Modeling Aggression & Bullying: A Complex Systems Approach

1. Modeling Aggression & Bullying: A Complex Systems Approach George Mudrak University of Colorado at Colorado Springs November 1st, 2013

2. Introduction • George Mudrak, graduate student at University of Colorado at Colorado Springs working on my MS in CS. • My thesis topic: Modeling Aggression & Bullying: A Complex Systems Approach. • My Committee: • SudhanshuSemwal • Edward Chow • Chuan Yue • Bonnie Snyder • George Mudrak University of Colorado at Colorado Springs • Modeling Aggression & Bullying: A Complex Systems Approach November 1st, 2013

3. Definitions • Bullying (aggression) : repeated, unwanted, aggressive behavior that involves a real or perceived power imbalance. • Complex System : ‘a system in which large networks of components with no central control and simple rules of operation give rise to complex collective behavior, sophisticated information processing, and adaptation via learning or evolution’. • George Mudrak University of Colorado at Colorado Springs • Modeling Aggression & Bullying: A Complex Systems Approach November 1st, 2013

4. Why Aggression and Bullying? • Can have severe consequences. • It is pandemic • Playground, classroom, office politics, hazing. • Companies, Apple vs. Samsung. • Countries, US vs. the planet. • Cultures. • I, and people I care about have been bullied. • George Mudrak University of Colorado at Colorado Springs • Modeling Aggression & Bullying: A Complex Systems Approach November 1st, 2013

5. If it is this Common… • …why is it so hard to study? • Well known experiments. • Philip Zimbardo, “Stanford Prison Experiment”. • Jane Elliot, “bown eyes, blue eyes”. • Unethical and immoral. • Impossible to ‘reset’, posteriori knowledge. • Observations and after the fact.

6. How Can We Explore this? • Complex Systems Modeling (CSM). • Simulated world. • Actors / agents. • Very resource effective. • Emergent behaviors. • Non-deterministically coded. • Arise from local interactions. • Wide usage today in industry. • Electrical power, city planning, social modeling, population studies, animal behaviors, etc. • George Mudrak University of Colorado at Colorado Springs • Modeling Aggression & Bullying: A Complex Systems Approach November 1st, 2013

7. What am I interested In? • Emergent phenomena from simple rules of behavior. • Effects of aggression and bullying. • Effectiveness of coercive agents at preventing bullying. • Effects of changing behavioral parameters. • George Mudrak University of Colorado at Colorado Springs • Modeling Aggression & Bullying: A Complex Systems Approach November 1st, 2013

8. The Plan • Create a virtual world populated with ‘people’. • Support differences among the population. • Define basic behaviors and causality. • Provide a user interface facilitating modeler specified world parameter values. • George Mudrak University of Colorado at Colorado Springs • Modeling Aggression & Bullying: A Complex Systems Approach November 1st, 2013

9. Outcomes? • A virtual world where basic behavioral rules yield emergent behavior. • Verification of bullying and aggression. • A model that can hopefully be used by other interested people.

10. Platform • Hardware • 2009 27” Apple iMac, 2.8GHz core i7 with 32 GB RAM and an ATI Radeon HD 4850 512 MB RAM video card. • OS X 10.8.4 • Modeling Software • NetLogo 3D, v5.0.4, created by Uri Wilensky. http://ccl.northwestern.edu/netlogo/ • George Mudrak University of Colorado at Colorado Springs • Modeling Aggression & Bullying: A Complex Systems Approach November 1st, 2013

11. Design • A virtual world • Contain actors • Actors • Autonomous – actors have goals and the means to achieve them. • Attributes – actors possess qualities such as strength, hunger, energy levels, etc. • Behaviors – actors possess basic behavioral rules. • George Mudrak University of Colorado at Colorado Springs • Modeling Aggression & Bullying: A Complex Systems Approach November 1st, 2013

12. The Actors • People • Life within world. • Attack other people when they are hungry. • Coercers • The worlds ‘enforcers’. • Food • Passive. • Exists to supply energy to people. • Alternative to attacking others, if it’s present. • George Mudrak University of Colorado at Colorado Springs • Modeling Aggression & Bullying: A Complex Systems Approach November 1st, 2013

13. People • All have ‘energy’ that depletes over time • Hunger • Strength • Aggression • Base behavior, hunger. • When hungry, find weaker prey and attack. • George Mudrak University of Colorado at Colorado Springs • Modeling Aggression & Bullying: A Complex Systems Approach November 1st, 2013

14. Coercers and Food • Coercers • Presence acts as a deterrent based on authority. • Punish bullies they catch. • Food • Passive actor. • Exists to provide energy source for even weakest of people. • Never runs out of ‘energy’. • George Mudrak University of Colorado at Colorado Springs • Modeling Aggression & Bullying: A Complex Systems Approach November 1st, 2013

15. Perception & Movement Models • Perception algorithms. • Everyone. • Hamming distance. • Movement algorithms. • No movement. • Move away. • Tower. • George Mudrak University of Colorado at Colorado Springs • Modeling Aggression & Bullying: A Complex Systems Approach November 1st, 2013

16. Aggression & Defense Models • Aggression algorithms. • Random prey. • Minimum defense, prey. • Defensive algorithms. • Individual. • Group average. • Tower. • George Mudrak University of Colorado at Colorado Springs • Modeling Aggression & Bullying: A Complex Systems Approach November 1st, 2013

