Effect of information transmission on cooperative behavior

Considering the fact, in the real world, that information is transmitted with a time delay, we study an evolutionary spatial prisoner's dilemma game where agents update strategies according to certain information that they have learned. In our study, the game dynamics are classified by the modes of information learning as well as game interaction, and four different combinations, i.e. the mean-field case, case I, case II and local case, are studied comparatively. It is found that the time delay in case II smoothes the phase transition from the absorbing states of C (or D) to their mixing state, and promotes cooperation for most parameter values. Our work provides insights into the temporal behavior of information and the memory of the system, and may be helpful in understanding the cooperative behavior induced by the time delay in social and biological systems.

Promotion of cooperation in the form C0C1D classified by 'degree grads' in a scale-free network

In this paper, we revisit the issue of the public goods game (PGG) on a heterogeneous graph. By introducing a new effective topology parameter, 'degree grads' phi, we clearly classify the agents into three kinds, namely, C-0, C-1, and D. The mechanism for the heterogeneous topology promoting cooperation is discussed in detail from the perspective of C0C1D, which reflects the fact that the unreasoning imitation behaviour of C-1 agents, who are 'cheated' by the well-paid C-0 agents inhabiting special positions, stabilizes the formation of the cooperation community. The analytical and simulation results for certain parameters are found to coincide well with each other. The C0C1D case provides a picture of the actual behaviours in real society and thus is potentially of interest.

儿童社会价值取向的发展及其对合作行为的影响

Cooperation is a typical prosocial behavior, and social psychologists have traditionally used sociometric methods to measure cooperation. This research is aimed to explore the development of children’s social value orientation and its impact on cooperation. Study 1 used two-choice decomposed games to measure the social value orientation of 9- , 11-, to 14-year-old children and adults. Results indicated that most 9-, 11-, 14-year-old children are classified as proselfs, and most adults are classified as prosocials. Compared to 9 years, there are more prosocial orientations and less competitive orientations among 11 years. But compared to 11 years, there are less prosocial orientations and more competitive orientations among 14 years. Study 2 used prisoner’s dilemma to assess cooperative behavior, thus investigated the impact of social value orientation on cooperative decision-making. Results indicated that, on one hand, children of prosocial orientation expected no more cooperation from others, but adults of prosocial orientation expected more cooperation from others. On the other hand, prosocials make more cooperative choices than proselfs, and they show more reciprocity towards cooperative others and more altruism towards non-cooperative others.

Temperature transformation in relativistic thermodynamics

This paper reviews conflicting results on relativistic transformation formula for tem-perature obtained by different authors in the last half century, discusses the proper expres-sion for elementary work done under reversible processes, and presents a correct derivationof the transformation formula, rather similar in spirit to that of Einstein. It is pointed outthat the point of view adopted by Eddington, Ott, Mφller and Landsberg are erroneous,and that by correctly carrying out detailed analysis for Mφller's working model, which wasoriginally proposed to disprove Planck-Einstein result, we have arrived instead at a result incomplete agreement with that of Planck-Einstein. Thercupon this long standing controversyover the temperature transformation dilemma for relativistic thermodynamics is clarified.

The decline and impending extinction of the South China tiger

The South China tiger Panthera tigris amoyensis is the rarest of the five living tiger subspecies, the most critically threatened and the closest to extinction. No wild South China tigers have been seen by officials for 25 years and one was last brought into captivity 27 years ago. The 19 reserves listed by the Chinese Ministry of Forestry within the presumed range of the tiger are spatially fragmented and most are too small to support viable tiger populations. Over the last 40 years wild populations have declined from thousands to a scattered few. Despite its plight and occasional anecdotal reports of sightings by local people, no intensive field study has been conducted on this tiger subspecies and its habitat. The captive population of about 50 tigers, derived from six wild-caught founders, is genetically impoverished with low reproductive output. Given the size and fragmentation of potential tiger habitat, saving what remains of the captive population may be the only option left to prevent extinction of this tiger subspecies, and even this option is becoming increasingly less probable. This precarious dilemma demands that conservation priorities be re-evaluated and action taken immediately to decide if recovery of the wild population will be possible.

