75. Paul Smaldino: Modeling Social Behavior, the value of false models, and research beyond traditional disciplines

Paul Smaldino is an Associate Professor of Cognitive and Information Sciences at UC Merced, where he studies the evolution of behavior in response to social, cultural, and ecological pressures. In this conversation, we talk about his new book Modeling Social Behavior, everything related to formal models of social behaviour, and Paul's path to where he is today.

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Timestamps
0:00:00: Paul's new book 'Modeling Social Behavior'
0:04:42: Paul's somewhat circuitous route to doing what he does today
0:25:54: Why so interdisciplinary?
0:36:58: The importance of (metaphorical) violence in modeling
0:46:26: Newton's model of gravitation ignores almost everything
0:52:11: Exact vs inexact sciences
1:00:02: From simple to complex models of cooperation, and the complementarity of simulations and equations
1:11:48: When is formal modeling appropriate and when is it too soon?
1:27:47: A book or paper Paul thinks more people should read
1:32:46: What Paul wishes he'd learnt sooner
1:36:20: Any advice for PhD students or postdocs?

Podcast links

• Website: https://geni.us/bjks-pod
• Twitter: https://geni.us/bjks-pod-twt

Paul's links

• Website: https://geni.us/smaldino-web
• Google Scholar: https://geni.us/smaldino-scholar
• Twitter: https://geni.us/smaldino-twt

Ben's links

• Website: https://geni.us/bjks-web
• Google Scholar: https://geni.us/bjks-scholar
• Twitter: https://geni.us/bjks-twt

References

Previous episode with Paul: https://geni.us/bjks-smaldino

Axelrod & Hamilton (1981). The evolution of cooperation. Science.
Boyd & Richerson (1988). Culture and the evolutionary process.
Friston (2012). The history of the future of the Bayesian brain. NeuroImage.
Giraldeau & Caraco (2000). Social foraging theory. Princeton University Press.
Giraldeau & Gillis (1985). Optimal group size can be stable: a reply to Sibly. Animal Behaviour.
Gleick (2004). Isaac Newton.
Glimcher (2004). Decisions, uncertainty, and the brain: The science of neuroeconomics.
Hamilton (1964). The genetical evolution of social behaviour. Journal of theoretical biology.
Kauffman (1970). Articulation of parts explanation in biology and the rational search for them. PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association.
Kay (2010). Obliquity.
Nowak & May (1992). Evolutionary games and spatial chaos. Nature.
Smaldino (2023). Modeling social behavior: Mathematical and agent-based models of social dynamics and cultural evolution. Princeton University Press.
Smaldino (2017). Models are stupid, and we need more of them. Computational social psychology.
Smaldino, Pickett, Sherman & Schank (2012). An agent-based model of social identity dynamics. Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation.
Turchin (2003). Historical dynamics: Why states rise and fall.
Wimsatt (1987). False models as means to truer theories. Neutral models in biology.
Wimsatt (2007). Re-engineering philosophy for limited beings: Piecewise approximations to reality.
Zukav (2012). The dancing Wu Li masters: An overview of the new physics.