SB simulator
Taichi Sono, Toshihiro Oosumi, Michita Imai · 2014
People spend their everyday life while expecting social relations between them and the others. However, the expectation causes a trouble or a misunderstanding because they grasp the relations from their subjective viewpoint. It is useful that a computer software assists people to grasp the relations by showing the possible variations of the relation. This paper proposes a simulator named SB Simulator that accepts current relations which a user grasps and simulates the course of the development of relations between them based on Heider`s balance theory and Socion theory. The aim of SB Simulator is to make the user know what changes in the relations happen if s/he takes an action. In particular, SB Simulator generates possible initial relations before starting the simulation, which compensate for the possibility that the user grabs the current relations incorrectly from her/his subjective viewpoint. The function of generating the initial relations has a role in raising a user's awareness of the other possibilities of relations. Moreover, since SB Simulator employs Socion Theory to express the relations, it can distinguish relations which people recognize subjectively from the ones existing objectively, and simulate possible relations based on dynamics between the subjective and objective relations. The paper evaluates SB Simulator in terms of whether the results of the simulation are acceptable in contrast to the typical course of relation development. The result indicated that SB Simulator simulated the relations properly based on the initial relations.