From Communication between Individuals to Collective Beliefs

How is social information transmitted in a group? How do groups create new identities and judgments about other groups through communicating their beliefs and opinions among the members of their own group? Several studies in social cognition have documented that communication about groups typically tends to bolster stereotypes and shared beliefs about these groups (Brauer, Judd & Jacquelin, 2001; Klein, Jacobs, Gemoets, Licata & Lambert, 2003; Lyons & Kashima, 2003). This confirmation bias can be seen as an example of a type of collective intentionality. In the present paper, a multi-agent connectionist model is proposed that is capable of simulating these stereotype confirmation biases in group communication, as well as the effects of some moderating conditions. The model combines features of standard recurrent models to simulate the process of information uptake, integration and memorization within agents with novel aspects that simulate the communication of beliefs and opinions between agents. By studying these novel communicative aspects within the framework of standard models of information processing, the unique communicative mechanisms underlying the emergence of a confirmation bias in groups beyond intra-personal factors can be explored.