Extending the computational study of social norms with a systematic model of emotions

Abstract

It is generally recognized that the use of emotions plays an important role in human interactions, for it leads to more flexible decision–making. In the present work, we extend the idea presented in a paper by Castelfranchi, Conte, and Paolucci, by employing a systematic and detailed model of emotion generation. A scenario is described in which agents that have various types of emotions make decisions regarding compliance with a norm. We compare our results with the ones achieved in previous simulations and we show that the use of emotions leads to a selective behavior which increases agent performance, considering that different types of emotions cause agents to have different acting priorities.