油气勘探风险评价与决策技术研究

PetroChina and other national petroleum incorporations need rigorous procedures and practical methods in risk evaluation and exploration decision at home and abroad to safeguard their international exploration practice in exploration licence bidding, finding appropriate ratio of risk sharing with partners, as well as avoiding high risk projects and other key exploration activities. However, due to historical reasons, we are only at the beginning of a full study and methodology development in exploration risk evaluation and decision. No rigorous procedure and practical methods are available in our exercises of international exploration. Completely adopting foreign procedure, methods and tools by our national incorporations are not practical because of the differences of the current economic and management systems in China. The objective of this study is to establish a risk evaluation and decision system with independent intellectual property right in oil and gas exploration so that a smooth transition from our current practice into international norm can take place. The system developed in this dissertation includes the following four components: 1. A set of quantitative criteria for risk evaluation is derived on the basis of an anatomy of the parameters from thirty calibration regions national wide as well as the characteristics and the geological factors controlling oil and gas occurrence in the major petroleum-bearing basins in China, which provides the technical support for the risk quantification in oil and gas exploration. 2. Through analysis of existing methodology, procedure and methods of exploration risk evaluation considering spatial information are proposed. The method, utilizing Mahalanobis Distance (MD) and fuzzy logic for data and information integration, provides probabilistic models on the basis of MD and fuzzy logic classification criteria, thus quantifying the exploration risk using Bayesian theory. A projection of the geological risk into spatial domain provides a probability map of oil and gas occurrence in the area under study. The application of this method to the Nanpu Sag shows that this method not only correctly predicted the oil and gas occurrence in the areas where Beibu and Laoyemiao oil fields are found in the northwest of the onshore area, but also predicted Laopu south, Nanpu south and Hatuo potential areas in the offshore part where exploration maturity was very low. The prediction of the potential areas are subsequently confirmed by 17 exploration wells in the offshore area with 81% success, indicating this method is very effective for exploration risk visualization and reduction. 3. On the basis of “Methods and parameters of economic evaluation for petroleum exploration and development projects in China”, a ”pyramid” method for sensitivity analysis was developed, which meets not only the need for exploration target evaluation and exploration decision at home, but also allows a transition from our current practice to international norm in exploration decision. This provides the foundation for the development of a software product “Exploration economic evaluation and decision system of PetroChina” (EDSys). 4. To solve problem in methodology of exploration decision, effort was made on the method of project portfolio management. A drilling decision method was developed employing the concept of geologically risked net present value. This method overcame the dilemma of handling simultaneously both geological risk and portfolio uncertainty, thus casting light into the application of modern portfolio theory to the evaluation of high risk petroleum exploration projects.

