Parsimony versus Reductionism: How Can Crowd Psychology be Introduced into Computer Simulation?

Abstract

(2016) Parsimony versus reductionism: how can crowd psychology be introduced into computer simulation? Review of General Psychology, 21 (1). pp. 95-102. ISSN 108995-102. ISSN -2680 This version is available from Sussex Research Online: http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/66196/ This document is made available in accordance with publisher policies and may differ from the published version or from the version of record. If you wish to cite this item you are advised to consult the publisher's version. Please see the URL above for details on accessing the published version. Copyright and reuse:Sussex Research Online is a digital repository of the research output of the University.Copyright and all moral rights to the version of the paper presented here belong to the individual author(s) and/or other copyright owners. To the extent reasonable and practicable, the material made available in SRO has been checked for eligibility before being made available.Copies of full text items generally can be reproduced, displayed or performed and given to third parties in any format or medium for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge, provided that the authors, title and full bibliographic details are credited, a hyperlink and/or URL is given for the original metadata page and the content is not changed in any way. However, the models used are mainly based on video observations, not an understanding of human decision making. Theories of crowd psychology can elucidate the factors underpinning collective behaviour in human crowds. Yet, in contrast to psychology, computer science must rely upon mathematical formulations in order to implement algorithms and keep models manageable. Here we address the problems and possible solutions encountered when incorporating social psychological theories of collective behaviour in computer modelling. We identify that one primary issue is retaining parsimony in a model whilst avoiding reductionism by excluding necessary aspects of crowd psychology, such as the behaviour of groups. We propose cognitive heuristics as a potential avenue to create a parsimonious model that incorporates core concepts of collective behaviour derived from empirical research in crowd psychology.

A Turing test for crowds

“…Our overall aim is to explore how a Turing-like test may be used to examine assumptions and preconceptions about the behaviour of human crowds, and to establish the features of real crowds that must be emulated by a simulation in order for it to be valid and/or 'pass' the test. This is motivated by a widely acknowledged need for crowd simulations to include more 'lifelike' features derived from individual and social psychology (such as group-level behaviours and indecision) [28][29][30], which are generally not included in software packages, and which give rise to rather unrealistic or 'robotic' patterns of behaviour at the population level. Our experiments represent a first step towards this, by using the Turing test framework to establish distinguishing features of real crowd behaviour.…”

Recent developments in the psychology of crowds and collective behaviour

“…The field of pedestrian dynamics consists largely of work in mathematics, scientific computing, engineering and physics, but is increasingly recognised as needing the evidence, theory and methods of social psychologists [28,29]. A significant development in the ambition to bring together crowd dynamics approaches with crowd psychology came with the recent publication of a glossary of terms [30].…”

Quantitative Research Methods in Consumer Psychology

“…Particularly, in terms of understanding and modelling of consumer behaviours and methods of assessing the reliability and validity of data. Indeed, Seitz et al (2017) argue that the strength of simulation modelling is the ability to achieve parsimony, but this algorithmic approach needs to be embedded within an understanding of the psychology of consumers to avoid reductionism.…”