A cognitive model for social role compliant behavior of virtual agents

This paper presents research on how to model the characteristics of social groups into the constituent members of that group. A (virtual) person can belong to different social groups simultaneously (e.g. family, religious community; war tribe, etc). Each group has their own characteristics, such as common goals or a set of norms, which (partly) determine the behavior of the individuals. We developed a method to generate behavior of virtual characters as a function of the social groups they belong to. This is achieved through calculating plan utilities by taking into account the social groups, personal preferences, and the situational context. The method is tested using a military house-search scenario, revealing that our virtual characters acted in accordance with their social groups, even in the face of conflict between groups, by expressing behavior relevant to one or more of their social roles.