Computational modeling for reasoning about the social behavior of humans

The number of computationally-based models of human social behavior is growing rapidly. In fact, the current ease of programming is resulting in a plethora of tools with impressive interfaces but little theoretical power under the hood. Further, the overabundance of new toolkits for building models is facilitating the excessively rapid growth of simple proof-of-concept, or intellective, models. The current state of models range from the simplistic to the elaborate, from the conceptual to the empirical, and from the purely notional to the validatable. This review briefly describes the state of human social behavioral modeling. Key issues surrounding analysis and validation are discussed.