A computational approach to Homans Social Exchange Theory

Taha Enayat, Mohsen Mehrani Ardebili, Ramtin Reyhani Kivi, Bahador Amjadi and Yousef Jamali

Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 2022, vol. 597, issue C

Abstract: How does society work? How do groups emerge within society? What are the effects of emotions and memory on our everyday actions? George Homans, like us, had a perspective on what society is, except that he was a sociologist. Homans theory, which is an exchange theory, is based on a few propositions about the fundamental actions of individuals, and how values, memory, and expectations affect their behavior. In this paper, as Homans predicted, our main interest and purpose are to find out whether these propositions lead to the emergence of groups. To do so, computationally, Based on Homans’ prepositions, we provide the opportunity for each agent to exchange with other agents. That is, each agent transacts with familiar agents based on his previous history with them and transacts with newly found agents through exploration. The importance of our work is that we have scrutinized the consequences of an actual sociological theory through the eyes of simulation. At the end of our investigation, we discuss other possible directions for further research.

Keywords: Computational sociology; Exchange theory; Social structures; Complex networks; Local decision-making; Social structures emergence (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:597:y:2022:i:c:s0378437122002308

DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2022.127263

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