Collaboration in Social Problem-Solving: When Diversity Trumps Network Efficiency

Abstract

Recent studies have suggested that current agent-based models are not sufficiently sophisticated to reproduce results achieved by human collaborative learning and reasoning. Such studies suggest that humans are diverse and dynamic when solving problems socially. However, despite their relevance to problem-solving, these two behavioral features have not yet been fully investigated. In this paper we analyse a recent social problem-solving model and attempt to address its shortcomings. Specifically, we investigate the effects of separating exploitation from exploration in agent behaviors and explore the concept of diversity in such models. We found out that diverse populations outperform homogeneous ones in both efficient and inefficient networks. Finally, we show that agent diversity is more relevant than the strategic behavioral dynamics. This work contributes towards understanding the role of diverse and dynamic behaviors in social problem-solving as well as the advancement of state-of-art social problem-solving models.