We propose a novel agent-based implementation of Festingers’ Social Comparison Theory (SCT). The Social Comparison Model (SCM) consists of connectionist networks that simulate agent-level social comparison processes. Agent networks are combined into a adaptive network structure that is shaped by social comparisons between individual agents. Simulations show how the SCM produces behavior consist...

Establishing a shared set of norms under run time can be problematic. This paper exmines one issue, viz. The communication of norms as feed-back on decision making of individual members of the group. One issue is of major concern, which is the norm set the agents use initially. The effects of varying agent autonomy and initial norm set were examined in a simulation study. It was found that the ...

Although the National Organ Transplant Act calls for equity in access to transplantation, scarcity and racial disparities persist. To date, even the most comprehensive models have been unable to adequately explain these racial disparities, leaving policymakers unsure how best to intervene. Previous individual-level analyses, which have implicated risk factors such as race, financial status, cul...

A central part of relational ties between social actors are constituted by shared affiliations and events. The action of joint participation reinforces personal ties between social actors as well as mutually shared values and norms that in turn perpetuate the patterns of social action that define groups. Therefore the study of bipartite networks is central to social science. Furthermore, the dy...

Some of the most important questions in the area of decision making under uncertainty deal with individual decisions to conform to or violate norms of behavior. The decision to conform to a norm is complicated by uncertainty about the norms others hold (Bohnet and Zeckhauser, 2004) and strong inclinations to behave collectively Milgram (1977). (For the present purpose, we adopt the broad defini...