Role of collective information in networks of quantum operating agents

Abstract

A network of agents is considered whose decision processes are described by the quantum decision theory previously advanced by the authors. Decision making is done by evaluating the utility of alternatives, their attractiveness, and the available information, whose combinations form the probabilities to choose a given alternative. As a result of the interplay between these three contributions, the process of choice between several alternatives is multimodal. The agents interact by exchanging information, which can take two forms: information that an agent can directly receive from another agent and information collectively created by the members of the society. The information field common to all agents tends to smooth out sharp variations in the temporal behaviour of the probabilities and can even remove them. For agents with short-term memory, the probabilities often tend to their limiting values through strong oscillations and, for a range of parameters, these oscillations last for ever, representing an ever lasting hesitation of decision makers. Switching on the information field makes the amplitude of the oscillations smaller and even halt the oscillations forcing the probabilities to converge to fixed limits. The dynamic disjunction effect is described.