SocialBehavior

A collection of agent-based models exploring human social behavior. Includes interactive UIs and grid search tools for parameter exploration.

Environments

This repo uses a project-local Conda environment stored at .conda/ so it travels with the workspace and VS Code can auto-select it.

• Interpreter path: /home/doesburg/Projects/SocialBehavior/.conda/bin/python
• VS Code setting: see .vscode/settings.json (we set python.defaultInterpreterPath and enable terminal activation)

Activate the environment in a terminal when running commands manually:

source ./.conda/bin/activate
# or run without activation using the interpreter directly:
./.conda/bin/python -m pip install -r altruism/requirements.txt
./.conda/bin/python altruism/altruism_model.py

If you see a “bad interpreter” error, regenerate entry scripts (pip, etc.) with:

./.conda/bin/python -m pip install --upgrade --force-reinstall pip setuptools wheel

Models

Altruism Model

• Description: Patch-based grid simulation of altruism vs selfishness, ported from NetLogo to Python/NumPy.
• Features:
  • Each cell can be empty (black), selfish (green), or altruist (pink)
  • Simulates benefit/cost of altruism, fitness, and generational updates
  • Fully vectorized NumPy implementation for fast simulation
  • Pygame UI for interactive exploration
  • Matplotlib plots for population dynamics
  • Grid search for parameter sweeps
• Files:
  • altruism_model.py: Core simulation logic (importable class, CLI demo, and plotting)
  • altruism_pygame_ui.py: Pygame-based interactive UI
  • altruism_grid_search.py: Grid search for coexistence probabilities
  • plot_coexistence_surface.py, plot_heatmaps.py: Visualization scripts
  • grid_search_results.csv: Results from grid search
• Usage:
  • Run CLI demo:

     python altruism/altruism_model.py --steps 200 --width 101 --height 101 --seed 42

  • Run Pygame UI:

     python altruism/altruism_pygame_ui.py

  • Run grid search:

     python altruism/altruism_grid_search.py

• Requirements:
  • Python 3.8+
  • numpy
  • pygame (for UI)
  • matplotlib (for plotting)
  • torch (for surface fitting)

Cooperation Model

• Description: Evolutionary biology model of greedy vs cooperative agents (cows) competing for grass, ported from NetLogo.
• Features:
  • Agents move, eat, reproduce, and die based on energy and grass availability
  • Cooperative cows avoid eating low grass, greedy cows eat regardless
  • Grass regrows at different rates depending on height
  • Pygame UI for visualization
• Files:
  • cooperation_model.py: Core simulation logic
  • cooperation_pygame_ui.py: Pygame-based interactive UI
  • Cooperation.nlogox: Original NetLogo model
• Usage:
  • Run CLI demo:

     python cooperation/cooperation_model.py

  • Run Pygame UI:

     python cooperation/cooperation_pygame_ui.py

• Requirements:
  • Python 3.8+
  • numpy
  • pygame
  • matplotlib

Installation

Install dependencies:

pip install numpy pygame matplotlib torch

For Pygame visualization, you may need:

conda install -y -c conda-forge gcc=14.2.0

References

• Original NetLogo models from Uri Wilensky and the EACH unit (Evolution of Altruistic and Cooperative Habits)
• See altruism/README.md and cooperation/Cooperation.nlogox for more details