A data-driven simulation of social values evolution

ABSTRACT

Modelling the evolution of moral values in a society is a complex problem that involves many interwined aspects. The approach presented in this paper takes information from a common tool of sociologists, public surveys, as input to build the model by following a data-driven approach, to analyse and interpret the impact of each factor separately, and their mutual influence. The system handles thousands of heterogeneous agents, with their own life cycle, reproduction patterns and complex social relationship dynamics including friendship. The emergence of a robust social network was a consequence of the system set up. Its output is consistent with respect to the ideological, religious and demographic parameters observed in real world surveys.

REFERENCES

• 1: Robert Axelrod, Advancing the art of simulation in the social sciences, Complexity, v.3 n.2, p.16-22, Nov./Dec. 1997 [doi>10.1002/(SICI)1099-0526(199711/12)3:2<16::AID-CPLX4>3.0.CO;2-K]
• 2: B. Edmonds and S. Moss. From KISS to KIDS - An 'Anti-simplistic' Modelling Approach. In MABS, Lecture Notes in Computer Science 3415, pages 130--144. Springer, 2004.
• 3: European Values Survey: http://www.europeanvalues.nl.
• 4: S. Hassan, L. Antunes, and M. Arroyo. Deepening the demographic mechanisms in a data-driven social simulation of moral values evolution. In N. David and J. S. Sichman, editors, Multi-Agent-Based Simulation (MABS08), pages 189--203, Estoril, Portugal, 2008. Springer. To appear in Springer LNAI.

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  I. Computing Methodologies
  I.6 SIMULATION AND MODELING
      I.6.5 Model Development

Additional Classification:
  J. Computer Applications
  J.4 SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

Keywords:
agent-based model, data-driven modelling, demography, multi-agent based social simulation, social values