Model Agents: Social Behavior Through the Formal Lens

The course will offer a dive into the most prominent models for studying social behavior. As the saying goes, such models are wrong (i.e., simplifications of reality), but remarkably useful. We will study ways to model segregation, the spread of an idea, the dynamics of beliefs and opinions, the emergence of cooperation and coordination.

The course will mainly follow Paul Smaldino’s recent book Modeling Social Behavior, and will consist of weekly discussions around each chapter. The book doubles as a an introduction to agent-based modeling, but no coding experience is needed, or assumed, for the course. Our primary focus will be the models themselves and what they tell us about reality.

Lectures

Week 1 (October 15, 2024)

We start out by introducing ourselves, followed by a breakdown of the logistics of the course.

Slides are online here.

Week 2 (October 22, 2024)

Bibliography

1. Smaldino, P. (2023). Modeling Social Behavior. Mathematical and Agent-Based Models of Social Dynamics and Cultural Evolution. Princeton University Press.