How to be a social climber

A study reveals the mechanisms of 'opportunist' societies

2013-01-30

(Press-News.org) The researchers have carried out a social network simulation: each individual is represented by a node, while links, connecting the nodes, represent social interactions. Each individual has the tendency to enhance their social importance, and to do so they necessarily have to connect with the "most central nodes", that is, to the people who count. However, to advance socially an individual has to break with the past: technically speaking, abandon old nodes and connect with the most central ones. But how many have an inclination to break up with old connections to aim high? In other words, how many opportunist individuals are there within a society?

"Actually", replies Giancarlo De Luca, a Ph.D. student in Statistical Physics at SISSA and co-author of the research, "all individuals are 'social climbers'. The fact that society is in an egalitarian or hierarchical phase does not depend, therefore, on the number of individuals aiming at social climbing, but rather on the importance that individuals of that society ascribe to social prestige."

Therefore, a society that features a strong dominant class may indicate, according to the simulations, that there is a greater "yearning" for social prestige on the part of the inferior levels. "It works a little like Facebook", explains De Luca. "The more contacts I have, the more popular I am. In our model, the number of links determines the closeness to the centre, and belonging to the élite." In a totally egalitarian society all individuals possess the same number of nodes, of contacts. Obviously, what occurs in reality is rather different: only a small number of individuals have a very high number of contacts, while the majority have only a few of them.

More in detail...

"A further interesting aspect we have observed - adds De Luca - is that those who achieve centrality tend to stay in the position of predominance for a long time. Conversely, individuals who are attempting to climb the social ladder, that is to say, are in an intermediate position, move much more rapidly, both in a positive and negative sense." The study also highlights that in a society with a well-structured hierarchy it is easier to identify the central nodes, that is, "those who count more", and this is why their members will have a very clear idea of who to befriend in view of their climb to success. In such a way, a very hierarchical network will be increasingly more hierarchical, and will feature a great quantity of social climbers.

### END

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Understanding the historical probability of drought

2013-01-30

Droughts can severely limit crop growth, causing yearly losses of around $8 billion in the United States. But it may be possible to minimize those losses if farmers can synchronize the growth of crops with periods of time when drought is less likely to occur. Researchers from Oklahoma State University are working to create a reliable "calendar" of seasonal drought patterns that could help farmers optimize crop production by avoiding days prone to drought. Historical probabilities of drought, which can point to days on which crop water stress is likely, are often calculated ...

Broker fees from mutual funds affect advice; predict worse performance, new study says

2013-01-30

Toronto – Brokers are supposed to recommend investments that are in the best interests of their clients. But a study published in the February 2013 issue of the Journal of Finance has found that mutual funds offering higher broker fees attract the most investments, especially when the broker is not affiliated with the mutual fund company. Every additional dollar paid to a broker corresponds with another six dollars invested into the fund, and another fourteen dollars if the broker is an unaffiliated third party whose compensation depends exclusively on sales commissions. ...

New target to stop cancer's spread discovered by Georgia State scientists

2013-01-30

Disrupting a key interaction between two types of proteins in cells inhibits the spread of cancerous cells, providing researchers with a new pathway toward developing cancer-fighting drugs, according to new findings by Georgia State University scientists. Cell migration is essential for the spread of cancerous cells, also known as metastasis, as well as for other diseases. The research team in the labs of Zhi-Ren Liu, professor of biology, and Jenny Yang, professor of biochemistry, studied the interaction of two molecules, p68 RNA helicase and calcium-calmodulin. Interrupting ...

NTU research embraces laser and sparks cool affair

2013-01-30

Bulky and noisy air-conditioning compressors and refrigerators may soon be a thing of the past. With the latest discovery by scientists from Nanyang Technological University (NTU), current cooling systems which uses refrigerant harmful to the ozone layer could be replaced by a revolutionary cooling system using lasers. This discovery, published and featured on the cover of the 24 January 2013 issue of Nature, the world's top scientific journal, could also potentially lead to a host of other innovations. This includes making huge Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machines, ...

Study finds little progress in participation of early-career RNs in hospital QI

2013-01-30

Nurses are the largest group of health care providers in the U.S., and health care leaders and experts agree that engaging registered nurses (RNs) in quality improvement (QI) efforts is essential to improving our health care system, patient care and our nation's health. Unfortunately, despite studies demonstrating the value of nurse-led quality improvement efforts, far too few nurses are involved in these efforts, and the number is not growing, according to a study published in the Journal of Nursing Care Quality. The study—part of the RN Work Project funded by the Robert ...

Campus as laboratory: U-M student biologists use Diag trees to help solve gypsy moth mystery

2013-01-30

ANN ARBOR—Working beneath the towering oaks and maples on the University of Michigan's central campus Diag, undergraduate researchers and their faculty adviser helped explain an observation that had puzzled insect ecologists who study voracious leaf-munching gypsy moth caterpillars. The caterpillars, which defoliate and sometimes kill stands of trees in the Upper Midwest and the Northeast, are especially fond of oaks, but sugar maple trees appear to be relatively resistant to the European pest. Biologists wondered whether the caterpillars shun sugar maples in part because ...

5-year follow-up - over half of all ACL reconstructions could be avoided

2013-01-30

"We have continued with our study and for the first time are able to present a five-year follow-up on the need for and results of ACL surgery as compared with physiotherapy. The findings have been published in the British Medical Journal and are basically unchanged from 2010. This will no doubt surprise many people, as we have not seen any difference in the incidence of osteoarthritis", says Richard Frobell, one of the researchers behind the study, who is an associate professor at Lund University and a clinician at the orthopaedic department, Helsingborg Hospital. Richard ...

New drug target identified for multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer's disease

2013-01-30

(Boston)–Researchers at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) led by Carmela Abraham, PhD, professor of biochemistry, along with Cidi Chen, PhD, and other collaborators, report that the protein Klotho plays an important role in the health of myelin, the insulating material allowing for the rapid communication between nerve cells. These findings, which appear online in Journal of Neuroscience, may lead to new therapies for multiple sclerosis (MS) and Alzheimer's disease (AD), in which white matter abnormalities are also common but have been largely ignored. MS is ...

Female deer take control during the mating season

2013-01-30

A new study provides the first evidence of polyandry – when females choose to mate with more than one male – in female fallow deer. According to a team of scientists from Queen Mary, University of London, UWEHartpury, and University College Dublin, female fallow deer play an active role in selecting their mates, with a consistent proportion (on average 12 per cent) choosing to mate with multiple males each year. "Until now there has been limited understanding of female mate choice during this process, with many people believing that female deer are controlled by males ...

Toward a better cyanide antidote for terrorist attacks and other mass casualty events

2013-01-30

In an advance toward closing a major gap in defenses against terrorist attacks and other mass casualty events, scientists are reporting discovery of a promising substance that could be the basis for development of a better antidote for cyanide poisoning. Their report, which describes a potential antidote that could be self-administered, much like the medication delivered by allergy injection pens, appears in ACS' Journal of Medicinal Chemistry. Steven E. Patterson, Ph.D., and colleagues at the University of Minnesota Center for Drug Design explain that the only existing ...

How to be a social climber

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES: