DHB: Dynamics of Information Flow and Decisions in Social Networks

当人们从个人经验和当地环境中吸取信息并利用它对特定问题做出决定或判断时，一些人可能会获得使他们做出正确决定的信息。 相反，其他人可能获得有偏见或不充分的信息样本。 在这样的情况下，将信息资源集中在一些人中可能有助于整个团队做出更好的决策。 该提案概述了两个项目，研究个人如何利用通过朋友和熟人的社交网络流动的信息，并将其用于个人决策。 这个过程是动态的，因为每个人都在利用他人的输入来做出决定，他或她的决定反过来又为网络中的其他人提供了额外的信息。每个项目都在几个层面上考虑变量之间的关系，从个体代理的决策策略（例如，对社会提供的信息和个人获得的信息给予多少权重），对代理交换信息的代理间交互，对社交网络的整体结构。 第一个项目考虑了多个代理人，他们共享信息并影响彼此对特定决策的选择（例如消费品的选择，或对特定社会政策的偏好）。 第二个项目考虑了多个代理人谁是评估对方作为潜在的合作伙伴或配偶，并检查这些决定是如何通过传播的信息，代理人本身通过社会网络的影响。 这两个项目都将使用多智能体模拟技术和人类参与者的实证研究。 这些项目将产生几种更广泛的影响。 他们将增加跨学科的交流，通过应用新的多智能体模拟技术结合社会心理学理论和实证研究结果，加深我们对信息流通过社交网络在决策过程中的作用的理解。 第一个项目可以帮助人们在做出自己的个人决定时更有效地利用他人的信息和经验（例如，购买消费品），从而改善这些决策的结果。 最后，第二个项目可能最终有助于加深人们对如何选择他人作为伴侣或配偶的理解，并可能提高这些决定的质量-对社会中的高离婚率及其造成的多种社会问题产生潜在影响。

When people draw on information from their individual experiences and local surroundings and use it to make a decision or judgment on a particular issue, some individuals may obtain information permitting them to make a correct decision. In contrast, others may obtain biased or inadequate samples of information. In situations like this, pooling informational resources among a number of people may help the group as a whole arrive at a better decision. This proposal outlines two projects examining how individuals can draw upon information that flows through social networks of friends and acquaintances, and use it in making their individual decisions. The process is dynamic, for as each individual draws on others' input to make decisions, his or her decisions in turn provide additional information to others in the network. Each project considers the relationships of variables at several levels, from individual agents' decision strategies (e.g., how much weight to give socially provided versus individually obtained information), to inter-agent interactions in which agents exchange information, to the overall structures of social networks. The first project considers multiple agents who are sharing information and influencing each others' choices on a particular decision (such as the choice of consumer products, or the preference for a particular social policy). The second project considers multiple agents who are assessing each other as potential partners or mates, and examines how these decisions are influenced by the spread of information about the agents themselves through the social network. Both projects will use multi-agent simulation techniques and empirical studies with human participants. The projects will have several types of broader impacts. They will increase interdisciplinary interchange, by applying novel multi-agent simulation techniques in combination with social psychological theories and empirical findings, to deepen our understanding of the role of information flow through social networks in the decision-making process. The first project may help develop ways for people to more efficiently draw on the information and experiences of others as they make their own individual decisions (e.g., purchasing consumer products) and thereby improve the outcomes of those decisions. Finally, the second project may ultimately help enhance understanding of how people select others as partners or mates, and perhaps improve the quality of those decisions - with a potential impact on the high divorce rate in society and on the multiple social problems to which it contributes.