Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Concept Videos

Positive, Negative, and Zero Work00:58

Positive, Negative, and Zero Work

19.4K
Work is done on an object when energy is transferred to the object. In other words, work is done when a force acts on a body that undergoes a displacement from one position to another. By definition, the work done by a force is the integral of the force with respect to the displacement along its path. Forces can vary as a function of position, and displacements can occur along various paths between two points. The magnitude of a force multiplied by the cosine of the angle that the force makes...
19.4K
Group Polarization01:01

Group Polarization

35.5K
Group polarization is the strengthening of an original group attitude following the discussion of views within a group (Teger & Pruitt, 1967). That is, if a group initially favors a viewpoint, after discussion the group consensus is likely a stronger endorsement of the viewpoint. Conversely, if the group was initially opposed to a viewpoint, group discussion would likely lead to stronger opposition.
35.5K
Criticisms of the Evolutionary Perspective01:23

Criticisms of the Evolutionary Perspective

159
In a study where individuals posing as strangers offered compliments and proposed casual sex to students, the responses differed significantly based on gender. Not a single woman accepted the proposal, while 70% of the men agreed. This outcome provides a useful scenario to explore through the lens of evolutionary psychology and social learning theory, highlighting the diverse perspectives on human sexual behaviors.
Evolutionary psychology provides one explanation for these findings, suggesting...
159
Robbers Cave04:49

Robbers Cave

14.4K
During the 1950s, the landmark Robbers Cave experiment demonstrated that when groups must compete with one another, intergroup conflict, hostility, and even violence may result. At the Oklahoman summer camp, two troops of boys—termed the Rattlers and the Eagles—took part in a week-long tournament. During this time, their negativity culminated in derogatory name-calling, fistfights, and even vandalism and destruction of property. However, this work also revealed that such tension...
14.4K
Social Exchange Theory02:06

Social Exchange Theory

35.5K
We have discussed why we form relationships, what attracts us to others, and different types of love. But what determines whether we are satisfied with and stay in a relationship? One theory that provides an explanation is social exchange theory. According to social exchange theory, we act as naïve economists in keeping a tally of the ratio of costs and benefits of forming and maintaining a relationship with others (Rusbult & Van Lange, 2003).
35.5K
Egoism and Altruism01:55

Egoism and Altruism

92.2K
Voluntary behavior with the intent to help other people is called prosocial behavior. Why do people help other people? Is personal benefit such as feeling good about oneself the only reason people help one another?
92.2K

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

The cultural evolution of pluralistic ignorance.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2026
Same author

Co-evolution of behaviour and beliefs in social dilemmas: estimating material, social, cognitive and cultural determinants.

Evolutionary human sciences·2024
Same author

Cultural tightness and resilience against environmental shocks in nonindustrial societies.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2024
Same author

Modelling social norms: an integration of the norm-utility approach with beliefs dynamics.

Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences·2024
Same author

Social norm change: drivers and consequences.

Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences·2024
Same author

The dynamics of injunctive social norms.

Evolutionary human sciences·2023

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Sep 12, 2025

Continuous Theta Burst Stimulation of the Posterior Medial Frontal Cortex to Experimentally Reduce Ideological Threat Responses
06:42

Continuous Theta Burst Stimulation of the Posterior Medial Frontal Cortex to Experimentally Reduce Ideological Threat Responses

Published on: September 28, 2018

11.7K

The evolution of zero-sum and positive-sum worldviews.

Sergey Gavrilets1,2,3, Paul Seabright3,4

  • 1Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
|August 5, 2025
PubMed
Summary

Cultural worldviews, whether zero-sum or positive-sum, shape societal interactions. Social influence and authority can perpetuate inaccurate beliefs, leading to cultural evolutionary mismatch even when suboptimal.

Keywords:
competitioncooperationcultural authoritiescultural tightnessevolution of worldviews

More Related Videos

The HoneyComb Paradigm for Research on Collective Human Behavior
06:48

The HoneyComb Paradigm for Research on Collective Human Behavior

Published on: January 19, 2019

9.5K
How to Create and Use Binocular Rivalry
14:34

How to Create and Use Binocular Rivalry

Published on: November 10, 2010

75.6K

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Sep 12, 2025

Continuous Theta Burst Stimulation of the Posterior Medial Frontal Cortex to Experimentally Reduce Ideological Threat Responses
06:42

Continuous Theta Burst Stimulation of the Posterior Medial Frontal Cortex to Experimentally Reduce Ideological Threat Responses

Published on: September 28, 2018

11.7K
The HoneyComb Paradigm for Research on Collective Human Behavior
06:48

The HoneyComb Paradigm for Research on Collective Human Behavior

Published on: January 19, 2019

9.5K
How to Create and Use Binocular Rivalry
14:34

How to Create and Use Binocular Rivalry

Published on: November 10, 2010

75.6K

Area of Science:

  • Social psychology
  • Cultural evolution
  • Behavioral economics

Background:

  • Societies exhibit varying degrees of zero-sum (one's gain is another's loss) versus positive-sum (mutual benefit) worldviews.
  • These worldviews influence individual decisions regarding work, investment, collaboration, and social policy acceptance.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To model how zero-sum and positive-sum worldviews interact within a population under varying environmental conditions.
  • To investigate the impact of social influence mechanisms, including assortative matching, peer conformity, and cultural authorities, on worldview propagation.
  • To identify conditions that lead to cultural evolutionary mismatch, where beliefs are misaligned with the environment.

Main Methods:

  • Agent-based modeling of dyadic interactions in a heterogeneous population.
  • Simulation of stochastic environmental shifts between cooperative and competitive states.
  • Analysis of social influence dynamics: assortative matching, peer conformity, and authority-driven belief alteration.

Main Results:

  • In the absence of social influence, the more accurate worldview (aligned with the environment) prevails.
  • Assortative matching can favor positive-sum worldviews, even if less probable.
  • Peer conformity and authority interventions can lead to the persistence of inaccurate worldviews and cultural evolutionary mismatch, especially when authorities promote suboptimal beliefs.

Conclusions:

  • Social influence mechanisms significantly impact the persistence and spread of zero-sum versus positive-sum worldviews.
  • Cultural evolutionary mismatch is a plausible outcome, driven by conformity and authority, particularly in environments with strong social pressures.
  • Understanding these dynamics is crucial for addressing societal polarization and promoting adaptive cultural change.