258 research outputs found
Reply to Will and Hegselmann
[No abstract]Replication, Social Dilemmas, Simulation Methodology, Cooperation, Trust, Agent-Based Modelling
Local Convergence and Global Diversity: The Robustness of Cultural Homophily
Recent extensions of the Axelrod model of cultural dissemination (Klemm et al
2003) showed that global diversity is extremely fragile with small amounts of
cultural mutation. This seemed to undermine the original Axelrod theory that
homophily preserves diversity. We show that cultural diversity is surprisingly
robust if we increase the tendency towards homophily as follows. First, we
raised the threshold of similarity below which influence is precluded. Second,
we allowed agents to be influenced by all neighbors simultaneously, instead of
only one neighbor as assumed in the orginal model. Computational experiments
show how both modifications strongly increase the robustness of diversity
against mutation. We also find that our extensions may reverse at least one of
the main results of Axelrod. While Axelrod predicted that a larger number of
cultural dimensions (features) reduces diversity, we find that more features
may entail higher levels of diversity.Comment: 21 pages, 8 figures, Submitted for presentation in Mathematical
Sociology Session, Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association
(ASA), 200
The Surprising Success of a Replication That Failed
In a recent paper (jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/12/4/11.html), Oliver Will contends that the effect of mobility on trust that we originally reported (2002) depends on \'an assumption that is most probably an unwilling, unintended, and unwanted implication of the code.\' When we experimented with Will\'s revised model, we came to the opposite conclusion: his version provides stronger support for our theory than does our original. The explanation is that Will left the learning rate at the upper limit of 1.0, the level we assumed in our original paper. When we lowered the learning rate to compensate for the removal of the contested assumption, the results showed how mobility can lead to an increase in trust, which is consistent with our explanation for higher trust in the US compared to Japan. Moreover, the model also shows that it is possible for there to be too much mobility.Trust, Mobility, Replication
Automated Hate Speech Detection and the Problem of Offensive Language
A key challenge for automatic hate-speech detection on social media is the
separation of hate speech from other instances of offensive language. Lexical
detection methods tend to have low precision because they classify all messages
containing particular terms as hate speech and previous work using supervised
learning has failed to distinguish between the two categories. We used a
crowd-sourced hate speech lexicon to collect tweets containing hate speech
keywords. We use crowd-sourcing to label a sample of these tweets into three
categories: those containing hate speech, only offensive language, and those
with neither. We train a multi-class classifier to distinguish between these
different categories. Close analysis of the predictions and the errors shows
when we can reliably separate hate speech from other offensive language and
when this differentiation is more difficult. We find that racist and homophobic
tweets are more likely to be classified as hate speech but that sexist tweets
are generally classified as offensive. Tweets without explicit hate keywords
are also more difficult to classify.Comment: To appear in the Proceedings of ICWSM 2017. Please cite that versio
Cultural Values and Cross-cultural Video Consumption on YouTube
Video-sharing social media like YouTube provide access to diverse cultural
products from all over the world, making it possible to test theories that the
Web facilitates global cultural convergence. Drawing on a daily listing of
YouTube's most popular videos across 58 countries, we investigate the
consumption of popular videos in countries that differ in cultural values,
language, gross domestic product, and Internet penetration rate. Although
online social media facilitate global access to cultural products, we find this
technological capability does not result in universal cultural convergence.
Instead, consumption of popular videos in culturally different countries
appears to be constrained by cultural values. Cross-cultural convergence is
more advanced in cosmopolitan countries with cultural values that favor
individualism and power inequality
Social dynamics from the bottom up:Agent-based models of social interaction
This article focuses on agent-based computational (ABC) modeling of social interaction. It begins with an overview of ABC modeling as a computational implementation of ‘methodological individualism’, the search for the microfoundations of social life in the actions of intentional agents. It then considers how the ABC method differs from an earlier generation of modeling approaches, including game theory, equation-based models of computer simulation (such as system dynamics), and multivariate linear models. It also discusses potential weaknesses of ABC modeling and proposes research strategies to address them. The article suggests that ABC modeling will lead to significant advances in the bottom-up approach to the study of social dynamics.</p
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