Hostname: page-component-77f85d65b8-45ctf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-04-22T14:23:17.575Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Societies have functions for individuals and collectives

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 April 2025

Paul E. Smaldino Open the ORCID record for Paul E. Smaldino [Opens in a new window]
Paul E. Smaldino*
Affiliation:
Department of Cognitive and Information Sciences, University of California, Merced, Merced, CA, USA psmaldino@ucmerced.edu https://smaldino.com Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM, USA
*
*Corresponding author.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The definition of society as identity group is most likely to be useful when combined with the instrumental functions of identity groupings. These take two key forms, with important differences. First, identity groupings are useful for individual decision making. Second, societies can be units of collective behavior and information processing. Disentanglement of these forms is needed.

Information

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 48 , 2025 , e71
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Barth, F. (1969). Introduction. In Barth, F. (Ed.), Ethnic groups and boundaries (pp. 9–38). Little, Brown.Google Scholar
Dias, N., & Lelkes, Y. (2022) The nature of affective polarization: Disentangling policy disagreement from partisan identity. American Journal of Political Science 66(3), 775–790.Google Scholar
Donath, J. S. (1999). Identity and deception in the virtual community. In Kollock, P. & Smith, M. (Eds.), Communities in cyberspace (pp. 29–59). Routledge.Google Scholar
Galesic, M., Barkoczi, D., Berdahl, A. M., Biro, D., Carbone, G., Giannoccaro, I., … Stein, D. L. (2023) Beyond collective intelligence: Collective adaptation. Journal of the Royal Society Interface 20, 20220736.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gerkey, D., & Cronk, L. (2014) What is a group? Conceptual clarity can help integrate evolutionary and social scientific research on cooperation. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 37(3), 260–261.Google ScholarPubMed
Goffman, E. (1956). The presentation of self in everyday life. Knopf Doubleday.Google Scholar
McElreath, R., Boyd, R., & Richerson, P. (2003) Shared norms and the evolution of ethnic markers. Current Anthropology 44(1), 122–130.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nettle, D. (2018). What we talk about when we talk about biology. In Hanging on to the edges: Essays on science, society and the academic life (pp. 25–42). Open Book Publishers.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Richerson, P. J., & Boyd, R. (1999) Complex societies: The evolutionary origins of a crude superorganism. Human Nature 10(3), 253–289.Google ScholarPubMed
Roccas, S., & Brewer, M. B. (2002) Social identity complexity. Personality and Social Psychology Review 6(2), 88–106.Google Scholar
Smaldino, P. E. (2014) The cultural evolution of emergent group-level traits. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 37(3), 243–254.Google ScholarPubMed
Smaldino, P. E. (2019) Social identity and cooperation in cultural evolution. Behavioural Processes 161, 108–116.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Smaldino, P. E., & Pérez Velilla, A. (in press) The evolution of similarity-biased social learning. Evolutionary Human Sciences.Google Scholar
Smaldino, P. E., & Turner, M. A. (2022) Covert signaling is an adaptive communication strategy in diverse populations. Psychological Review 129, 812–829.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smaldino, P. E., Flamson, T. J., & McElreath, R. (2018) The evolution of covert signaling. Scientific Reports 8(1), 4905.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Steiglechner, P., Smaldino, P. E., Moser, D., & Merico, A. (2023) Social identity bias and communication network clustering interact to shape patterns of opinion dynamics. Journal of the Royal Society Interface 20, 20230372.Google ScholarPubMed
Vonnegut, K. (1962). Mother night. Fawcett Publications.Google Scholar