https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/09/210930101422.htm

How does complex human behaviour take shape? This is studied in many ways, mostly relying on lots of data from observations and experiments. Ming Cao, Professor of Networks and Robotics at the Faculty of Science and Engineering at the University of Groningen, has studied complex group behaviour in robots by using agent-based simulations, among other methods. These agents follow a limited number of simple rules, often inspired by nature, which can lead to realistic complex behaviour. 'Swarming birds or schools of fish are a good example', Cao explains, 'their movements can be reproduced by agents that follow a few simple rules on keeping a certain distance and heading in the same direction as their neighbours.'

In parallel, the Marketing research group at the Faculty of Economics and Business, led by Dr Jan Willem Bolderdijk, Dr Hans Risselada, and Prof. Bob Fennis, has carried out various research projects into human behaviour, but not so many using these kinds of agent-based models. After a discussion with Cao and his colleagues, both groups saw possibilities for such models. Consequently, marketing PhD student Zan Mlakar and the two post-doc researchers in Cao's group, Mengbin Ye and Lorenzo Zino, worked together creating an online experiment to gather data on the social diffusion of new behavioural trends.