Using mathematics to identify the good guys聽
The Good Samaritan helping an accident victim might really be looking out for himself, argues assistant professor of philosophy and religion Rory Smead.
鈥淚鈥檒l help you not because you鈥檒l help me,鈥� explains Smead, 鈥渂ut because somebody else might help me in the future if he knows I鈥檓 a nice guy.鈥�
Smead, whose scholarship focuses on the evolutionary connections between learning, language and social interaction, calls this 鈥渋ndirect reciprocity,鈥� a principal of evolutionary biology in which people who are more helpful are more likely to receive help.
Some scholars have surmised that humans developed language to find out who鈥檚 helpful and who鈥檚 not, he says, adding that we use language to pass judgment on each other and maintain social norms. In other words, Smead says, people talk about each other to find out who鈥檚 a good guy and who鈥檚 a bad guy.
鈥淲e gossip about each other and hear rumors,鈥� he says. 鈥淲e鈥檙e nice to people who we think are nice and we鈥檙e not nice to people who aren鈥檛.鈥�
Smead, who taught at the London School of Economics before joining the faculty in the College of Social Sciences and Humanities, counts himself among a new breed of philosophers who tackle age-old philosophical questions using innovative, multidisciplinary methods of inquiry.
For example, he uses game theory to mathematically capture and analyze behavior in strategic situations in which one person鈥檚 success in making choices depends on the choices of others.
These highly idealized mathematical models create remarkably precise representations of strategic interaction, says Smead, but are only accurate to a point.
鈥淭wo-faced鈥� cooperators 鈥� people who are always nice to other people, but say bad things behind their backs 鈥� end up distorting the picture by making bad guys out of otherwise good guys, says Smead.
鈥淚f I consider helping you, but heard something bad about you that鈥檚 not true, then I won鈥檛 help you,鈥� says Smead. 鈥淏ut now somebody knows I鈥檓 not nice, so we鈥檙e hurting each other because somebody lied.鈥�
One of the goals of his research is to develop a more complete understanding of human language, a remarkably complex communications system compared to that of other animals.
鈥淲e have to start by understanding how conventional meaning arises, and take baby steps toward understanding human language,鈥� says Smead, who notes that Vervet monkeys use simple auditory signaling systems to alert each other to dangerous predators.
鈥淥ne thing we know is that it is fairly easy for all kinds of organisms to develop signaling systems, and the more signals they have at their disposal, the more likely they are to achieve effective communication,鈥� he says.
Provided by Northeastern University
