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A preliminary model of participation for small groups

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Abstract

We present a small-group model that moderates agent behavior using several factors to illustrate the influence of social reflexivity on individual behavior. To motivate this work, we review a validated simulation of the Battle of Medenine. Individuals in the battle performed with greater variance than the simulation predicted, suggesting that individual differences are important. Using a light-weight simulation, we implement one means of representing these differences inspired in part by Grossman’s (On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society. Little, Brown and Company, New York, 1995) participation formula. This work contributes to a general theory of social reflexivity by offering a theory of participation as a social phenomenon, independent of explicit agent knowledge. We demonstrate that our preliminary version of the participation model generates individual differences that in turn have a meaningful impact on group performance. Specifically, our results suggest that a group member’s location with respect to other group members and observers can be an important exogenous source of individual differences.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Information Sciences and Technology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, 16802, USA

    Jonathan H. Morgan & Frank E. Ritter

  2. The Institute for Software Research, School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, 15213, USA

    Geoffrey P. Morgan

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  1. Jonathan H. Morgan
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  2. Geoffrey P. Morgan
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  3. Frank E. Ritter
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Correspondence to Jonathan H. Morgan.

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Morgan, J.H., Morgan, G.P. & Ritter, F.E. A preliminary model of participation for small groups. Comput Math Organ Theory 16, 246–270 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10588-010-9075-1

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