Influence Models in Group Decision-Making
罗杭 Hang Luo
Springer Nature Switzerland
Synthesis Lectures on Computer Science Series
2025

【内容简介】
This book examines influence among decision-makers in group decision-making. It is quite common that people influence and are influenced by each other in group decision-making. Likewise, artificial intelligences can influence and be influenced by each other in interaction or collaboration, and both a person and an artificial intelligence can be called an agent. The author explores how humans or artificial intelligences can interact with and influence each other during the decision-making process, where such influence can reshape the outcome of the group decision. With an interdisciplinary approach, various applications are considered including: computer science (distributed computing, distributed artificial intelligence, particularly multi-agent system); economics and management (joint-stock company voting); and politics (domestic elections and international organization decision-making). 
The book presents settings of group decision-making where agents’ preferences/choices are influenced (and thus changed) by each other. As the influence of reality faced by an agent usually comes from more than one agent simultaneously, the author provides both cardinal and ordinal approaches, building social influence functions and a matrix influence function, to address multiple sources of influence in group decision-making. To better describe the complex influence in reality, the author provides a framework of the three levels of influence and its mathematical models to address individual, coalitional, and structural influence and their mixed effects in the context of group decision-making. Even though it is not easy to address the influence of structures on an agent as the influencing subject and the influenced object are disparate, the former is the inter-relationships between agents while the latter is the preference/choice of a single agent. Furthermore, the author considers combinatorial and collective decision-making and provides a framework model of influence across multiple agents and issues.
In addition, this book:

• Addresses multiple sources of influence with various strengths and opposite polarities in group decision-making
• Provides both graphical and mathematical expressions of the three levels of influence
• Designs multiple weighted influences, opposite influences, and dominant influence rules

【作者简介】
Hang Luo is a Tenured Associate Professor in the School of International Studies at Peking University. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Universite Paris VI and a Ph.D. in Management from Tsinghua University.

【目录】
1 Introduction
2 Background
  2.1 Social Choice Theory
  2.2 Social Network Theory
  2.3 Social Influence Model
  2.4 Influence Based on CP-Nets
Part I How to Address Multiple Sources of Influence in Group Decision-Making?
3 Social Influence Functions Based on Social Choice
  3.1 Social Influence Function: Nonordering Approach
  3.2 Social Influence Function: Ordering-Based Approach
4 Matrix Influence Function Based on Ordering Matrix
  4.1 Matrix Influence Function: Modeling
  4.2 Matrix Influence Function: Application
Part II Individual, Coalitional and Structural Influence in Group Decision-Making
5 Graphical and Mathematical Expressions of the Three Levels of Influence
  5.1 Level I Influence from Independent Agents
  5.2 Level II Influence from Coalitional Agents
  5.3 Level III Influence from Structured Agents
  5.4 The Relationships Among the Three Levels of Influence
6 How to Address the Interplay of Individual, Coalitional and Structural Influence: A Probability-Based Approach
  6.1 How to Address Individual Influences
  6.2 How to Address Structural Influences
  6.3 How to Address Coalitional Influences
Part III Influence Across Agents and Issues in Combinatorial and Collective Decision-Making
7 Multiple Sources of Influence Across Agents and Issues
  7.1 Stronger and Weaker Influences Across Agents and Issues
  7.2 Positive and Negative Influences Across Agents and Issues
  7.3 Three Rules for Addressing Multiple Influences Across Agents and Issues
8 Multiple Weighted Influences
9 One Dominant Influence
10 Two Opposite Influences
Discussion and Conclusion
Future Work
Afterword
Glossary
Author’s Biography
References