Trust Agent-Based Modeling In Different Structures Of The Social Network
Volume 15, Issue 2, Summer 2013, Pages 57-86
Ahmadreza Asgharpour Masole, Atie Sadeghi
Abstract Social networks are a combination of social relationships and trust is assumed to be one of the main features of social relationships. Distrust brings about lack of cooperation and chaos in society. As a result, the present research aims at creating and eroding trust in different network structures. As interactions are taken place in social relationships, the way in which we select other trustees can be influential in the formation of trust. The two important factors for agents to select their interaction trustees are: the intensity of trust in social relationships and the history of interaction. Thus, in the present research three strategies are applied for selecting trustees in an interaction and they are all based on trust in a relationship: selecting relationships with strong, medium and weak trust. Trustees’ responses are grouped under two headings: random and trust- based responses. To study precisely such a situation, agent- based modeling is used because it helps understand processes and mechanisms and even artificial experiments. In the two network structures, four types of status are designed for the model. Each status is run 300 rounds and in 100 time units. The model output was analyzed by the use of SPSS and Matlab soft wares. Findings indicate that agents with strong strategies have the most capability in developing trust than those with weak strategy. It is also impossible to accumulate trust in a relationship within networks which agents respond randomly. Conversely, in the networks that agents’ responds is based on trust, we witness trust accumulation in long term period. In comparison to the cluster network, trust in central networks is more likely to erode.