Opportunities for using agent-based social simulation and fuzzy logic to improve the understanding of digital mental healthcare scenarios

Abstract

Agent-Based Social Simulation (ABSS) has seen success in studying emerging behaviour in social contexts. In this paper, we explore the use of ABSS to improve the understanding of digital mental healthcare scenarios. Our exploratory study focuses on understanding how different age generations within a population react to the implementation of digital mental health therapies. Our model uses a complex social media network where agents can communicate and alter their opinions over time. In this paper we also present some technical novelty. We introduce interval type-2 fuzzy logic as an option for modelling human decision-making and accounting for the uncertainty that exists when modelling complex systems. Fuzzy Logic is a concept particularly well suited to formalise and deal with imprecise concepts. The work presented here seeks to encourage Social Simulation modellers to experiment more with interval type-2 fuzzy logic.