05/04/2023: Daniel Nettle

[GabeNicholson]

Comment below with a well-developed question or comment about the reading for this week's workshop.

If you would really like to ask your question in person, please place two exclamation points before your question to signal that you really want to ask it.

Please post your question by Tuesday of the coming week, at 11:59 PM. We will also ask you all to upvote questions that you think were particularly good. There may be prizes for top question-askers.

[hsinkengling]

Hi Prof. Nettle,

Thanks for sharing your work with us. My question is about the external validity of the model.

How do you justify the external validity of a foraging model? What exactly does the crime of exploitation represent in real-world settings? (Is it just stealing, or does an ultra-rich CEO exploiting his workers also count as exploitation? What kinds of crime/non-crime activities would it be best positioned to explain?)

In the discussion, you did mention that the model best fits "social groups with frequent new interactions between strangers, which is appropriate since the phenomena under investigated are documented for commercial and industrial societies". Concretely, what would the options of lone foraging, cooperation, and exploitation look like in a real-world setting?

[sdbaier]

Dear Professor Nettle,

Interesting read on modeling the interaction of inequality and crime through the micro-foundations of individual behavior.
I am curious about the role of space, as much of crime is spatially dependent, and much of inequality is spatially clustered. You mentioned that you included surrounding populations in the decision-making process of individual agents. I scanned through your code but could not figure out how you exactly went about it.

• How did you conceptualize space in the model?
• How did you formally implement space in the code?
• How dependent are the observed patterns of crime and inequality on your conceptualization (and implementation) of space?

[borlasekn]

Hi Prof. Nettle,

Thanks for sharing your work. I was wondering how you would use the two conditions to explain white-collar crimes? It seems like it is possibly the fear of the (2) condition which causes white collar crimes, but I wonder how the first condition might factor into this as well? Thanks!

[xinyi030]

Hi Prof. Nettle,

Thanks for sharing your work. Considering the model's focus on resource distribution and desperation thresholds, how might incorporating factors such as cultural norms, education, and individual psychological differences enhance our understanding of cooperation and exploitation dynamics in society? Thanks!

[zhiqianc]

Hi Dr. Daniel Nettle,
Thanks for sharing with us. I have two main questions. What are the main findings of the paper, and how do they contribute to our understanding of the relationship between inequality and crime? How do the authors use computational and experimental methods to investigate this relationship, and what are the strengths and limitations of these methods?

[yuzhouw313]

Dear Professor Nettle,
Thank you for sharing your work with us! I found it surprising to see the likelihood of people committing crimes despite the severity of punishment or sanctions when society imposes an exterior condition above the desperation threshold. I am convinced by your use of modeling and simulation based on individual action and population trends, and I can see the relation between trust and overall societal conditions. However, I am curious to know more about how your research connects to inequality.

Additionally, I am interested in hearing your proposals on how to improve a society that is above the desperation threshold. What do you think are some effective measures that can be taken to address this issue?

Once again, thank you for sharing your insights with us, and I look forward to hearing more about your research on Thursday.

[bningdling]

Hi Prof. Nettle, thank you very much for sharing your work. You mentioned that in your simulations, more unequal populations produced lower levels of trust. I'm curious about the mechanism behind this effect. Could you elaborate on how individuals in these populations develop low trust in others, and whether there are any factors that might mitigate this effect?

[pranathiiyer]

Hi prof Nettle,
It makes sense that poverty is one of the main drivers of crime or is highly associated with crime. How do you think your model differs or helps study the problem better compared to ethnographic studies that posit how poverty and crime influence each other?
How do you think this idea of the 'desperation threshold' helps us to understand poverty and crime better than we already know it?

[secorey]

Hi Professor Nettle,
Thank you for coming to present—I thought it was a fascinating paper. The model you generated makes a lot of sense for explaining increases in crime/exploitation, but I'm wondering if you have seen any cultures/communities that do not follow this pattern? In other words, what might be some cultural variables that affect this relationship between inequality and exploitation?
Sam

[LynetteDang]

Hi Prof. Nettle, thank you very much for sharing your work, I am wondering what computational and experimental evidence are adaquate to support the relationship between economic inequality, desperation, and crime?

[xin2006]

Hi Professor Nettle, thanks for sharing the interesting work! I am curious how could we make use of the different effect between increasing social mobility and increasing punishment severity? How can we balance it in out real life?

[ValAlvernUChic]

Hi Prof Nettle,

As a few of my classmates have already alluded to, I was wondering how your results supplement other sociology and social work papers that have asserted this link between "material scarcity", poverty, and crime? How would you measure the "desperation threshold" in communities? Do we risk making barriers to social services and welfare higher if we were to implement a mechanism to measure the "desperation threshold"? Does this model at all aid in how exactly we can distribute resources to mitigate the problem?

[zoeyjiao1104]

Hi Professor Nettle,

Thanks for sharing your work. I was wondering about what policy implications can be drawn from the model and experimental results in terms of addressing issues of material scarcity, economic inequality, and crime rates? Thank you!

[helyap]

Hi Professor Nettle,

Thank you for sharing your work with us. The conceptualization of the desperation threshold is interesting. In what ways can the model be modified to include parameters specific to a specific locale's need for resources? Thanks.

[Sirius2713]

Hi Professor Nettle, thanks for sharing your research with us. I notice when the probability of punishment is not high such as 2/3 and 0.8, the probability of cooperation/exploitation is non monodic. I’m wondering why this is this way and why when the punishment probability increases, the curve becomes more linear.