Abstract
The theory of imitative behavior, developed previously, is applied to the case of two social groups which are separated spatially. If the information of each group as to the behavior of the other is complete, the case reduces to that of a single group. When any information is lacking at all, the two groups are independent. If we have two mutually exclusive behaviorsA andB, all four combinationsAA, AB, BA, andBB are possible. If the mutual information gradually increases from zero, then for a certain value of it, the group which is more informed about the behavior of the other will change to that behavior if it did not already exhibit it. If for constant information the size of the group increases, then above a certain threshold value, the larger group imposes its behavior on the smaller.
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Literature
Rashevsky, N. 1949a. “Mathematical Biology of Social Behavior: II”.Bull. Math. Biophysics,11, 157–63.
— 1949b. “Mathematical Biology of Social Behavior: III”.Ibid.,11, 255–71.
— 1950. “Mathematical Biology of Social Behavior: IV. Imitation Effects as a Function of Distance”.Ibid.,12, 177–85.
— 1951a.Mathematical Biology of Social Behavior. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
— 1951b. “A Note on Imitative Behavior and Information”.Bull. Math. Biophysics,13, 147–51.
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Rashevsky, N. Imitative behavior in nonuniformly spatially distributed populations. Bulletin of Mathematical Biophysics 15, 63–71 (1953). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02476368
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02476368