Symmetry-breaking and the contextual emergence of human multiagent coordination and social activity

Here we review a range of interpersonal and multiagent phenomena that demonstrate how the formal and conceptual principles of symmetry, and spontaneous and explicit symmetry-breaking, can be employed to investigate, understand, and model the lawful dynamics that underlie selforganized social action and behavioral coordination. In doing so, we provided a brief introduction to group theory and discuss how symmetry groups can be used to predict and explain the patterns of multiagent coordination that are possible within a given task context. Finally, we argue that the theoretical principles of symmetry and symmetry-breaking provide an ideal and highly generalizable framework for understanding the behavioral order that characterizes everyday social activity.