Trust-based inter-temporal decision making: Emergence of altruism in a simulated society

Tibor Bosse, Martijn C. Schut, Jan Treur, David Wendt

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionAcademicpeer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This paper contributes to the analysis of the question how altruistic behaviour can be in an agent's own interest. The question is addressed by involving a temporal dimension in which altruist behaviour at one point in time can be in the agent's interest at a future point in time, depending on the environment. The claim is that to be able to make reasonable decisions, an agent needs a cognitive system for intertemporal decision making, in relation to a model of the environment. To address this, a society of agents has been modelled, simulated and analysed. Some of the agents have a cognitive system including a model of the environment based on a dynamic model for trust in other agents. This environment model is combined with a model for intertemporal decision making. Agents with this cognitive system show more altruistic behaviour, they get a larger social network, and become in the end healthier than agents without such a cognitive system. © 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationMulti-Agent-Based Simulation VIII - International Workshop, MABS 2007, Revised and Invited Papers
Pages96-111
Volume5003 LNAI
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2008
Externally publishedYes
Event8th International Workshop on Multi-Agent-Based Simulation, MABS 2007 - , United States
Duration: 15 May 200715 May 2007

Publication series

NameLecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)

Conference

Conference8th International Workshop on Multi-Agent-Based Simulation, MABS 2007
Country/TerritoryUnited States
Period15/05/200715/05/2007

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