Modeling Aggression and Bullying: A Complex Systems Approach

Almost daily, we read about the devastation and lasting consequences of bullying, and feel a greater impact when we hear of another child taking their life or the lives of others. What makes bullying behaviors so insidious is they cut across people, age, cultures and nations. These behaviors remain difficult to study and direct experimentation remains ethically and morally prohibitive. Therefore, we turn to computational models and simulate the natural complex social systems using the human element. If approached well, these models may yield emergent behaviors providing insight into the interactions around bullying. This paper discusses our complex systems model, and evaluates the viability of modeling bullying. Results of our implementation are described and future opportunities are identified.