Abstract:It has been well established that information improves decisions, pushing the population forward as more information becomes available. Nevertheless, a wide range of empirical evidence shows that humans avoid complexity, delegate judgement, and prefer simplified social worlds. This tension raises an evolutionary puzzle: if knowledge is economically valuable and therefore evolutionarily beneficial, why do populations not converge towards universally informed and complex agents? In this study, we propose a theory of cognitive economy in which information has positive utility but costly acquisition, processing, and coordination. In complex environments, selection can favour heterogeneous populations: most individuals use low-cost heuristics and simplified choice architectures, whereas a minority of agents or institutions specialize in information processing. This cognitive division of labour reduces decision costs while preserving much of the value created by knowledge. We formalize this trade-off by comparing societies of uniformly complex agents with societies containing simpler agents and a specialized decision-making centre. The latter can dominate when the costs saved by distributed simplicity exceed the utility lost through reduced individual autonomy and imperfect delegation. Crucially, the specialized decision-maker need not face a volunteer's dilemma, because its private payoff can exceed that available under universal complexity through rents, status, control or superior information. The framework links bounded rationality, rational inattention, hierarchy, markets, and cultural evolution, and suggests that simplicity is not a failure of adaptation but a precondition for scalable social organization.
From: Teddy Lazebnik Prof. [view email]
[v1]
Wed, 17 Jun 2026 14:45:40 UTC (361 KB)
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