Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Innocenti, Federico, Rozzi, Roberto
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.03540
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866913976381603840
author Innocenti, Federico
Rozzi, Roberto
author_facet Innocenti, Federico
Rozzi, Roberto
contents We study the performance of different methods for processing information, incorporating narrative selection within an evolutionary model. All agents update their beliefs according to Bayes' Rule, but some strategically choose the narrative they use in updating according to heterogeneous criteria. We simulate the endogenous composition of the population, considering different laws of motion for the underlying state of the world. We find that conformists -- that is, agents that choose the narrative to conform to the average belief in the population -- have an evolutionary advantage over other agents across all specifications. The survival chances of the remaining types depend on the uncertainty regarding the state of the world. Agents who tend to develop mild beliefs perform better when the uncertainty is high, whereas agents who tend to develop extreme beliefs perform better when the uncertainty is low.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2508_03540
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle An Evolutionary Analysis of Narrative Selection
Innocenti, Federico
Rozzi, Roberto
Theoretical Economics
We study the performance of different methods for processing information, incorporating narrative selection within an evolutionary model. All agents update their beliefs according to Bayes' Rule, but some strategically choose the narrative they use in updating according to heterogeneous criteria. We simulate the endogenous composition of the population, considering different laws of motion for the underlying state of the world. We find that conformists -- that is, agents that choose the narrative to conform to the average belief in the population -- have an evolutionary advantage over other agents across all specifications. The survival chances of the remaining types depend on the uncertainty regarding the state of the world. Agents who tend to develop mild beliefs perform better when the uncertainty is high, whereas agents who tend to develop extreme beliefs perform better when the uncertainty is low.
title An Evolutionary Analysis of Narrative Selection
topic Theoretical Economics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.03540