Less is More: Decision Making & Information Sharing Under Severe Uncertainty

As the threat of misinformation grows in the digital age, so too grows the urgency to understand how evidence- sharing in communities impacts consensus-building on matters of fact. Is greater informational transparency amongst members of a community necessary for consensus to be in agreement with th...

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Main Authors: Gene Lam, Arthur Paul Pedersen
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: LibraryPress@UF 2022-05-01
Series:Proceedings of the International Florida Artificial Intelligence Research Society Conference
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.flvc.org/FLAIRS/article/view/130872
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author Gene Lam
Arthur Paul Pedersen
author_facet Gene Lam
Arthur Paul Pedersen
author_sort Gene Lam
collection DOAJ
description As the threat of misinformation grows in the digital age, so too grows the urgency to understand how evidence- sharing in communities impacts consensus-building on matters of fact. Is greater informational transparency amongst members of a community necessary for consensus to be in agreement with the facts? To answer this question and those like it, we examine optimal design of information-sharing arrangements within communities that draw inferences and make decisions under conditions of uncertainty, including those wherein information is scarce or conflicting. While we model information-sharing communities in terms of network graphs, we model belief states and evidential learning using an extension of the Bayesian paradigm, namely, sets of probabilities individually conforming to conditionalization, to allow for a broader range of belief states responding to evidence. We report findings drawn from simulations on accuracy and speed of reaching consensus across information-sharing communities. Contrary to what might be expected, increasing informational transparency decreases a community’s ability to reach consensus conforming to the truth. However, when individuals comprising an informational economy are not required to adhere to strict Bayesian standards — but only those of its extension — our findings show that communities reach consensus with greater speed and accuracy.
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spelling doaj-art-7a9856433ca74381982c71e81fbe7c672025-08-20T03:07:14ZengLibraryPress@UFProceedings of the International Florida Artificial Intelligence Research Society Conference2334-07542334-07622022-05-013510.32473/flairs.v35i.13087267071Less is More: Decision Making & Information Sharing Under Severe UncertaintyGene Lam0Arthur Paul Pedersen1The City College of New YorkDepartment of Computer Science, Grove School of Engineering, The City College of New York & The Graduate Center, CUNYAs the threat of misinformation grows in the digital age, so too grows the urgency to understand how evidence- sharing in communities impacts consensus-building on matters of fact. Is greater informational transparency amongst members of a community necessary for consensus to be in agreement with the facts? To answer this question and those like it, we examine optimal design of information-sharing arrangements within communities that draw inferences and make decisions under conditions of uncertainty, including those wherein information is scarce or conflicting. While we model information-sharing communities in terms of network graphs, we model belief states and evidential learning using an extension of the Bayesian paradigm, namely, sets of probabilities individually conforming to conditionalization, to allow for a broader range of belief states responding to evidence. We report findings drawn from simulations on accuracy and speed of reaching consensus across information-sharing communities. Contrary to what might be expected, increasing informational transparency decreases a community’s ability to reach consensus conforming to the truth. However, when individuals comprising an informational economy are not required to adhere to strict Bayesian standards — but only those of its extension — our findings show that communities reach consensus with greater speed and accuracy.https://journals.flvc.org/FLAIRS/article/view/130872uncertain reasoningmulti-agent uncertain reasoningmulti-agent decision makingmisinformationinformation economicsimprecise probabilities
spellingShingle Gene Lam
Arthur Paul Pedersen
Less is More: Decision Making & Information Sharing Under Severe Uncertainty
Proceedings of the International Florida Artificial Intelligence Research Society Conference
uncertain reasoning
multi-agent uncertain reasoning
multi-agent decision making
misinformation
information economics
imprecise probabilities
title Less is More: Decision Making & Information Sharing Under Severe Uncertainty
title_full Less is More: Decision Making & Information Sharing Under Severe Uncertainty
title_fullStr Less is More: Decision Making & Information Sharing Under Severe Uncertainty
title_full_unstemmed Less is More: Decision Making & Information Sharing Under Severe Uncertainty
title_short Less is More: Decision Making & Information Sharing Under Severe Uncertainty
title_sort less is more decision making information sharing under severe uncertainty
topic uncertain reasoning
multi-agent uncertain reasoning
multi-agent decision making
misinformation
information economics
imprecise probabilities
url https://journals.flvc.org/FLAIRS/article/view/130872
work_keys_str_mv AT genelam lessismoredecisionmakinginformationsharingundersevereuncertainty
AT arthurpaulpedersen lessismoredecisionmakinginformationsharingundersevereuncertainty