Disagreement Dynamics in Epistemic Communities: Applying a Simple Evolutionary Model About Groups and Subgroups Interactions

This work aims to investigate the consequences of disagreement between experts on the epistemic performance of epistemic communities. In particular it will be discussed if internal disagreement is a desirable feature for an epistemic community and in which conditions an affirmative answer can be given. Using a simple evolutionary model, the incentives structure to which individual experts are subject will be described. This operation holds the purpose to identify the factors that determine when internal disagreement is beneficial or detrimental to the community of experts and how the attitude of individual experts toward disagreement can deeply influence the outcome of said analysis. The relevance of lay people attitude toward perceived disagreement between expert will also be explored. In the end of the work some examples and corollary conclusions concerning the interaction between experts an lay people will be exposed