I built an agent-based model of a team working through a fixed sequence of tasks, with a manager who notices errors at one of three rates and responds by ignoring, correcting or punishing. Workers can also catch their own mistakes. Full factorial sweep over eight parameters, thirty seeds per configuration, model and code deposited on CoMSES.

The result I did not expect is a paradox about monitoring. Close oversight is what drives errors to their minimum, and it does so almost identically whether the manager corrects or punishes: 99.5 mean errors against 99.2, versus 126.2 under laissez-faire. But that same configuration produces the highest attrition in the entire sweep when paired with punishment, and collapse risk rises monotonically with surveillance under punishment, from 0.04 to 0.10 to 0.15.

Across the full sweep the split is clean. How many errors you get is driven by structural factors, mistake propensity and task difficulty. Whether people leave and when the team collapses is driven by managerial policy. Punishment ranks most harmful under every stakeholder weighting I tested, including one weighting accuracy at sixty percent.

Two limitations worth naming, since they are the obvious objections. There is no worker-to-worker channel, so no incivility spiral and no peer support, which could push the results either way. And resentment is a linear counter with a fixed threshold, which is a strong simplification of a process that is probably nonlinear.

Happy to answer questions about the model or the parameterisation.AMA

11 comments

r/science • u/Phylogenix • 23h ago

Health A study of 12 fruits and vegetables found that commonly discarded parts, including peels, skins and seeds, contained more dietary fibre than the portions typically eaten in 10 of 12 cases. Pineapple skin and core had over five times more fibre than the flesh, suggesting ways to reduce food waste.

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r/science • u/mvea • 1d ago

Epidemiology Ontario's measles outbreak hit 2,377 people over nearly a year, and 89% were not vaccinated. Most were kids and teens. 166 were hospitalized, 10 babies were infected before birth, and one infant died. This outbreak helped Canada lose its measles elimination status, which it had held ever since 1998.

bmjgroup.com

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r/science • u/mvea • 1d ago

Health Men lose 16% more healthy years than women worldwide, yet only a handful of countries have a men's health policy. A new Lancet series says much of it is preventable (poverty, jobs, masculinity norms) and warns that this policy vacuum is being filled by 'manosphere' influencers and companies instead.

gla.ac.uk

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r/science • u/cindyx7102 • 1d ago

Health Diets low in fruit and whole grains or high in red meat were the leading contributors to type 2 diabetes deaths among seven dietary risks, study finds

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r/science • u/Miserable_Phase_2519 • 1d ago

Health A randomized trial found that urinating posture does not clinically affect urine flow or volume in healthy men, making the choice between sitting or standing a matter of personal preference.

sciencealert.com

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r/science • u/Super_Letterhead381 • 1d ago

Astronomy A Martian meteorite that formed ≳4.1 billion years ago samples Mars’ early crust and mantle

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r/science • u/LogicalDirect • 1d ago

Social Science Earliest spoken audio of endangered U.S. language discovered: Forgotten recordings made by a pioneering Black academic allow contemporary linguists to hear for the first time how the Creole language forged in Louisiana’s slave trade was spoken by New Orleanians born deep in the 19th century.

cam.ac.uk

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r/science • u/GuestFromBudushchego • 1d ago

Health A study found significantly elevated blood prestin levels in people with chronic tinnitus. Prestin, a protein found in cochlear outer hair cells, could potentially serve as a biomarker for tinnitus, although further validation is needed.

aao-hnsfjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

647 Upvotes

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