scholarly journals Intermediate-term emotional bookkeeping is necessary for long-term reciprocal grooming partner preferences in an agent-based model of macaque groups

PeerJ ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. e1488 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellen Evers ◽  
Han de Vries ◽  
Berry M. Spruijt ◽  
Elisabeth H.M. Sterck
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Emotional Responses ◽  
Emotional Memory ◽  
Agent Based Model ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
Partner Preferences ◽  
Specific Accumulation ◽  
Group Members

Whether and how primates are able to maintain long-term affiliative relationships is still under debate. Emotional bookkeeping (EB), the partner-specific accumulation of emotional responses to earlier interactions, is a candidate mechanism that does not require high cognitive abilities. EB is difficult to study in real animals, due to the complexity of primate social life. Therefore, we developed an agent-based model based on macaque behavior, the EMO-model, that implements arousal and two emotional dimensions, anxiety-FEAR and satisfaction-LIKE, which regulate social behavior. To implement EB, model individuals assign dynamic LIKE attitudes towards their group members, integrating partner-specific emotional responses to earlier received grooming episodes. Two key parameters in the model were varied to explore their effects on long-term affiliative relationships: (1) the timeframe over which earlier affiliation is accumulated into the LIKE attitudes; and (2) the degree of partner selectivity. EB over short and long timeframes gave rise to low variation in LIKE attitudes, and grooming partner preferences were only maintained over one to two months. Only EB over intermediate-term timeframes resulted in enough variation in LIKE attitudes, which, in combination with high partner selectivity, enables individuals to differentiate between regular and incidental grooming partners. These specific settings resulted in a strong feedback between differentiated LIKE attitudes and the distribution of grooming, giving rise to strongly reciprocated partner preferences that could be maintained for longer periods, occasionally up to one or two years. Moreover, at these settings the individual’s internal, socio-emotional memory of earlier affiliative episodes (LIKE attitudes) corresponded best to observable behavior (grooming partner preferences). In sum, our model suggests that intermediate-term LIKE dynamics and high partner selectivity seem most plausible for primates relying on emotional bookkeeping to maintain their social bonds.

The Order of Human Interdependencies: Simulating Elias’ One-level Multi-person Models

2017 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 105-131 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth Hemmerechts ◽  
Nohemi Jocabeth Echeverria Vicente ◽  
Dimokritos Kavadias
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Theoretical Models ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
Computational Framework ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
Agent Based Modelling ◽  
Norbert Elias ◽  
Or Groups ◽  
Emergent Dynamics

Sociologist Norbert Elias made it his lifework to describe and explain long-term processes. According to Elias, these processes cannot be studied voluntaristically by only focusing on human intentions or motivations. This is because they are the unplanned result of a whole spectrum of interactions of different people over time. According to Elias, these interactions between individuals interweave to produce a development that is relatively autonomous from the actions of individuals. To illustrate how the actions of individuals interweave and produce emergent dynamics, Elias constructed several theoretical models that are simplified versions of social processes. Importantly, the different models state precise propositions and consequences of specific types of interweaving that can be formally tested. This article simulates the Eliasian approach to social life. We reproduce the theoretical models of Elias with a method that is highly suited to investigate their emergent dynamics: agent-based modelling. Agent-based models are computer models that simulate agents (i.e. individuals or groups of individuals) and their interaction with other agents. More specifically, we test whether the theorized consequences of the Eliasian models exist when we implement their propositions in a computational framework.

scholarly journals Supporting Policy Design for the Diffusion of Cleaner Technologies: A Spatial Empirical Agent-Based Model

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (10) ◽  
pp. 581 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caterina Caprioli ◽  
Marta Bottero ◽  
Elena De Angelis
Keyword(s):  
Policy Design ◽  
Renewable Energy Resources ◽  
Agent Based Model ◽  
Opinion Formation ◽  
Real World Data ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
Pv Systems ◽  
Definition Of

