Competing Diffusion of Wisdom and Foolishness Across Network Structures

• In Event: Joint Roundtables: Social Psychology Section and Sociology of Emotions Section
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Table 1 - Morality, Collective Energy, & Prosocial Behavior

Abstract

How do social structures shape the diffusion of behaviors that differ in normative meaning and moral demand? This paper connects cultural conceptions of wisdom and foolishness with network diffusion models to examine how structural environments privilege certain behavioral repertoires over others. Wisdom is treated as a behavior requiring coordinated moral reflection and social reinforcement, while foolishness is treated as a low-cost alternative activated by minimal cues and susceptible to rapid imitation.
Using agent-based simulations across random, small-world, and scale-free network structures, it shows that topology conditions which forms of behavioral meaning persist or dominate. In networks with strong clustering, reinforcement-dependent behaviors can stabilize. In hub-dominated structures, low-threshold behaviors gain disproportionate advantage. Introducing heterogeneous actors with stable predispositions alters these dynamics, highlighting how meaning systems interact with structural positions.
By modeling wisdom and foolishness as competing contagions with asymmetric reinforcement requirements, the paper demonstrates how structural configurations shape the survival of normatively demanding versus easily activated behaviors. The analysis contributes to scholarship linking social structure and cultural life by showing that the diffusion of meaning-laden behaviors depends not only on values but on the architecture of relational ties through which influence travels.

Author

• Kaili Zhang, University of Florida