A Critical Study of the Coherence between EBMs and ABMs in the Simulation of the Hawks-Doves-LawAbiders Society

We are interested in using Equation-based Models (EBMs) as formal specifications of macro-level features of social simulations, so that they could support the subsequent development of more detailed Agent-based Models (ABMs). In this work, we tried to establish the way a particular macro-level feature present only in the ABM of a certain society, namely, the density of the population in its environment, may influence the coherence between the results of the two models about the evolution of the population profile. We took as case study the HDL (Hawks, Doves, and LawAbiders) society. In our simulations, higher values of population density tend to produce less coherence between the two models, because of the interference between the population density parameter and the particular way the agents were programmed to wander in the environment. The work indicates the possibility of a systematic study of the interdependencies of ABMs and EBMs when they are used complementarily.