A Generic Emotional Contagion Computational Model [PDF]

Abstract_ This work describes a computational model designed for emotional contagion simulation in societies of agents, integrating the influence of interpersonal relationships and personality. It models the fundamental differences in individual susceptibilities to contagion based on the psychology study of Emotional Contagion Scale. The contagion process can also be biased by inter-individual relationships depending on the intimacy and power difference aspects of relationships between agents. Individuals’ expressiveness in a group is influenced by both the extroversion personality trait and power difference. Additionally, the computational model includes the process of mood decay, as usually observed in people, expanding its application domain beyond that of pure simulation, like games. In this paper we present simulation results that verify the basic emotional contagion behaviors. The possibility of more complex contagion dynamics depending on agent group relationships is also presented.
Year_ 2011
Keywords_ emotional contagion, agents, personality, relationship
Authors_ Gonçalo Pereira, Joana Dimas, Rui Prada, Pedro Santos, Ana Paiva
Booktitle_ Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction
Volume_ 6974
Pages_ 256--266
Series_ Lecture Notes in Computer Science
Publisher_ Springer
Address_ Heidelberg

Bibtex_
@inproceedings { pereira11, abstract = {This work describes a computational model designed for emotional contagion simulation in societies of agents, integrating the influence of interpersonal relationships and personality. It models the fundamental differences in individual susceptibilities to contagion based on the psychology study of Emotional Contagion Scale. The contagion process can also be biased by inter-individual relationships depending on the intimacy and power difference aspects of relationships between agents. Individuals’ expressiveness in a group is influenced by both the extroversion personality trait and power difference. Additionally, the computational model includes the process of mood decay, as usually observed in people, expanding its application domain beyond that of pure simulation, like games. In this paper we present simulation results that verify the basic emotional contagion behaviors. The possibility of more complex contagion dynamics depending on agent group relationships is also presented. }, address = {Heidelberg}, booktitle = {Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction}, keywords = {emotional contagion, agents, personality, relationship}, pages = {256--266}, publisher = {Springer}, series = {Lecture Notes in Computer Science}, title = {A Generic Emotional Contagion Computational Model}, volume = {6974}, year = {2011}, author = {Gonçalo Pereira and Joana Dimas and Rui Prada and Pedro Santos and Ana Paiva} }