17. Simulations

18. Baseline Simulation • George Mudrak University of Colorado at Colorado Springs • Modeling Aggression & Bullying: A Complex Systems Approach November 1st, 2013

19. With Food • George Mudrak University of Colorado at Colorado Springs • Modeling Aggression & Bullying: A Complex Systems Approach November 1st, 2013

20. With Coercers • George Mudrak University of Colorado at Colorado Springs • Modeling Aggression & Bullying: A Complex Systems Approach November 1st, 2013

21. With Coercers • George Mudrak University of Colorado at Colorado Springs • Modeling Aggression & Bullying: A Complex Systems Approach November 1st, 2013

22. With Food • George Mudrak University of Colorado at Colorado Springs • Modeling Aggression & Bullying: A Complex Systems Approach November 1st, 2013

23. Defensive Learning • George Mudrak University of Colorado at Colorado Springs • Modeling Aggression & Bullying: A Complex Systems Approach November 1st, 2013

24. George Mudrak University of Colorado at Colorado Springs • Modeling Aggression & Bullying: A Complex Systems Approach November 1st, 2013

25. Defensive Learning

26. Stalking Emerges • George Mudrak University of Colorado at Colorado Springs • Modeling Aggression & Bullying: A Complex Systems Approach November 1st, 2013

27. Observations • Core population attributes were consistent. • Desire, hunger, strength, aggression. • Behavioral algorithms had an impact. • Similarity / dissimilarity evident. • Emergent behavior !! • Stalking. • Safe zones, i.e. no bully zones. • Aggressive “flocking” • Rubber-banding. i.e. returning to feed. • George Mudrak University of Colorado at Colorado Springs • Modeling Aggression & Bullying: A Complex Systems Approach November 1st, 2013

28. Conclusions • We can create a complex system that provides a model where digital people can realistically bully and defend against bullying. • Analysis shows that core baseline population averages are consistent regardless of behavioral models. This means changes are the result of selected models. • And especially, we saw emergent behavior such as returning to prey, stalking, co-located aggression, and emergence of “no bully zones”. • George Mudrak University of Colorado at Colorado Springs • Modeling Aggression & Bullying: A Complex Systems Approach November 1st, 2013

29. Future Work • Coercers mobility. • Random visual distances. • Gang aggression. • Better ‘walking’ algorithms. • Greater variation in metabolism. • Regeneration. • Use of avatars instead of 3D points and simulated in spatial constraints such as buildings, geography, etc.

30. Demo • George Mudrak University of Colorado at Colorado Springs • Modeling Aggression & Bullying: A Complex Systems Approach November 1st, 2013

31. Questions… • George Mudrak University of Colorado at Colorado Springs • Modeling Aggression & Bullying: A Complex Systems Approach November 1st, 2013

32. Thesis References I • Jing Wang, Ronald Iannotti, TonjaNansel, School Bullying Among Adolescents in the United States: Physical, Verbal, Relational, and Cyber Journal of Adolescent Health, p. 368 (2009) • Gilbert, Nigel, Agent-Based Models, Series: Quantitative Applications in the Social Sciences, SAGE Publications, p. 3. (2008) • Gilbert, Nigel, Agent-Based Models, Series: Quantitative Applications in the Social Sciences, SAGE Publications, 2008. p. 3-6. • Mitchell, Melanie, Complexity A Guided Tour, Oxford University Press, 2009. p. 12-13. • Gilbert, Nigel, Agent-Based Models, Series: Quantitative Applications in the Social Sciences, SAGE Publications, 2008. p. 14-16. • Epstein, Joshua M., Axtell, Robert, Growing Artificial Societies - Social Science from the Bottom Up, Brookings Institution Press, 1996. • Epstein, Joshua M., Generative Social Science - Studies in Agent-Based Computational Modeling, Princeton University Press, 2006. p. 247-270. • George Mudrak University of Colorado at Colorado Springs • Modeling Aggression & Bullying: A Complex Systems Approach November 1st, 2013

33. Thesis References II • Anonymous. What is cyberpunk? Cyberpunked: Journal of Science, Technology, & Society. Retrieved from http://www.cyberpunked.org/cyberpunk/, 2009 • Anonymous. StopBullying.gov http://www.stopbullying.gov/what-is-bullying/definition/, 2013. • Epstein, Joshua M., Axtell, Robert, Growing Artificial Societies - Social Science from the Bottom Up, Brookings Institution Press, 1996. p.141 • Gilbert, Nigel, Agent-Based Models, Series: Quantitative Applications in the Social Sciences, SAGE Publications, 2008. p. 31. • Epstein, Joshua M., Axtell, Robert, Growing Artificial Societies - Social Science from the Bottom Up, Brookings Institution Press, 1996. p.79. • Wilensky, U. 1999. NetLogo. http://ccl.northwestern.edu/netlogo/. Center for Connected Learning and Computer-Based Modeling, Northwestern University. Evanston, IL. • Mudrak, George, Semwal, Sudhanshu Kumar, AgentCity - An Agent-Based Modeling Approach to City Planning and Population Dynamics. International Conference on Collaboration Technologies and Systems (CTS), 2012. p. 91-96. • George Mudrak University of Colorado at Colorado Springs • Modeling Aggression & Bullying: A Complex Systems Approach November 1st, 2013