Renewable energy resources and energy-efficient technologies, as well as building retrofitting, are only some of the possible strategies that can achieve more sustainable cities and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Subsidies and incentives are often provided by governments to increase the number of people adopting these sustainable energy efficiency actions. However, actual sales of green products are currently not as high as would be desired. The present paper applies a hybrid agent-based model (ABM) integrated with a Geographic Information System (GIS) to simulate a complex socio-economic-architectural adaptive system to study the temporal diffusion and the willingness of inhabitants to adopt photovoltaic (PV) systems. The San Salvario neighborhood in Turin (Italy) is used as an exemplary case study for testing consumer behavior associated with this technology, integrating social network theories, opinion formation dynamics and an adaptation of the theory of planned behavior (TPB). Data/characteristics for both buildings and people are explicitly spatialized with the level of detail at the block scale. Particular attention is given to the comparison of the policy mix for supporting decision-makers and policymakers in the definition of the most efficient strategies for achieving a long-term vision of sustainable development. Both variables and outcomes accuracy of the model are validated with historical real-world data.

scholarly journals Emotional bookkeeping and differentiated affiliative relationships: Exploring the role of dynamics and speed in updating relationship quality in the EMO-model

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. e0249519
Author(s):  
Tonko W. Zijlstra ◽  
Han de Vries ◽  
Elisabeth H. M. Sterck
Keyword(s):  
Relationship Quality ◽  
Empirical Data ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
Relationship Strength ◽  
The Social ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Internal Relationship ◽  
Emotional Effects

Emotional bookkeeping is the process by which primates integrate the emotional effects of social interactions to form internal representations of their affiliative relationships. The dynamics and speed of this process, which comprises the formation, maintenance and fading out of affiliative relationships, are not clear. Empirical data suggest that affiliative relationships are slowly formed and do not easily fade out. The EMO-model, an agent-based model designed to simulate the social life of primates capable of emotional bookkeeping, was used to explore the effects of different types of internal relationship dynamics and speeds of increase and decrease of relationship strength. In the original EMO-model the internal dynamics involves a fast built-up of a relationship independent of its current quality, alongside a relatively fast fading out of relationship quality. Here we explore the effect of this original dynamics and an alternative dynamics more in line with empirical data, in combination with different speeds of internal relationship quality increase and decrease, on the differentiation and stability of affiliative relationships. The alternative dynamics leads to more differentiated and stable affiliative relationships than the original dynamics, especially when the speed with which internal relationship quality increases is low and the speed with which it decreases is intermediate. Consequently, individuals can groom different group members with varying frequency and support a rich social life with stable preferred partners and attention to several others. In conclusion, differentiated and stable affiliative relationships are especially formed when friends are not made too quickly and not forgotten too easily.

scholarly journals Informal risk-sharing between smallholders may be threatened by formal insurance: Lessons from a stylized agent-based model

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. e0248757
Author(s):  
Meike Will ◽  
Jürgen Groeneveld ◽  
Karin Frank ◽  
Birgit Müller
Keyword(s):  
Side Effects ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Risk Sharing ◽  
Agent Based Model ◽  
Long Term Effects ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Negative Side Effects ◽  
Informal Risk Sharing

Microinsurance is promoted as a valuable instrument for low-income households to buffer financial losses due to health or climate-related risks. However, apart from direct positive effects, such formal insurance schemes can have unintended side effects when insured households lower their contribution to traditional informal arrangements where risk is shared through private monetary support. Using a stylized agent-based model, we assess impacts of microinsurance on the resilience of those smallholders in a social network who cannot afford this financial instrument. We explicitly include the decision behavior regarding informal transfers. We find that the introduction of formal insurance can have negative side effects even if insured households are willing to contribute to informal risk arrangements. However, when many households are simultaneously affected by a shock, e.g. by droughts or floods, formal insurance is a valuable addition to informal risk-sharing. By explicitly taking into account long-term effects of short-term transfer decisions, our study allows to complement existing empirical research. The model results underline that new insurance programs have to be developed in close alignment with established risk-coping instruments. Only then can they be effective without weakening functioning aspects of informal risk management, which could lead to increased poverty.