社会困境中的行为决策――社会身份与地位的影响

Social dilemmas are defined as such situations in which short-term individual and long-term collective interests are at odds (Hardin, 1968; Messick & Brewer, 1983). Severe social problems lead more and more researchers to pay attention to the issue of social dilemmas. Until now, research has widely examined the factors influencing cooperation in social dilemmas, and provided solutions to social dilemmas. In the need of theory development, previous research generally simplified the situation of realistic social dilemmas. Therefore, few studies have explored the issue of cooperation in social dilemmas in an intergroup situation. On the other hand, there has been little empirical attention for such issues in countries outside of United States and Western Europe. To meet this gap, the present study grounded itself in social identity theories and examined the effect of unequal group status on behavioral decision making in social dilemmas. To this end, the study designed three experiments to examine how individuals with different group status response psychologically and behaviorally to cooperation in intragroup and intergroup social dilemmas. In experiment 1, the study examined how independent and interdependent self- construals affect cooperative behavior in an intragroup social dilemma. The results showed that when individuals were primed with interdependent (as opposed to independent) self-construal, they consistently contributed highly, regardless of context manipulation. In contrast, those primed with independent self-construal contributed less in the investment game but only when placed in a context where group members were encouraged to think about their individual (versus shared) fate. Results supported the idea that independent self-construal in a low interdependent context produces the most competitive behavior and that this effect was partially mediated by the feeling of interaction within a group. In experiment 2, the study examined how the effect of group status on different level of cooperation in a nested social dilemma was moderated by individual status, and what roles ingroup and superordinate identifications played in the above effect. Results found that individuals in higher status groups tended to allocate more to private account and less to subgroup account compared to those in lower status group; individuals in higher status groups allocated more to higher level accounts than to private account, whereas those in lower status acted in a reverse way. The results indicated that group status (compared to individual status) exerted a positive influence on behavioral decision making in social dilemmas, with higher group status contributing more to subgroup as well as collective interests. Results also found that the effect of group status and/or individual status on cooperation in social dilemmas was moderated by sex. As for individual status, results showed that the effect of individual status on subgroup interest was significantly moderated only by the combination of higher ingroup identification and lower superordinate identification. In experiment 3, the study explored how group stability and cognitive categorization interactively influenced the relationship between group status and behavioral decision making in a social dilemma. Results did not support the prediction that group status and stability interactively affected behavioral decision-making in social dilemmas. However, it was found that this relationship was moderated by which level individuals categorized themselves at. When categorization at the individual level was salient, individuals in high status group contributed more to subgroup account than those in low status group if they perceived a stable status hierarchy; whereas they contributed more to private account and less to collective account if they perceived that the status was instable. On the other hand, when categorization at the subgroup level was salient, individuals in high status group contributed less to collective account than those in low status group if they perceived that the status was stable; whereas they contributed less to private account and more to subgroup account if they perceived an instable status relation. In summary, the present study suggests that cooperation with ingroup forms the basis of social harmony, and higher status for everyone in any given group is a necessary for social development. On the other hand, individuals in higher status group tend to be more selfish once they realize that their current status hierarchy is unstable. However, activating their collective identity will to some degree increase the level of their cooperation with the collective. The study thus provides psychological explanations on how to construct group harmony and management suggestions on how to solve social conflicts.

10-14岁超常儿童的亲社会行为特点及影响因素

Is prosocial behavior of supernormal children distinguished from normal children? Is there any difference between the supernormal children’s prosocial behavior from different educational placement? What are the mechanisms underlying the difference? The aim of this study was to examine these issues. With multiple methods of prosocial behavior, including other-rating, self-rating and hypothetical dilemma, we investigated the 10 to 14 year-old children. Firstly, the development of prosocial behavior and its relationship with prosocial behavior was examined. Secondly, we investigated the features of supernormal children’s prosocial behavior and analysed its difference with normal children. Finally, we tried to find the difference of supernormal children’s prosocial behaviour from different educational placement, and the mechanisms underlying the difference, such as social value orientation and peer relation. The results are as follows: 1)The altruistic and compliant prosocial tendency of 14 year-old children was obviously lower than those younger children. Intelligence was positively related with altruistic and emotional prosocial tendency for 10 year-olds, and with prosocial behaviour of peer nominated for 12 year-olds. 2)There was no significant difference of prosocial behaviour between supernormal and normal children. The peer nominated prosocial behaviour of 12 year-old supernormal children was higher than of 11 and 13 years old supernormal children. In addition, girls’ other-rating prosocial behaviour was significantly higher than boys’, but no gender difference was detected in the prosocial behaviour of self-rating and hypothetical dilemma. 3)With regard to the supernormal children’s prosocial behaviour in different educational placement, we found that the prosocial degree of the supernormal children of homogeneous groups was higher than that of heterogeneous groups in the role-change of ultimatum game. 4)The supernormal children from different educational placement had different social value orientation. More supernormal children of homogeneous groups belonged to the type of group enhancement, while more supernormal children of heterogeneous groups belonged to the type of equality. The types of social value orientation did not have impact on the supernormal children’s prosocial behaviour from different educational placement. 5)Peer relation moderated the impact of different educational placement on supernormal children’s prosocial behaviour.