TY - GEN
T1 - Simulating mutual support networks of human and artificial agents
AU - Medeiros, Lenin
AU - Bosse, Tibor
AU - Treur, Jan
PY - 2018
Y1 - 2018
N2 - In this paper, a multi-agent simulation model is presented to investigate the dynamics of ‘mutual-support networks’: online social networks consisting of both humans and artificial agents. Via such networks, human users who are coping with stress can share their problems, via text messages, with human peers as well as ‘artificial friends’. Even though not everybody feels comfortable sharing personal problems with artificial agents, a bot is always available to help human users, and does not face any negative consequence of providing help to stressed peers. Using the simulation model, the dynamics of social networks consisting of an arbitrary combination of humans and agents have been explored under various circumstances. This exploration resulted in several insights that are useful for shaping our vision on artificial friends: (1) humans can provide less emotional support than artificial agents because they have limited emotional resources, (2) the type of support that is provided has a large impact on the human’s stress level, and (3) the more open users are to receiving automated support, the more effective the support is in reducing their stress level. The model was internally validated by means of a mathematical verification.
AB - In this paper, a multi-agent simulation model is presented to investigate the dynamics of ‘mutual-support networks’: online social networks consisting of both humans and artificial agents. Via such networks, human users who are coping with stress can share their problems, via text messages, with human peers as well as ‘artificial friends’. Even though not everybody feels comfortable sharing personal problems with artificial agents, a bot is always available to help human users, and does not face any negative consequence of providing help to stressed peers. Using the simulation model, the dynamics of social networks consisting of an arbitrary combination of humans and agents have been explored under various circumstances. This exploration resulted in several insights that are useful for shaping our vision on artificial friends: (1) humans can provide less emotional support than artificial agents because they have limited emotional resources, (2) the type of support that is provided has a large impact on the human’s stress level, and (3) the more open users are to receiving automated support, the more effective the support is in reducing their stress level. The model was internally validated by means of a mathematical verification.
KW - Computational model
KW - Computer-generated emotional support
KW - Multi-agent based simulation
KW - Stress
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85057247799&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85057247799&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/978-3-030-01159-8_19
DO - 10.1007/978-3-030-01159-8_19
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85057247799
SN - 9783030011581
VL - 2
T3 - Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
SP - 202
EP - 214
BT - Social Informatics
A2 - Staab, Steffen
A2 - Koltsova, Olessia
A2 - Ignatov, Dmitry I.
PB - Springer
T2 - 10th Conference on Social Informatics, SocInfo 2018
Y2 - 25 September 2018 through 28 September 2018
ER -