Speaker: Hyunjoong Kim (University of Cincinnati)
Title: When Adventurous Individuals Emerge
Abstract: Exploration in uncertain and changing environments poses a fundamental dilemma: while it benefits the group by generating valuable information, it imposes direct costs on individual explorers. What conditions allow such adventurous individuals to exist and persist in decentralized collectives? We address this question using a normative model of collective foraging in which agents decide whether to commit or remain idle, with rewards and information shared across the group. Using dynamic programming and asymptotic analysis, we show that optimal performance arises from structured heterogeneity: a small, heterogeneous subset of risk-tolerant explorers ventures even when expected returns are negative, while the majority of risk-averse individuals commit collectively once conditions become favorable. This decentralized composition matches the efficiency of a centrally coordinated group through simple threshold-based rules. The degree of heterogeneity peaks at intermediate commitment cost and moderate environmental switch amplitude, but diminished in rapidly changing environments. These results reveals when and why adventurous individuals emerge, showing how collectives self-organize to balance exploration and exploitation under uncertainty