Harms and benefits from social imitation

Harms and benefits from social imitation

We study the role of imitation within a model of economics with adaptive agents. The basic ingredients are those of the Minority Game. We add the possibility of local information exchange and imitation of the neighbour’s strategy. Imitators should pay a fee to the imitated. Connected groups are formed, which act as if they were single players. Coherent spatial areas of rich and poor agents resu...

Monocytes: possible mediators of benefits and harms from physical activity?

Regular physical activity is considered to be part of a modern healthy life style, and is widely recommended by both the medical community and clinical guidelines for the prevention and management of cardiovascular (and other) disorders (1). This general confidence in the health benefits of physical training is based on numerous epidemiological studies and other clinical evidence indicating tha...

Social Cognition: Imitation, Imitation, Imitation

Monkeys recognize when they are being imitated, but they seem unable to learn by imitation. These facts make sense if imitation is seen as two different capacities: social mirroring, when actions are matched and have social benefits; and learning by copying, when new behavioural routines are acquired by observation.

Benefits, harms and evidence – reflections from UK primary healthcare

In this paper I examine the relationship between benefits, harms and evidence-based medicine in the context of British primary healthcare. First, I will examine: 'What is a benefit and what is a harm?' Second, what should we know about where the balance of risk and benefit appear to lie? Third, what should we do with this knowledge, particularly in the context of the biopsychosocial gaze of pri...

Thiazolidinediones: do harms outweigh benefits?