Social dynamics and Parrondo’s paradox: a narrative review

How do group dynamics affect individuals within the group? How do individuals, in turn, affect group dynamics? As society comes together, individuals affect the group dynamics and vice versa. Social dynamics look at group dynamics, its effect on individuals, conformity, leadership, networks, and more. In the past two decades, the game theoretic Parrondo’s paradox has been used to model and explain the different aspects of social dynamics. Two losing games can be combined in a certain manner to give a winning outcome—this is known as Parrondo’s paradox. In this review, the connections between Parrondo’s paradox and social dynamics are discussed with emphasis on (i) cooperation and competition, (ii) resource redistribution and social welfare, and (iii) information flow and decision-making.