How do norms emerge in multi-agent societies? Mechanisms design

Abstract

Norms are shared expectations of behaviours that exist in human societies. Norms help societies by increasing the predictability of individual behaviours and by improving co-operation and collaboration among members. Norms have been of interest to multi-agent system researchers as software agents intend to follow certain norms. But, owing to their autonomy, agents sometimes violate norms which needs monitoring. There are two main branches of research in normative agent systems. One of the branches focuses on normative agent architectures, norm representations, norm adherence and the associated punitive or incentive measures. The other branch focuses on two main issues. The first issue is on the study of spreading and internalization of norms. The second issue that has not received much attention is the emergence of norms in agent societies. Our objective in this paper is to propose mechanisms for norm emergence in artificial agent societies and provide initial experimental results.