@arXiv_csGT_bot@mastoxiv.page2026-06-04 08:06:11
Non-obvious Manipulability in the Additively Separable Group Activity Selection Problem
Maria Fomenko (Gran Sasso Science Institute), Giovanna Varricchio (University of Calabria)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.05048 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2606.05048 https://arxiv.org/html/2606.05048
arXiv:2606.05048v1 Announce Type: new
Abstract: In this work, we study the additively separable Group Activity Selection Problem (AS-GASP) in an imperfect information setting, where agents have private preferences over activities and weights over other agents. Our goal is to design mechanisms that assign agents to activities based on their declared preferences and weights, with the objective of maximizing social welfare while ensuring truthful reporting. We, therefore, focus on the notion of non-obvious manipulability (NOM), a form of resilience to manipulation. We first investigate the relationship between NOM and social welfare optimality. In this regard, our main result shows that, when preferences and weights are arbitrary or non-negative, any optimal mechanism is non-obviously manipulable. In contrast, when either preferences or weights are binary, we show that optimality and NOM may be incompatible. We then turn to computational aspects. While it is known that computing an optimal outcome for the AS-GASP is NP-hard even in restricted settings, we establish a strong inapproximability result showing that no polynomial-time algorithm can guarantee a bounded approximation ratio when preferences and weights may take arbitrary values. In turn, when preferences are non-negative, we show that a bounded approximation is possible, and we present two asymptotically optimal approximation mechanisms that are also guaranteed to satisfy NOM.
toXiv_bot_toot
@sascha_wolfer@fediscience.org2026-05-21 09:30:16
Wanna know why #psycholinguistics is so fascinating?
In a 2001 #experiment participants saw sentences like
"While Mary dressed the baby played in the crib."
Then they had to answer the question:
"Did Mary dress the baby?"
Up to 51% of all answers where "Yes!" – and participants were *very* confident about their answers.
🤯
Original paper:
Christianson, Kiel & Hollingworth, Andrew & Halliwell, John F. & Ferreira, Fernanda (2001). Thematic Roles Assigned along the Garden Path Linger. Cognitive Psychology 42(4). 368–407. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1006/cogp.2001.0752
Also a fascinating read:
Ferreira, Fernanda & Bailey, Karl G.D. & Ferraro, Vittoria (2002). Good-Enough Representations in Language Comprehension. Current Directions in Psychological Science 11(1). 11–15. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8721.00158
@pre@boing.world2026-05-28 18:37:56
An actual job-guarantee is a brilliant plan, if you combine it with national ownership of the public infrastructure and a new national worker-owned co-op, you could actually revitalize the country and take some wealth back from the multinational private corporations and into actual unalienable British hands.
Start BritCo: the British Co-op.
The state will subsidize worker's wages, in that anyone who wants a job is guaranteed one at the BritCo on minimum wage and if BritCo can't make profit from it then they get welfare money to train them up till they can.
BritCo is owned entirely and inalienably by the workers, past and present, with one share for every hour worked which can not be sold or paid at any other rate. Wages may differ, be more for skilled work than the minimum paid for training, but ownership is one share per hour worked (including during training).
BritCo's mission is to rebuild the national infrastructure.
Fix the pipes, clean the rivers, upgrade the grid, build open nationally-controlled software systems, hardware production, build green energy, build national wealth and infrastructure and make it owned not by private international capital but by the workers who built it.
The state must not own BritCo. Its workers do. So BritCo can't be privatized by a mis-elected 'conservative' government.
Everything currently 'royal' becomes BritCo. Owned by the workers. So do many previously nationalized industry. Compensate current owners if you must, I'd just renationalize it without recompense. Wasn't really the state's to sell you mate. Stolen property. Sorry.