Examining inverse generative social science to study targets of interest

TL;DR

This paper evaluates Inverse Generative Social Science (IGSS), a simulation method using natural selection principles, highlighting its potential for modeling complex social phenomena and generating interpretable social theories.

Contribution

It introduces IGSS to new researchers, demonstrates its application in conflict studies, and provides software tools for conducting IGSS research.

Findings

IGSS can fit complex non-linear models to social targets.

IGSS models can be interpreted as social theories.

Potential for IGSS in organizational studies.

Abstract

We assess an emerging simulation research method -- Inverse Generative Social Science (IGSS) \citep{Epstein23a} -- that harnesses the power of evolution by natural selection to model and explain complex targets. Drawing on a review of recent papers that use IGSS, and by applying it in two different studies of conflict, we here assess its potential both as a modelling approach and as formal theory. We find that IGSS has potential for research in studies of organistions. IGSS offers two huge advantages over most other approaches to modelling. 1) IGSS has the potential to fit complex non-linear models to a target and 2) the models have the potential to be interpreted as social theory. The paper presents IGSS to a new audience, illustrates how it can contribute, and provides software that can be used as a basis of an IGSS study.