Introducing the Argumentation Framework Within Agent-Based Models to Better Simulate Agents' Cognition in Opinion Dynamics: Application to Vegetarian Diet Diffusion

Patrick Taillandier (), Nicolas Salliou () and Rallou Thomopoulos ()
Additional contact information
Patrick Taillandier: http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Patrick_Taillandier
Nicolas Salliou: https://irl.ethz.ch/people/person-detail.MjQ3Nzg3.TGlzdC8xNzM4LC0xMzk1OTgzMDM3.html
Rallou Thomopoulos: https://cv.archives-ouvertes.fr/rallou

Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, 2021, vol. 24, issue 2, 6

Abstract: This paper introduces a generic agent-based model simulating the exchange and the diffusion of pro and con arguments. It is applied to the case of the diffusion of vegetarian diets in the context of a potential emergence of a second nutrition transition. To this day, agent-based simulation has been extensively used to study opinion dynamics. However, the vast majority of existing models have been limited to extremely abstract and simplified representations of the diffusion process. These simplifications impairs the realism of the simulations and disables the understanding of the reasons for the shift of an actor's opinion. The generic model presented here explicitly represents exchanges of arguments between actors in the context of an opinion dynamic model. In particular, the inner attitude towards an opinion of each agent is formalized as an argumentation graph and each agent can share arguments with other agents. Simulation experiments show that introducing attacks between arguments and a limitation of the number of arguments mobilized by agents has a strong impact on the evolution of the agents' opinion. We also highlight that when a new argument is introduced into the system, the quantity and the profile of the agents receiving the new argument will impact the evolution of the overall opinion. Finally, the application of this model to vegetarian diet adoption seems consistent with historical food behaviour dynamics observed during crises.

Keywords: Opinion Dynamics; Agent-Based Simulation; Argumentation Framework; Vegetarian Diets (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-03-31
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.jasss.org/24/2/6/6.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:jas:jasssj:2020-35-3

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation from Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Francesco Renzini ().