Emotions influence decision chaos in interacting biological networks
Emotions as intrinsic colored noise in biological systems
Social and Information Networks
Summary
The paper explores how emotions can be thought of as a kind of intrinsic 'colored noise' influencing decisions in living systems, like humans or neurons. It presents a probabilistic model where individuals choose actions based on both utility and emotions and then share information and imitate others, forming a network. This interaction can lead to smooth, oscillating, or chaotic opinion patterns in groups with different memory types or rationality levels. The model also helps explain a famous puzzle about decision-making under uncertainty, known as the Ellsberg paradox.
What this means in practice
- •For neural network engineers: Design neural networks that simulate emotional effects through intrinsic noise to explore more realistic decision dynamics.
- •For behavioral economists: Model how emotions and information exchange impact collective decision processes and resolve paradoxes like Ellsberg’s in economic systems.
Tested on simulated data.
Authors
V. I. Yukalov, E. P. Yukalova
Abstract
The idea that emotions in biological systems are analogous to intrinsic colored noise is advanced and justified. A model describing the dynamics of operation of biological networks under the influence of colored noise is suggested. The agents of a biological network can be represented either by biological species, such as humans and animals, or by neurons of the brain, or by the nodes of a neural network. Operational actions, or decisions, in a biological noisy network are based not only on the evaluation of utility of alternatives, but also on the agents emotions. The model is probabilistic, with the choice of alternatives characterized by the related probabilities. At the initial step, the agents make decisions individually and then start exchanging information with each other and imitating the actions of other agents, thus forming a biological network of interacting agents. Numerical simulations are accomplished for a heterogeneous society consisting of three groups of agents, one group possessing long-range memory, the other group, short-range memory, and the third group of super-rational agents acting strictly on the basis of utility, being deprived of emotions. Dynamics of opinions in different groups can be smooth, oscillatory, or chaotic. Altogether, eight types of operation are found, depending on the dynamics of group decisions. Under strong imitation effect, there appears chaotic motion in the evolution of decision choice. It is shown how the Ellsberg paradox can be resolved and how the exchange of information influences the dynamics of this paradox.