Modelling the Interplay of Emotions, Beliefs and Intentions within Collective Decision Making Based on Insights from Social Neuroscience

Abstract

Abstract. Collective decision making involves on the one hand individual mental states such as beliefs, emotions and intentions, and on the other hand interaction with others with possibly different mental states. Achieving a satisfactory common group decision on which all agree requires that such mental states are adapted to each other by social interaction. Recent developments in Social Neuroscience have revealed neural mechanisms by which such mutual adaptation can be realised. These mechanisms not only enable intentions to converge to an emerging common decision, but at the same time enable to achieve shared underlying individual beliefs and emotions. This paper presents a computational model for such processes.

Analysis of Beliefs of Survivors of the 7/7 London Bombings: Application of a Formal Model for Contagion of Mental States

“…To simulate the dynamics of beliefs, emotions and intentions of individuals involved in the 7/7 London bombings of 2005, the agent-based model ASCRIBE [9] was used and implemented in Matlab. For a complete overview of ASCRIBE, see [9].…”

“…For a complete overview of ASCRIBE, see [9]. In this section, the model is only briefly summarised and explained in terms of how it was tailored to the 7/7 London bombings case.…”

“…The main concepts present in the original ASCRIBE model [9] are beliefs, intentions, and emotions. For the current purpose, the following specific states for the agents were taken, namely 1 emotional state per agent (fear), 2 intentional states per agent (either to perform a protective or social action) and 3 beliefs (one about the 'positiveness' of the situation and two about whether an agent should perform a protective or social action): In Figure 4, which is adapted from [9], an overview of the interplay of these different states within the model is shown. It is assumed that at the individual level the strength of an intention for a certain action option depends on the person's beliefs (cognitive responding) in relation to that option.…”

“…In the ASCRIBE model, the effects of emotions on beliefs are calculated with the formulae in Section 4.1 of [9]. Instead of using these formulae here, the values for beliefs about the situation and action options were taken from the empirical data as explained in Section 2 and 3.…”

“…More specifically, to be able to analyse the dynamics of mental states and their intra-and interpersonal interaction in emergency scenarios, an agent-based simulation model ASCRIBE (Agent-based Social Contagion Regarding Intention Beliefs and Emotions) has been developed [9]. This model has been inspired by several concepts from Social Neuroscience [6,7], including the concepts of mirror neuron (i.e., a type of neuron that fires not only when an individual performs an action, but also when he/she observes this action performed by someone else [10,11]) and somatic marker (i.e., a feeling induced by a certain decision option considered by an individual, which helps the individual make decisions by biasing that option [1,7]).…”