Social and Behavioral Simulation

Abstract

Social and behavioral simulation is an emerging field at the intersection of computational social science and simulation modeling and analysis. Modeling how individual and heterogeneous agents “behave” by converting sensory inputs to decisions, emotions, or actions, is the essence of behavioral simulation. The essence of social simulation, analogously, is modeling how these agents “interact” with each other, and behave collectively as a group, as a function of their behavioral imperatives. When techniques from these two fields are combined, social and behavioral simulation connects individual behaviors at the micro-level to system-level behaviors at the macro-level, allowing the study of dynamic social behavior. This kind of modeling can lead to new insights into the causal mechanisms that underlie social systems. Until now, social and behavioral simulation has consisted largely of innovative applications of simulation to illustrate social or group behavior. More recently, the ability of agent-based modeling, system dynamics, network analysis, and associated techniques to study these micro-macro interactions is unparalleled. The field is ripe for methodological and theoretical advancements. This chapter describes the history of social and behavioral simulation from the perspective of the Winter Simulation Conference community, provides a thematic overview of the questions being addressed, and discusses possible future directions.