Agent-based modeling bridges the gap between individual psychology and aggregate group outcomes

Evidence

To date, almost all scientific analyses of group formation and change have focused on either the individual-level, psychological processes that influence the behavior of autonomous persons or aggregate-level outcomes that describe the end states of multiagent interactions. Individual-level analyses do not consider the operation of psychological processes in the context of multiple interdependent agents that interact over an extended period of time. Aggregate-level analyses rarely concern themselves with the psychological motives and processes of individual actors that define the nature of interactions among multiple agents and that play a determinative role in aggregate outcomes. The agent-based modeling that we are conducting combines these two levels of analysis, permitting a richer and more nuanced understanding of how individual-level psychology and group-level behavior interact to produce important outcomes. — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 858