Modelling mediator assistance in joint decision making processes involving mutual empathic understanding

Abstract

In this paper an agent model for mediation in joint decisionmaking processes is presented for establishing mutual empathic understanding. Elicitation of affective states is an important criterion of empathy. In unassisted joint decision-making it can be difficult to recognise whether empathic responses are the result of experiencing the other individual’s affective state, or whether these affective states are at least partly blended with own states that would also have developed in individual decision-making. The mediator agent assists two individual social agents in establishing and expressing empathy, as a means to develop solidly grounded joint decisions.