Laboratory for Agent-Based Social Simulation

The LABSS was funded in the 90s within the Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies of the National Research Council of Italy by the cognitive and social scientist Rosaria Conte. Since its early days, the laboratory has been characterized by an explorative approach to Agent Based Modeling and Simulation. The LABSS currently consists of an international and interdisciplinary group counting around 10 collaborators among social scientists, physics, philosophers, computer scientists, sociologists and cognitive scientists. The LABSS is currently managed together by Mario Paolucci and Giulia Andrighetto.

Can social artifacts such as norms and reputation be studied as scientific objects? Can social behaviour be modeled? Can society be simulated? These questions would have been nonsense in traditional sociology, but in the latest years the focus and objectives of social science have deeply changed. Reproducing social processes is the challenge of Agent-Based Social Simulation, a new field constantly crossing the disciplinary boundaries. For this reason, the objectives of the Laboratory of Agent-Based Social Simulation are isolating and reproducing some crucial aspects of social life with computational models.