TY  - JOUR
PB  - SciPost Foundation
DO  - 10.21468/SciPostPhys.8.2.030
TI  - First-order transition in a model of prestige bias
PY  - 2020/02/19
UR  - https://scipost.org/SciPostPhys.8.2.030
JF  - SciPost Physics
JA  - SciPost Phys.
VL  - 8
IS  - 2
SP  - 030
A1  - Skinner, Brian
AB  - One of the major benefits of belonging to a prestigious group is that it affects the way you are viewed by others. Here I use a simple mathematical model to explore the implications of this "prestige bias" when candidates undergo repeated rounds of evaluation. In the model, candidates who are evaluated most highly are admitted to a "prestige class", and their membership biases future rounds of evaluation in their favor. I use the language of Bayesian inference to describe this bias, and show that it can lead to a runaway effect in which the weight given to the prior expectation associated with a candidate's class becomes stronger with each round. Most dramatically, the strength of the prestige bias after many rounds undergoes a first-order transition as a function of the precision of the examination on which the evaluation is based.
ER  -

@Article{10.21468/SciPostPhys.8.2.030,
	title={{First-order transition in a model of prestige bias}},
	author={Brian Skinner},
	journal={SciPost Phys.},
	volume={8},
	pages={030},
	year={2020},
	publisher={SciPost},
	doi={10.21468/SciPostPhys.8.2.030},
	url={https://scipost.org/10.21468/SciPostPhys.8.2.030},
}