Emotion contagion in agent-based simulations of crowds: a systematic review

Abstract

Emotions are known to spread among people, a process known as emotion contagion. Both positive and negative emotions are believed to be contagious, but the mass spread of negative emotions has attracted the most attention due to its danger to society. The use of agent-based techniques to simulate emotion contagion in crowds has grown over the last decade and a range of contagion mechanisms and applications have been considered. With this review we aim to give a comprehensive overview of agent-based methods to implement emotion contagion in crowd simulations. We took a systematic approach and collected studies from Web of Science, Scopus, IEEE and ACM that propose agent-based models that include a process of emotion contagion in crowds. We classify the models in three categories based on the mechanism of emotion contagion and analyse the contagion mechanism, application and findings of the studies. Additionally, a broad overview is given of other agent characteristics that are commonly considered in the models. We conclude that there are fundamental theoretical differences among the mechanisms of emotion contagion that reflect a difference in view on the contagion process and its application, although findings from comparative studies are inconclusive. Further, while large theoretical progress has been made in recent years, empirical evaluation of the proposed models is lagging behind due to the complexity of reliably measuring emotions and context in large groups. We make several suggestions on a way forward regarding validation to eventually justify the application of models of emotion contagion in society.

An Agent-Based Model of Emotion Contagion and Group Identification: A Case Study in the Field of Football Supporters

“…Emotions are highly challenging to detect accurately in a crowd and are seen as private. This makes validation of models of emotion contagion at the individual level a steep challenge that has not been met for any current model yet as far as we are aware [10]. However, while this is important in order to develop an agent-based model of emotion contagion that is widely applicable, we argue that for the narrow use cases envisioned in this study, high accuracy at the emotion level may not be crucial.…”

“…Among others, this requires the development of an accurate model of the relation between group identification and the spread of emotions in crowds, called emotion contagion. While significant work has been done on simulating emotion contagion in crowds, especially during evacuations, much less studies have considered the impact of social subgroups on this process [10]. Models of emotion contagion that consider social relationships often do so in a dyadic fashion, considering the impact of factors like intimacy and trust towards others [10].…”

“…While significant work has been done on simulating emotion contagion in crowds, especially during evacuations, much less studies have considered the impact of social subgroups on this process [10]. Models of emotion contagion that consider social relationships often do so in a dyadic fashion, considering the impact of factors like intimacy and trust towards others [10]. Other studies have assigned binary roles to agents like leader-follower, parent-child and authority-civilian [10].…”

“…Models of emotion contagion that consider social relationships often do so in a dyadic fashion, considering the impact of factors like intimacy and trust towards others [10]. Other studies have assigned binary roles to agents like leader-follower, parent-child and authority-civilian [10]. However, neither approach captures the variation in how strongly people identify with subgroups and how this affects patterns in collective emotion and behaviour.…”

What Makes Groups Emotional?

“…We assume that evaluating the collective emotion as x + 5 would lead to a greater change in the individual emotion compared with evaluating the collective emotion as x + 1, which then further perpetuates the increase in collective emotion. Although this idea has not yet been examined empirically, a recent agent-based model tried to simulate the amplification caused merely by an amplification in perception, pointing to an increase in collective emotion (Haeringen et al, 2021). Further empirical work is needed to examine the potential consequences of such a process.…”