A survey suggests individual priorities are virtually unique: Implications for group dynamics, goal achievement and ecology

- A survey asked participants to divide resources among goals pertaining to the economy, poverty reduction, global health and the environment.
- Survey responses can be modelled by a Dirichlet distribution, are highly diverse and without apparent clusters.
- Priority combinations may lead to an “individual purpose game” with a one-to-one mapping between causes and participants.
- An “emotional fingerprint” model is presented according to which individual sentiment is determined by a sensitivity spectrum to emotional stimuli.
- Diversity of sentiment might play an important role in ecology because it promotes different roles for members of a group.

Recently, a game-theoretic analysis highlighted the attractiveness of motivation asymmetry and anti-coordination as a strategy for groups to achieve multiple simultaneous goals. To test the prevalence of motivation asymmetry, a survey was performed that asked participants to divide resources among four different societal goals pertaining to economic growth, poverty reduction, health and environmental protection. It is shown, that the survey responses can be modelled by a Dirichlet distribution. It is argued, that the observed high diversity in priority combinations − while at first sight a problem − can be viewed as evidence for an “individual purpose game”, where there is a one-to-one mapping between group participants and the goals they are highly motivated to achieve. Based on these results, two strategies (the majority strategy and the heroic effort strategy) for achieving multiple simultaneous goals in a group are discussed. It is argued, that motivation asymmetry can − if understood in the light of game theory of voluntary efforts − lead to highly effective groups. Also, important implications for the field of ecology are dissussed.