2019 International Workshop on Agent-Based Modelling of Human Behaviour (ABMHuB)


Agent-based modelling has a long history of success in many related fields from economics and cooperative behaviours, to social conflict, civil violence and revolution. However, its use remains very limited in studies of how human interaction is affected by more complex aspects of human behaviour, such as personality, emotional state and conflict.

ABMHuB aims to bring together researchers who are interested in using agent-based modelling to understand human behaviour. It is a combination of computational modelling, psychology and behavioural science, which is a new and growing area of research. We want to build a focused group of people, bringing together many of the researchers in this young field for the first time. The motivation behind this workshop is to address some of the significant issues in psychological research today. Human experimentation can create ethical issues and has been increasingly difficult to conduct, making it more difficult to progress our understanding in the area. Alife models offer the capability to create realistic laboratories for which to conduct such experiments. A workshop in this area can encourage researchers to use behavioural modelling to assess, challenge or even replace competing theories of human behaviour. Introducing rigorous computational modelling to this contentious area will help strengthen the field of psychology and behavioural science.

ABMHuB is held in conjuction with the 2019 Conference on Artificial Life in Newcastle, UK.

ABMHuB Workshop Outcome

We thank all the participants for making the workshop a success! It was a very well attended workshop, with participants from academia and industry, packed full of interesting talks and discussions. During the discussions, we suggested that an event gathering agent-based modelling researchers should continue in the future as it would encourage more work in this area and improve quality of research. Please contact Soo Ling at s.lim@cs.ucl.ac.uk if you are interested to participate in future events.

ABMHuB Workshop Schedule

The ABMHuB workshop will be held on Wednesday 31 July 2019 at the Urban Sciences Building (Room USB.G.003), Newcastle Helix, from 10:30am to 1pm.

Time Title
Welcome and Keynote
10:30-10:35 Welcome
Soo Ling Lim and Peter J. Bentley
10:35-10:55 How we process information: Neurocognitive and behavioural traits [pdf]
Dr. Natalie Kanakam, NHS, UK
Full Research Papers (peer reviewed)
10:55-11:10 Rumours lead to self-organized migration routes [pdf]
Martin Hinsch and Jakub Bijak
11:10-11:25 Investigating conformity by personality type [pdf]
Nandi Schoots, Soo Ling Lim and Peter J. Bentley
Invited Talks
11:25-11:35 Evolution of cooperation and the complexity of human moral codes [pdf]
Professor Francisco C. Santos
11:35-11:45 Managing self-organisation in socio-technical complex systems by morphogenetic engineering [pdf]
Professor René Doursat
11:45-11:55 Faking it with the boss: Leader humor can increase employee emotional labor at work [pdf]
Xiaoran Hu, London Business School
Extended Abstracts (peer reviewed)
11:55-12:05 Can agent-based modelling serve education in understanding user experience based on autopoietic technology? [pdf]
Claudio Aguayo [NEW! watch video presentation]
12:05-12:15 Modelling cooperation in a dynamic healthcare system [pdf]
Zainab Alalawi, The Anh Han, Yifeng Zeng and Aiman Elragig
12:15-12:25 Using an opinion formation model to investigate the effect of leaders on collective decision-making [pdf]
Cedric Perret, Emma Hart and Simon T. Powers
12:25-12:35 Zero-determinant strategies and their relation to agent-based modelling [pdf]
Genki Ichinose
12:35-12:45 Social network analysis applied to agent-based modeling to understand social withdrawal as an emergent property [pdf]
Georgina Montserrat Reséndiz-Benhumea and Tom Froese
Discussion and Close
12:45-1:00 Agent-based modelling: how can we address the problems and seize the opportunities?
JoEllyn Prouty McLaren, Peter Bentley, Soo Ling Lim

Call for Papers

The workshop seeks to bring together ideas, approaches, concepts, and perspectives from agent-based modelling and human social systems. The aim of the workshop is to bring together researchers from these connected fields, to engage across the disciplines, to inform of latest findings, to transfer discoveries and concepts from one field to another, and to inspire new ideas and new collaborations across the theme. Discussions of practical applications, ethical implications, and use cases from industry are also welcome.

Contributions will be invited in the following areas:

Information for Authors

There are two options for submission:

Please use one of the following templates to format your submission:

All submissions will undergo a peer review process. Extended abstracts will be reviewed for timeliness, novelty, and quality. Full papers will be reviewed for timeliness, novelty, scientific quality, and sound methodology.

Accepted full papers and extended abstracts will be published online proceedings. Authors of selected contributions will be invited to expand their work for submission to a special issue of the Artificial Life journal.

Submission Process

Please email your submission as a PDF file to Soo Ling at s.lim@cs.ucl.ac.uk

Important Dates

Full paper

Extended abstract

ABMHuB workshop: 1 August 2019 31 July 2019

Organising Committee

Contact: s.lim@cs.ucl.ac.uk.