2,156 research outputs found
Supporting cooperation and coordination in open multi-agent systems
Cooperation and coordination between agents are fundamental processes for increasing
aggregate and individual benefit in open Multi-Agent Systems (MAS).
The increased ubiquity, size, and complexity of open MAS in the modern world
has prompted significant research interest in the mechanisms that underlie cooperative
and coordinated behaviour. In open MAS, in which agents join and
leave freely, we can assume the following properties: (i) there are no centralised
authorities, (ii) agent authority is uniform, (iii) agents may be heterogeneously
owned and designed, and may consequently have con
icting intentions and inconsistent
capabilities, and (iv) agents are constrained in interactions by a complex
connecting network topology. Developing mechanisms to support cooperative
and coordinated behaviour that remain effective under these assumptions
remains an open research problem.
Two of the major mechanisms by which cooperative and coordinated behaviour
can be achieved are (i) trust and reputation, and (ii) norms and conventions.
Trust and reputation, which support cooperative and coordinated
behaviour through notions of reciprocity, are effective in protecting agents from
malicious or selfish individuals, but their capabilities can be affected by a lack of
information about potential partners and the impact of the underlying network structure. Regarding conventions and norms, there are still a wide variety of
open research problems, including: (i) manipulating which convention or norm
a population adopts, (ii) how to exploit knowledge of the underlying network
structure to improve mechanism efficacy, and (iii) how conventions might be
manipulated in the middle and latter stages of their lifecycle, when they have
become established and stable.
In this thesis, we address these issues and propose a number of techniques
and theoretical advancements that help ensure the robustness and efficiency
of these mechanisms in the context of open MAS, and demonstrate new techniques
for manipulating convention emergence in large, distributed populations.
Specfically, we (i) show that gossiping of reputation information can mitigate
the detrimental effects of incomplete information on trust and reputation and reduce
the impact of network structure, (ii) propose a new model of conventions
that accounts for limitations in existing theories, (iii) show how to manipulate
convention emergence using small groups of agents inserted by interested
parties, (iv) demonstrate how to learn which locations in a network have the
greatest capacity to in
uence which convention a population adopts, and (v)
show how conventions can be manipulated in the middle and latter stages of
the convention lifecycle
Civility vs. incivility in online social interactions: an evolutionary approach
Evidence is growing that forms of incivility–e.g. aggressive and disrespectful behaviors, harassment, hate speech and outrageous claims–are spreading in the population of social networking sites’ (SNS) users. Online social networks such as Facebook allow users to regularly interact with known and unknown others, who can behave either politely or rudely. This leads individuals not only to learn and adopt successful strategies for using the site, but also to condition their own behavior on that of others. Using a mean field approach, we define anevolutionary game framework to analyse the dynamics of civil and uncivil ways of interaction in online social networks and their consequences for collective welfare. Agents can choose to interact with others–politely or rudely–in SNS, or to opt out from online social networks to protect themselves from incivility. We find that, when the initial share of the population of polite users reaches a critical level, civility becomes generalized if its payoff increases more than that of incivility with the spreading of politeness in online interactions. Otherwise, the spreading of self-protective behaviors to cope with online incivility can lead the economyto non-socially optimal stationary state
Virtual Social Network characterization: reference framework for a comparative analysis
Although social network, social media, social networking site, online game and online community are all terms found in the literature, do they actually refer to radically different environments? The paper proposes a generic definition for Virtual Social Networks (VSNs) and it identifies the environments\u27 five essential dimensions. Thanks to a simple reference framework it becomes possible to compare the research work on the different environments and their varied theoretical approaches. The paper is based on both the literature and original research
Evolutionary Psychology, Social Emotions and Social Networking Sites: an Integrative Model
Humans engage their environment through the combined effort of the mind, body proper and corresponding instinctual emotive devices (Damasio, 1994). These structures are a part of the same phenomena: human biology. Our emotive devices along with the brain and body act as an interwoven organism appraising the environment and making necessary adjustments for it survival and efficient functioning. Moreover, these structures actively engage socially complex signals like those that we experience daily in our social world. Plausibly, when these devices are not utilized the interwoven organism will be in a state of atrophy. Much like an antigen would trigger a reaction from the body to promote homeostasis, this same idea can be applied to a social agent of alienation viewed through four dimensions of negative social valence: envy, embarrassment, guilt, and shame. This exploratory research employed an Evolutionary Psychology perspective whereby the human mind is viewed through the lens of the physiological and psychological mechanisms that created the developmental programs we use today (Cosmides & Tooby, 1992). This theoretical framework was used to study the relationship between human behavior, the state of alienation, and SNS. Based on survey data from college students, there seemed to be a relationship between alienation and Social Networking Sites. Alienation dimensions were highest among those who had the lowest amount of contacts on SNS. The findings from this study will add to the body of knowledge on Computer Mediated Communication as well as afford an opportunity for further research in understanding human behavior engaged in SNS through the viewpoint of Evolutionary Psycholog
