffen Huck, 2010. "Behavioral Economics as Applied to Firms: A Primer," CESifo Working Paper Series 2937, CESifo.
    11. Josephson, Jens & Wärneryd, Karl, 2008. "Long-run selection and the work ethic," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 63(1), pages 354-365, May.
    12. Elvio Accinelli & Silvia London & Lionello F. Punzo & Edgar J. Sanchez Carrera, 2010. "Dynamic Complementarities, Efficiency and Nash Equilibria for Populations of Firms and Workers," Journal of Economics and Econometrics, Economics and Econometrics Society, vol. 53(1), pages 90-110.
    13. Josephson, Jens & Matros, Alexander, 2004. "Stochastic imitation in finite games," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 49(2), pages 244-259, November.
    14. Tsakas Nikolas, 2014. "Imitating the Most Successful Neighbor in Social Networks," Review of Network Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 12(4), pages 1-33, February.
    15. Edgar Carrera, 2012. "Imitation and evolutionary stability of poverty traps," Journal of Bioeconomics, Springer, vol. 14(1), pages 1-20, April.
    16. Shi, Fei & Zhang, Boyu, 2019. "Cournot competition, imitation, and information networks," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 176(C), pages 83-85.
    17. Erik Mohlin & Robert Ostling & Joseph Tao-yi Wang, 2014. "Learning by Imitation in Games: Theory, Field, and Laboratory," Economics Series Working Papers 734, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    18. Jonas Hedlund & Carlos Oyarzun, 2018. "Imitation in heterogeneous populations," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 65(4), pages 937-973, June.
    19. Karl H. Schlag, 2007. "Distribution-Free Learning," Economics Working Papers ECO2007/01, European University Institute.
    20. Baldini, Ryan, 2012. "Success-biased social learning: Cultural and evolutionary dynamics," Theoretical Population Biology, Elsevier, vol. 82(3), pages 222-228.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jgames:v:13:y:2022:i:5:p:60-:d:907764. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.