A Simulation of Cognitive and Emotional Effects of Overcrowding

To explain complex forms of human behaviour it is necessary to take into account the interaction of cognition, emotion and motivation. In this article we show that it is possible to predict why and how crowding alters cognition, emotion, and motivation. An artificial population of autonomous agents (the “mice”), lives and grows on an island, explores and conquers it. When the population grows above a certain limit, all symptoms of crowding emerge, which can be found in human groups too. The rate of aggression increases, but the tendencies to tighten the network of social relations as well. Fear arises and this produces a specific form of cognition, namely rough perceiving, rough planning and a loss of persistence of behaviour (“behavioural oscillation”). Groups of humans under crowding conditions correspond in pattern.