{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,12]],"date-time":"2025-10-12T02:37:52Z","timestamp":1760236672186,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":37,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"12","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,12,14]],"date-time":"2021-12-14T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1639440000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Entropy"],"abstract":"<jats:p>We study the lock-in effect in a network of task assignments. Agents have a heterogeneous fitness for solving tasks and can redistribute unfinished tasks to other agents. They learn over time to whom to reassign tasks and preferably choose agents with higher fitness. A lock-in occurs if reassignments can no longer adapt. Agents overwhelmed with tasks then fail, leading to failure cascades. We find that the probability for lock-ins and systemic failures increase with the heterogeneity in fitness values. To study this dependence, we use the Shannon entropy of the network of task assignments. A detailed discussion links our findings to the problem of resilience and observations in social systems.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/e23121677","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,12,14]],"date-time":"2021-12-14T09:34:25Z","timestamp":1639474465000},"page":"1677","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":5,"title":["The Downside of Heterogeneity: How Established Relations Counteract Systemic Adaptivity in Tasks Assignments"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"23","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0233-5747","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Giona","family":"Casiraghi","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Management, Technology, and Economics, ETH Z\u00fcrich, Weinbergstrasse 56\/58, 8092 Z\u00fcrich, Switzerland"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1674-7961","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Christian","family":"Zingg","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Management, Technology, and Economics, ETH Z\u00fcrich, Weinbergstrasse 56\/58, 8092 Z\u00fcrich, Switzerland"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1551-6491","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Frank","family":"Schweitzer","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Management, Technology, and Economics, ETH Z\u00fcrich, Weinbergstrasse 56\/58, 8092 Z\u00fcrich, Switzerland"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,12,14]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Zanetti, M.S., Scholtes, I., Tessone, C.J., and Schweitzer, F. 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