Economist · Game Theorist · Sun Yat-sen University

Xueheng Li (李学恒)

Understanding how social structures, psychological mechanisms, and evolutionary dynamics interact to shape human behavior in strategic environments.

Email

lixueheng@mail.sysu.edu.cn · xueheng.li@outlook.com

Lingnan College, Sun Yat-sen University · Guangzhou, China

Research Areas

Psychological Game Theory Evolutionary Dynamics Behavioral Experiments Network Design Social Norms
View Research

The Unifying Question

"How do decentralized agents with bounded rationality, heterogeneous preferences, and social embeddedness arrive at stable patterns of behavior—and which patterns prevail?"
01

Section One

Intellectual Architecture

Core Research Identity

My work operates at the intersection of game theory, behavioral economics, network science, and evolutionary dynamics—combining formal theory with experimental methods to study cooperation, norms, and social organization.

Why some societies sustain cooperation while others collapse into defection

How norms emerge without central coordination

Why network structures exhibit particular hierarchies

Whether psychological traits like lying aversion or indignation have evolutionary value

// Three Interconnected Pillars

┌─────────────────────────────────────┐
│   PSYCHOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS         │
│   (Beliefs, Emotions, Preferences)  │
└─────────────────┬───────────────────┘
                  │
                  ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────┐
│   STRATEGIC INTERACTION             │
│   (Networks, Games, Information)    │
└─────────────────┬───────────────────┘
                  │
                  ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────┐
│   EVOLUTIONARY DYNAMICS             │
│   (Stochastic Stability, Selection) │
└─────────────────────────────────────┘
02

Section Two

Research Projects

Published Works

Indignation and the Evolution of Cooperation Norms

Published

Games and Economic Behavior 155 (2026): 228-249
Xueheng Li (solo-authored)
doi.org/10.1016/j.geb.2025.10.009

Examines the role of indignation in upholding cooperation norms. Models indignation in a population psychological game and characterizes stochastically stable equilibrium. Shows mobility fosters stable norms of cooperation in large societies.

Psychological Game Theory Stochastic Stability

Designing Weighted and Directed Networks under Complementarities

Published

Games and Economic Behavior 140 (2023): 556-574
Xueheng Li (solo-authored)
doi.org/10.1016/j.geb.2023.04.010

Extends network design theory to weighted, directed networks. Optimal networks are Generalized Nested Split Graphs (GNSGs) with hierarchical structures.

Network Design GNSGs

Decomposability and the Social Comparison Trap

Published

Journal of Mathematical Economics 120 (2025): 103169
Zhiwei Cui, Xueheng Li, Boyu Zhang
doi.org/10.1016/j.jmateco.2025.103169

Proposes a unified model for social comparison preferences. Identifies decomposable games where players are strategically independent, showing social comparison often results in undesirable outcomes.

Social Comparison Game Theory

Do Descriptive Social Norms Drive Peer Punishment?

Published

Evolution and Human Behavior 42.5 (2021): 469-479
Xueheng Li, Lucas Molleman, Dennie van Dolder
doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2021.04.002

Examines whether punishment behavior is conditional on descriptive norms versus transgressor actions alone.

Social Norms Punishment

There's No Going Back? Prior Entrepreneurial Experience and Employment

Published

Personnel Psychology 77.1 (2024): 131-164
Siran Zhan, Liwen Zhang, Xueheng Li, Yu Wu
doi.org/10.1111/peps.12627

Studies the relationship between prior entrepreneurial experience and subsequent employment outcomes.

Entrepreneurship Labor Economics

Working Papers

The Structure and Gender Differences in Overconfidence

Working Paper

Xueheng Li, Jiayi Liang, Xiaomeng Zhang, Shan Jin, Wei Wang
SSRN

Decomposes overconfidence into three sources: prior overoptimism, overplacement, and non-Bayesian updating.

Overconfidence Gender

A Network Approach to Influencer Markets

Working Paper

Yanlin Chen, Xueheng Li, Tianle Song
SSRN

Network-based analysis of influencer markets and information transmission.

Networks Influencer Markets

Work in Progress

The Market for Lemons and Liars

In Progress

With Valeria Burdea

Tests whether lying aversion can mitigate adverse selection. Examines how bounded rationality and lying aversion interact.

Adverse Selection Lying Aversion

Narratives, Social Norms and Dishonesty

Writing

With Depi Alempaki & Valeria Burdea

Studies how moral narratives interact with social norms to affect dishonesty. Large-scale experiments (N > 5,000) using GPT-4 for narrative coding.

Narratives Dishonesty

Policy Chasing and Academic Impact

In Progress

With Erqi Ge & Yifan Zhang

Examines how economists incorporate government policy terminology into academic work. Policy-oriented papers receive 36% more citations but show lower methodological rigor and are not more innovative.

Science of Science Text Analysis

Decomposability and Pairwise-Comparison Imitation

In Progress

With Zhiwei Cui

Analyzes imitation-based learning in n-player decomposable games. Shows agents converge to strategies maximizing relative advantage while ignoring collective welfare—a behavioral foundation for understanding competitive "involution."

Evolutionary Game Theory Stochastic Stability