Exploring Effects of Self-Censoring through Agent-Based Simulation

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  • Work
Sustainability threat
  • External Shocks
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  • Dealing with diversity
  • Identity flexibility and sustainable cooperation
  • Reshaping organizational forms

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Description of Study
Recent years have seen an explosion of theoretical interest, as well as increasingly fraught real-world debate, around issues to do with discourse participation. For example, marginalised groups may find themselves excluded or may exclude themselves from discourse contexts that are hostile. This not only has ethical implications, but likely impacts epistemic outcomes. The nature and scale of such outcomes remain difficult to estimate in practice. In this paper, we use agent-based modelling to explore the implications of a tendency toward `agreeableness' whereby agents might shape their communication so as to reduce direct conflict. Our simulations show that even mild tendencies to avoid disagreement can have significant consequences for information exchange and the resultant beliefs within a population.
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  • Simulation
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Exploring Effects of Self-Censoring through Agent-Based Simulation

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