Preferential associations between group-housed growing pigs

2003 ◽  
Vol 2003 ◽  
pp. 35-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. L. Durrell ◽  
I. A. Sneddon ◽  
N. E. O’Connell ◽  
V. E. Beattie
Keyword(s):  
Growing Pigs ◽  
Statistical Analyses ◽  
Limited Time ◽  
Partner Preferences ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Time Periods ◽  
Established Group

Evidence suggests that pigs prefer to associate with their mother and littermates over other group members (e.g. Newberry & Wood-Gush, 1986) and with pigs introduced with them into an established group over resident pigs (Durrell et al., 2000). Few studies, however, have examined whether long-term preferential associations or ‘friendships’ are formed between pairs of pigs within a group. Those studies that have been carried out have either involved observations carried out over extremely limited time periods (e.g. Stookey & Gonyou, 1998) or have simply identified pairs that spend the most time together instead of examining statistically whether some pairs associate significantly more than others (Newberry & Wood-Gush, 1986). The aim of this investigation was to determine whether pairs of pigs form preferential associations, based on statistical analyses of long-term lying partner preferences.

scholarly journals Rangelands, pastoralists and governments: interlinked systems of people and nature

2002 ◽  
Vol 357 (1421) ◽  
pp. 719-725 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian H. Walker ◽  
Marco A. Janssen
Keyword(s):  
Complex Adaptive Systems ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Adaptive Systems ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Free Market ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Coupled Systems ◽  
Agent Based Model ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
Feral Animals

We analyse commercially operated rangelands as coupled systems of people and nature. The biophysical components include: (i) the reduction and recovery of potential primary production, reflected as changes in grass production per unit of rainfall; (ii) changes in woody plants dependent on the grazing and fire regimes; and (iii) livestock and wool dynamics influenced by season, condition of the rangeland and numbers of wild and feral animals. The social components include the managers, who vary with regard to a range of cognitive abilities and lifestyle choices, and the regulators who vary in regard to policy goals. We compare agent–based and optimization models of a rangeland system. The agent–based model leads to recognition that policies select for certain management practices by creating a template that governs the trajectories of the behaviour of individuals, learning, and overall system dynamics. Conservative regulations reduce short–term loss in production but also restrict learning. A free–market environment leads to severe degradation but the surviving pastoralists perform well under subsequent variable conditions. The challenge for policy makers is to balance the needs for learning and for preventing excessive degradation. A genetic algorithm model optimizing for net discounted income and based on a population of management solutions (stocking rate, how much to suppress fire, etc.) indicates that robust solutions lead to a loss of about 40% compared with solutions where the sequence of rainfall was known in advance: this is a similar figure to that obtained from the agent–based model. We conclude that, on the basis of Levin's three criteria, rangelands with their livestock and human managers do constitute complex adaptive systems. If this is so, then command–and–control approaches to rangeland policy and management are bound to fail.

scholarly journals Social identity and meat consumption - An agent-based model

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiaqi Ge ◽  
Andrea Scalco ◽  
Tony Craig
Keyword(s):  
Social Identity ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Eating Behaviour ◽  
System Level ◽  
Dietary Behaviour ◽  
Agent Based Model ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
Meat Eating ◽  
Group Members

Humans are social animals. Even the very personal decision of what someone eats is influenced by others around them. In this study, we propose four social interaction mechanisms driven by social identity that affect a person’s decision to eat or not eat meat. Using data from the British Social Attitude Survey in 2014, we operationalise social identity in an agent-based model to study the effect of social interactions on the spread of meat-eating behaviour in the British population. We find that social interactions are crucial in determining the spread of meat-eating behaviour. In order to bring about large-scale behavioural changes at the system level, people need to 1) have a strong openness to influences from both in-group and out-group members who have a different dietary behaviour, and 2) have a weak tendency to reinforce their current behaviour after seeing in-group members sharing the same behaviour. The agent-based model is shown to be a useful tool to operationalise social theories in a well-defined context, and to upscale the system to study its dynamic evolutions under different scenarios.

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