Characterizing multiplex social dynamics with autonomy oriented computing

Multiplexity, or the fact that people interact through different social contexts with different purposes, is one of the most fundamental characters of social interactions. However, it is rarely addressed in both empirical study and theoretical modeling. In this paper, we intend to address this gap by proposing an autonomy-oriented model that captures the multiplexity of social interactions in two specific contexts: (1) cultural interaction and (2) social resource sharing. The experimental results demonstrate that the positive feedback in local cultural interaction together with the autonomous behavior in resource sharing can clearly capture the emergent multiplex effects, i.e. the nonlinear effect of resource utilization performance corresponds to different level of cultural diversity and cultural support tendency. Therefore, our method offers an alternative view to characterize social behavior and social interactions.