Modern workplaces tend to be numerically skewed, often with an under-represented or marginalized minority group and a more influential majority group. Taking inspiration from evolutionary biology, we can model the workplace as a mutualism between the minority and majority, and we can then study how resources are equally -or more often, unequally -split between those two groups. In this episode, Akshata and Christian look at studies about the "cultural Red King effect," a recent idea that uses evolutionary game theory and dynamical modeling to show how a minority group can be disadvantaged by no external cultural factors, just pure mathematics. This theory raises interesting questions: is an unequal balance of resources just an inevitable outcome of the math? What does this mean for efforts like sensitivity or anti-bias training? And are these studies even based on solid ground? Join us for another brain expanding conversation that bounces between mathematics, biology, game theory, sociology, and much more.
Sources and show notes: https://workbyakshata.wordpress.com/2021/11/01/5-the-cultural-red-king-effect-inequity-understood-through-evolutionary-game-theory-show-notes/
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