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Globalization and the rise and fall of cognitive control

Author

Listed:
  • Mohsen Mosleh

    (Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

  • Katelynn Kyker

    (Yale University)

  • Jonathan D. Cohen

    (Princeton Neuroscience Institute
    Department of Psychology)

  • David G. Rand

    (Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    Institute for Data, Systems, and Society, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

Abstract

The scale of human interaction is larger than ever before—people regularly interact with and learn from others around the world, and everyone impacts the global environment. We develop an evolutionary game theory model to ask how the scale of interaction affects the evolution of cognition. Our agents make decisions using automatic (e.g., reflexive) versus controlled (e.g., deliberative) cognition, interact with each other, and influence the environment (i.e., game payoffs). We find that globalized direct contact between agents can either favor or disfavor control, depending on whether controlled agents are harmed or helped by contact with automatic agents; globalized environment disfavors cognitive control, while also promoting strategic diversity and fostering mesoscale communities of more versus less controlled agents; and globalized learning destroys mesoscale communities and homogenizes the population. These results emphasize the importance of the scale of interaction for the evolution of cognition, and help shed light on modern challenges.

Suggested Citation

  • Mohsen Mosleh & Katelynn Kyker & Jonathan D. Cohen & David G. Rand, 2020. "Globalization and the rise and fall of cognitive control," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 11(1), pages 1-10, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:11:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-020-16850-0
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-16850-0
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