Tipping Points Among Social Learners

R. A. Bentley, Michael J. O'Brien

OAI: oai:digitalcommons.tamusa.edu:hist_faculty-1008

There is a long and rich tradition in the social sciences of using models of collective behavior in animals as jumping-off points for the study of human behavior, including collective human behavior. Here, we come at the problem in a slightly different fashion. We ask whether models of collective human behavior have anything to offer those who study animal behavior. Our brief example of tipping points, a model first developed in the physical sciences and later used in the social sciences, suggests that the analysis of human collective behavior does indeed have considerable to offer.

Anthropology