Agent-based modelling and simulation for the analysis of social patterns

Abstract

Agent-based modelling facilitates the implementation of tools for the analysis of social patterns. This comes from the fact that agent related concepts allow the representation of organizational and behavioural aspects of individuals in a society and their interactions. An agent can characterize an individual with capabilities to perceive and react to events in the environment, taking into account its mental state (beliefs, goals), and to interact with other agents in its social environment. There are already tools to perform agent-based social simulation but these are usually hard to use by social scientists, as they require a good expertise in computer programming. In order to cope with such difficulty, we propose the use of agent-based graphical modelling languages, which can help to specify social systems as multi-agent systems in a more convenient way. This is complemented with transformation tools to be able to analyse and derive emergent social behavioural patterns by using the capabilities of existing simulation platforms. In this way, this framework can facilitate the specification and analysis of complex behavioural patterns that may emerge in social systems.