Modeling Interaction in Collaborative Groups: Affect Control Within Social Structure

This paper studies the dynamics of identity and status management within groups in collaborative settings. We present an agent-based simulation model for group interaction rooted in social psychological theory. The model integrates affect control theory with networked interaction structures and sequential behavior protocols as they are often encountered in task groups. By expressing status hierarchy through network structure, we build a bridge between expectation states theory and affect control theory, and are able to reproduce central results from the expectation states research program in sociological social psychology. Furthermore, we demonstrate how the model can be applied to analyze specialized task groups or sub-cultural domains by combining it with empirical data sources. As an example, we simulate groups of open-source software developers and analyze how cultural expectations influence the occupancy of high status positions in these groups.