Institutional modelling: Adding social backbone to agent-based models

Institutional modelling is a branch of agent-based modelling and simulation (ABMS) that pays special attention to the social structure by incorporating institutions into these models. Institutions, in this regard, are the rules of the system that shape individual behaviour and interaction. Institutional modelling can make use of the...

How Culture Influences Individual Behavior During a Pandemic: A Social Simulation of the COVID-19 Crisis

Since its first appearance in Wuhan (China), countries have been employing, to varying degrees of success, a series of non-pharmaceutical interventions aimed at limiting the spread of SARS-CoV-2 within their populations. In this article, we build on scientific work that demonstrates that culture is part of the explanation for the observed...

Hiding opinions by minimizing disclosed information: an obfuscation-based opinion dynamics model

In the field of opinion dynamics, the hiding of opinions is routinely modeled as staying silent. However, staying silent is not always feasible. In situations where opinions are indirectly expressed by one’s observable actions, people may however try to hide their opinions via a more complex and intelligent strategy called obfuscation, which...

Structuring Socio-technical Complexity: Modelling Agent Systems using Institutional Analysis

Socio-technical systems consist of many heterogeneous decision making entities and technological artefacts. These systems are governed through public policy that unravels in a multi-scale institutional context, which ranges from norms and values to technical standards. Simulation, agent-based modelling and simulation (ABMS) in particular, is an...

MAIA: A framework for developing agent-based social simulations