Agent-based models are versatile tools for studying how societal opinion change, including political polarization and cultural diffusion, emerges from individual behavior. This study expands agents’ psychological realism using empirically-motivated rules governing interpersonal influence, commitment to previous beliefs, and conformity in social contexts. Computational experiments establish that...

Multi-agent-based computing serves as a foundation for a new breed of computer simulations that act as virtual laboratories for social scientists. Therefore, the realism of the simulations is an important issue in their development. However, developing a realistic system that remains efficient, scalable and user-friendly is difficult. Our software system builds on research in agent-based system...

We consider a dynamic social network model in which agents play repeated games in pairings determined by a stochastically evolving social network. Individual agents begin to interact at random, with the interactions modeled as games. The game payoffs determine which interactions are reinforced, and the network structure emerges as a consequence of the dynamics of the agents' learning behavior. ...

This article explores the limits of social constructionism and criticizes the ‘demiurgic conception of society’ associated with it. It contemplates the possibility of sociological realism by investigating the intrinsic and objective properties of action, cognition and morality. The incorporation of intrinsic meanings and intentions in social actions, the objective information supporting cogniti...

As advertised in its subtitle, Terence Cuneo’s rich new book, The Normative Web, puts forth an argument for moral realism. Moral realism, Cuneo argues, is on a par with epistemic realism—roughly, the view that there are genuine epistemic facts, facts such as that it is reasonable to believe that astrology is false. These two realist doctrines stand or fall together. But epistemic realism is tru...

Traditional economic theory often describes real-world social dilemmas as abstract games where an individual’s goal is to maximize economic benefit by cooperating or competing with others. Despite extensive empirical work, descriptive models of human behavior in social dilemmas are lacking in both cognitive realism and predictive power. This article addresses a central challenge arising from th...

This paper discusses the psychological basis of believ-ability. Story-telling, empathy, historical grounding (autobiography), andècological grounding' in an environment are identiied as factors which are relevant to the way how humans understand the (social) world. It is suggested that applying such criteria to the construction of artiicial lifelike agents is more relevant than trying to achiev...

Critical Realism (CR) states that knowledge (epistemology) is different from being or existence (ontology). There is a reality (unobservable structures) which exists independent of human thought. Critical realists believe that these unobservable structures cause observable events. Therefore, the social world can be understood only if people understand the structures that generate events. This i...

How perceived realism in a video game contributes to game enjoyment and engagement is a theoretically important and practically significant question. The conceptualization and operationalization of perceived realism in previous video game studies vary greatly, particularly regarding the dimensions of perceived graphic realism and perceived external realism. The authors argue that it is importan...