The effect of cultural niche construction on Social Particle Swarm

Abstract

To investigate the influence of cultural niche construction on social interactions, this study extends the Social Particle Swarm, which has a two-dimensional plane, where particles represent individuals with game-theoretic relationships with neighbors. The extended model represents the locally accumulated environmental states by adding cellular grids to the space. Each cell has two niche values, which can be modified by individual experiences in the cell and can affect the future cooperativeness and indifference of individuals. The experimental results highlight the stabilizing effect of cooperative clusters through cooperative niche construction, the stimulating effect of clusters through indifferent cultural niche construction, and the dispersal effect caused by non-cooperative and indifferent niches. We also conducted a network analysis of the relationship between individuals and their niches, which reflected the long-term behavioral trends of individuals.