Mentat: A Data-Driven Agent-Based Simulation of Social Values Evolution

This work presents an agent based simulation model dealing With the evolution of social values in a 20 year period of the Spanish society, approaching it from Inglehart's theories on the subject. Surveys are taken as input to build the model by following a data-driven approach. This has been formalised in a methodology for introducing microsimulation techniques and importing data from several sources. It handles thousands of heterogeneous agents, which have a life cycle, reproduction patterns and complex social relationship dynamics. Its output is consistent with respect to the ideological, religious and demographic parameters observed in real world surveys. Moreover, several extension modules were designed: fuzzy logic for a smoother behaviour; natural language biographies generation; data mining for pattern finding. Thus, Mentat is proposed as a framework for exploring complexity at different levels in the social process.

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