Horizontal persistence and the complexity hypothesis

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Aaron Novick ◽  
W. Ford Doolittle
Keyword(s):  
Complexity Hypothesis

Economic Trends and Government Survival in West European Parliamentary Democracies

1992 ◽  
Vol 86 (4) ◽  
pp. 875-887 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Warwick
Keyword(s):  
Gross Domestic Product ◽  
Economic Indicators ◽  
Partial Likelihood ◽  
Likelihood Method ◽  
Domestic Product ◽  
Indicator Values ◽  
Parliamentary Democracies ◽  
Economic Trends ◽  
Complexity Hypothesis ◽  
Oil Crisis

In this study, I investigate the linkage between trends in key economic indicators (inflation, unemployment, and growth in gross domestic product) and government survival in 16 postwar European parliamentary democracies. The partial likelihood method, which allows for variation in indicator values over the lifetimes of individual governments, constitutes the basic analytic tool. The findings reveal overall causal roles for both inflation and unemployment, as well as important differences in these roles between socialist and bourgeois governments and between pre-oil crisis and post-oil crisis eras. Most significant, the introduction of these indicators to the analysis helps to resolve the debate between two rival explanations of governmental stability, the bargaining complexity hypothesis and the ideological diversity hypothesis, in favor of the latter.

Social reflection, performed role-conformant and role-discrepant responsibility, and the unity of responsibility: a social psychological perspective

2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Harald A. Mieg
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
Psychological Perspective ◽  
Social Psychological ◽  
Social Situations ◽  
Social Fact ◽  
Complexity Hypothesis ◽  
Social Psychological Perspective

AbstractThis paper contributes to the study of responsibility as a social fact (Durkheim), combining research from social psychology, philosophy, and sociology. The pivotal concept is social reflection that serves to better understand how responsibility is performed in different social situations. The paper presents an experiment, providing evidence for, inter alia, the central complexity hypothesis: Under a complex perspective (implying increased social reflection) more responsibility is performed than under a less complex perspective (implying less social reflection). The paper concludes with considerations on the principle and unity of responsibility.

Complexity trade-offs do not prove the equal complexity hypothesis

2014 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gertraud Fenk-Oczlon ◽  
August Fenk
Keyword(s):  
Negative Correlation ◽  
Null Hypothesis ◽  
Quantitative Methods ◽  
Significant Negative Correlation ◽  
Second Step ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Monosyllabic Words ◽  
Complexity Hypothesis ◽  
Positive Correlations

AbstractComplexity trade-offs are often considered as evidence for the hypothesis that all languages are equally complex; simplicity in one component of grammar is balanced by complexity in another. According to Shosted (2006), this "negative correlation hypothesis", as he calls it, was never validated using quantitative methods. The present paper recalls, in a first step, our previously found significant negative cross-linguistic correlations between syllable complexity and number of syllables per clause and per word, as well as an almost significant negative correlation between syllable complexity and number of morphological cases. All these correlations indicate complexity trade-offs between subsystems of language, as do the positive correlations found between syllable complexity, number of syllable types, and number of monosyllabic words. In a second step we argue against the view of such complexity trade-offs as proof of the equal complexity hypothesis. This hypothesis is hardly testable for several reasons: As long as it is impossible to quantify the overall complexity of a single language, it is also impossible to compare different languages with respect to that quantity. Secondly, it could – because of its character as a null hypothesis – never be corroborated for principal reasons.

scholarly journals Social complexity as a proximate and ultimate factor in communicative complexity

2012 ◽  
Vol 367 (1597) ◽  
pp. 1785-1801 ◽  
Author(s):  
Todd M. Freeberg ◽  
Robin I. M. Dunbar ◽  
Terry J. Ord
Keyword(s):  
Social Complexity ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Causal Factor ◽  
Human Language ◽  
The Social ◽  
Alternative Hypotheses ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Complexity Hypothesis ◽  
Complex Social Systems ◽  
Over Time

The ‘social complexity hypothesis’ for communication posits that groups with complex social systems require more complex communicative systems to regulate interactions and relations among group members. Complex social systems, compared with simple social systems, are those in which individuals frequently interact in many different contexts with many different individuals, and often repeatedly interact with many of the same individuals in networks over time. Complex communicative systems, compared with simple communicative systems, are those that contain a large number of structurally and functionally distinct elements or possess a high amount of bits of information. Here, we describe some of the historical arguments that led to the social complexity hypothesis, and review evidence in support of the hypothesis. We discuss social complexity as a driver of communication and possible causal factor in human language origins. Finally, we discuss some of the key current limitations to the social complexity hypothesis—the lack of tests against alternative hypotheses for communicative complexity and evidence corroborating the hypothesis from modalities other than the vocal signalling channel.

scholarly journals What prevents knowledge inequalities among citizens from increasing? Evidence from direct-democratic campaigns in Switzerland

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurent Bernhard
Keyword(s):  
Survey Data ◽  
Empirical Analysis ◽  
Direct Democracy ◽  
Low Complexity ◽  
Economic Knowledge ◽  
Panel Survey ◽  
Federal Level ◽  
Complexity Hypothesis ◽  
The Empirical Analysis ◽  
Gap Paradigm

This article seeks to enrich the normative debate on the advantages and drawbacks of direct democracy through an empirical analysis of individual learning about the contents of ballot propositions during campaigns. Following the knowledge gap paradigm, this article examines the factors that prevent socio-economic- knowledge inequalities among citizens from increasing. I argue that ballot propositions of low complexity exert a moderating influence, since such environments provide citizens with easy learning situations. The empirical analysis, based on panel survey data on three federal level votes that took place in Switzerland from 2006 to 2008, supports the issue complexity hypothesis.

Components of Self-Complexity as Buffers for Depressed Mood

2007 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 310-333 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary Brown ◽  
Eshkol Rafaeli
Keyword(s):  
Life Events ◽  
Depressed Mood ◽  
Prospective Studies ◽  
Stressful Life Events ◽  
The Self ◽  
Stressful Life ◽  
Original Formulation ◽  
Complexity Hypothesis

The self-complexity model (Linville, 1987) predicts that individuals who have numerous self-aspects with little overlap among them will be buffered against the effects of stressful life events and will experience less depression. Despite some evidence to this effect, many replication attempts have failed (cf. Rafaeli-Mor & Steinberg, 2002). The present studies reexamine the self-complexity model, incorporating recent theoretical and methodological critiques of its original formulation (e.g., Brown, Hammen, Wickens, & Craske, 1995; Rafaeli-Mor, Gotlib, & Revelle, 1999). Two prospective studies provide some support for a revised self-complexity hypothesis, which examines separately the effects of differentiation (number of self-aspects) and integration (overlap among them) and considers more carefully the role of stress.

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