Modeling the impact of beliefs and communication on attitude dynamics: a cognitive agent-based approach
Résumé
In the context of military training for stabilization operation of a crisis zone with civilian population, understanding the formation of attitude and its dynamics is a key issue. This paper presents a multi-agent model for simulating attitude formation and change based on individual’s perception of information and its diffusion through communication. We represent the attitude as object-evaluation associations of varying strength proposed by Fazio [1]. Individuals observe military operations. They exchange and revise beliefs about social objects depending on multiple criteria deriving from social psychology theories. They compute their attitude value based on analytic assessment of these beliefs. We illustrate, through several simulation experiments, the role of communication on attitude dynamics.