Abstract
Agent-based models provide a promising tool to investigate the relationship between individuals’ behavior and emerging
group-level patterns. An individual’s behavior may be regulated by its emotional state and its interaction history with
specific individuals. Emotional bookkeeping is a candidate mechanism to keep track of received benefits from specific
individuals without requiring high cognitive abilities. However, how this mechanism may work is difficult to study in real
animals, due to the complexity of primate social life. To explore this theoretically, we introduce an agent-based model,
dubbed EMO-model, in which we implemented emotional bookkeeping. In this model the social behaviors of primate-like
individuals are regulated by emotional processes along two dimensions. An individual’s emotional state is described by an
aversive and a pleasant dimension (anxiety and satisfaction) and by its activating quality (arousal). Social behaviors affect
the individuals’ emotional state. To implement emotional bookkeeping, the receiver of grooming assigns an accumulated
affiliative attitude (LIKE) to the groomer. Fixed partner-specific agonistic attitudes (FEAR) reflect the stable dominance
relations between group members. While the emotional state affects an individual’s general probability of executing certain
behaviors, LIKE and FEAR affect the individual’s partner-specific behavioral probabilities. In this way, emotional processes
regulate both spontaneous behaviors and appropriate responses to received behaviors, while emotional bookkeeping via
LIKE attitudes regulates the development and maintenance of affiliative relations. Using an array of empirical data, the
model processes were substantiated and the emerging model patterns were partially validated. The EMO-model offers a
framework to investigate the emotional bookkeeping hypothesis theoretically and pinpoints gaps that need to be
investigated empirically.
group-level patterns. An individual’s behavior may be regulated by its emotional state and its interaction history with
specific individuals. Emotional bookkeeping is a candidate mechanism to keep track of received benefits from specific
individuals without requiring high cognitive abilities. However, how this mechanism may work is difficult to study in real
animals, due to the complexity of primate social life. To explore this theoretically, we introduce an agent-based model,
dubbed EMO-model, in which we implemented emotional bookkeeping. In this model the social behaviors of primate-like
individuals are regulated by emotional processes along two dimensions. An individual’s emotional state is described by an
aversive and a pleasant dimension (anxiety and satisfaction) and by its activating quality (arousal). Social behaviors affect
the individuals’ emotional state. To implement emotional bookkeeping, the receiver of grooming assigns an accumulated
affiliative attitude (LIKE) to the groomer. Fixed partner-specific agonistic attitudes (FEAR) reflect the stable dominance
relations between group members. While the emotional state affects an individual’s general probability of executing certain
behaviors, LIKE and FEAR affect the individual’s partner-specific behavioral probabilities. In this way, emotional processes
regulate both spontaneous behaviors and appropriate responses to received behaviors, while emotional bookkeeping via
LIKE attitudes regulates the development and maintenance of affiliative relations. Using an array of empirical data, the
model processes were substantiated and the emerging model patterns were partially validated. The EMO-model offers a
framework to investigate the emotional bookkeeping hypothesis theoretically and pinpoints gaps that need to be
investigated empirically.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | e87955 |
| Number of pages | 25 |
| Journal | PLoS One |
| Volume | 9 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2014 |