Patterns of Social Influence in a Network of Situated Cognitive Agents

ABSTRACT This paper presents the results of computational experiments on the effects of social influence on individual and systemic behavior of situated cognitive agents in a product-consumer environment. Paired experiments were performed with identical initial conditions to compare social agents with nonsocial agents. Experiment results show that social agents are more productive in consuming available products, both in terms of aggregate unit consumption and aggregate utility. But this comes at a cost of individual average utility per unit consumed. In effect, social interaction achieved higher productivity by'lowering the standards' of individual consumers. While still at an early stage of development, such an agent-based model laboratory is shown to be an effective research tool to investigate rich collective behavior in the context of demanding cognitive tasks. INTRODUCTION This paper investigates phenomenological patterns of collective behavior due to social influence among agents where agent value systems change in response to their experience with artifacts and their social interactions with other agents. This is the first phase of a larger research project to investigate innovation processes and policies across complex ecosystems of researchers, innovators, funding organizations, and consumers. In general, systems of innovation can exhibit stability without convergence. They are capable of stable averages in aggregate activity but without stasis at a micro-level.