Social Categories, Coordination, and Inequity

Abstract

This chapter shows why social categories provide solutions to certain coordination problems. It begins with a description of what social categories are and how they function in human groups. The chapter moves on to describe what social categories look like in game theoretic models. As becomes clear, a group with categories will often be able to achieve a level of efficiency unavailable to a group without them. There is a catch, though. The efficiency gained by adding social categories to a group often comes at the expense of egalitarianism. Groups that use social categories to solve coordination problems often display inequity in that joint action with unequal roles leads to unequal benefits for those involved.