A qualitative examination of cybercriminal governance in China
Profit-driven cybercrime has evolved into a sophisticated industry, inflicting millions of dollars in losses on the world economy. However, limited research has been conducted on the extra-legal governance of this industry, particularly in China, one of the world's most prominent cybercrime hotspots. This study, based on comprehensive fieldwork in China from 2020 to 2022 and an analysis of both primary and secondary data, seeks to address this gap. It endeavours to answer the question: How is the cybercrime industry governed in China? In line with previous research on extra-legal governance, this study finds that Chinese cybercriminals have developed a series of private governance systems, encompassing both self-governance and third-party governance, to facilitate their business interactions. In addition, this study offered three main new findings that can be added to our understanding of extra-legal governance. Firstly, self-governance is notably effective in online marketplaces due to the swift transmission of information, thus diminishing the necessity for third-party governance in the cybercrime market and the use of violence. Secondly, cybercriminal firms tend to be less predatory than traditional criminal firms, likely attributed to the reduced need for territorial resources. Lastly, cybercriminals can relocate to countries where protectors are present and continue their illicit activities remotely, with protection being more likely offered when the inflicted harm does not impact the protector's own country’s residents, and the political and economic gains outweigh the costs. This availability of protection could potentially elucidate the ongoing global dispersion of cybercriminals
Network e-Volution
Modern society is a network society permeated by information technology (IT). As a result of innovations in IT, enormous amounts of information can be communicated to a larger number of recipients faster than ever before. The evolution of networks is heavily influenced by the extensive use of IT, which has enabled co-evolving advanced quantitative and qualitative forms of networking. Although several networks have been formed with the aim to reduce or deal with uncertainty through faster and broader access to information, it is in fact IT that has created new kinds of uncertainty. For instance, although digital information integration in supply chains has made production planning more robust, it has at the same time intensified mutual dependencies, thereby actually increasing the level of uncertainty. The aim of this working paper is to investigate the aspects of evolving networks and uncertainty in networks at the cutting edges of different types of networks and from the perspective of different layers defining these networks
How Committed Individuals Shape Social Dynamics: A Survey on Coordination Games and Social Dilemma Games
Committed individuals, who features steadfast dedication to advocating strong
beliefs, values, and preferences, have garnered much attention across
statistical physics, social science, and computer science. This survey delves
into the profound impact of committed individuals on social dynamics that
emerge from coordination games and social dilemma games. Through separate
examinations of their influence on coordination, including social conventions
and color coordination games, and social dilemma games, including one-shot
settings, repeated settings, and vaccination games, this survey reveals the
significant role committed individuals play in shaping social dynamics. Their
contributions range from accelerating or overturning social conventions to
addressing cooperation dilemmas and expediting solutions for color coordination
and vaccination issues. Furthermore, the survey outlines three promising
directions for future research: conducting human behavior experiments for
empirical validation, leveraging advanced large language models as proxies for
committed individuals in complex scenarios, and addressing potential negative
impacts of committed individuals
Marginal contribution, reciprocity and equity in segregated groups: Bounded rationality and self-organization in social networks
We study the formation of social networks that are based on local interaction and simple rule following. Agents evaluate the profitability of link formation on the basis of the Myerson-Shapley principle that payoffs come from the marginal contribution they make to coalitions. The NP-hard problem associated with the Myerson-Shapley value is replaced by a boundedly rational 'spatially' myopic process. Agents consider payoffs from direct links with their neighbours (level 1) which can include indirect payoffs from neighbours' neighbours (level 2) and up to M-levels that are far from global. Agents dynamically break away from the neighbour to whom they make the least marginal contribution. Computational experiments show that when this self-interested process of link formation operates at level 2 neighbourhoods, agents self-organize into stable and efficient network structures that manifest reciprocity, equity and segregation reminiscent of hunter gather groups. A large literature alleges that this is incompatible with self-interested behaviour and market oriented marginality principle in the allocation of value. We conclude that it is not this valuation principle that needs to be altered to obtain segregated social networks as opposed to global components, but whether it operates at level 1 or level 2 of social neighbourhoods. Remarkably, all M>2 neighbourhood calculations for payoffs leave the efficient network structures identical to the case when M=2
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