Using hierarchical bayesian models to learn about reputation

Philip Hendrix, Ya'akov Gal, Avi Pfeffer

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

This paper addresses the problem of learning with whom to interact in situations where obtaining information about others is associated with a cost, and this information is potentially unreliable. It considers settings in which agents need to decide whether to engage in a series of interactions with partners of unknown competencies, and can purchase reports about partners' competencies from others. The paper shows that Hierarchical Bayesian models offer a unified approach for (1) inferring the reliability of information providers, and (2) learning the competencies of individual agents as well as the general population. The performance of this model was tested in experiments of varying complexity, measuring agents' performance as well as error in estimating others' competencies. Results show that agents using the hierarchical model to make decisions outperformed other probabilistic models from the recent literature, even when there was a high ratio of unreliable information providers

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings - 12th IEEE International Conference on Computational Science and Engineering, CSE 2009 - 2009 IEEE International Conference on Social Computing, SocialCom 2009
Pages208-214
Number of pages7
DOIs
StatePublished - 4 Dec 2009
Externally publishedYes
Event2009 IEEE International Conference on Social Computing, SocialCom 2009 - Vancouver, BC, Canada
Duration: 29 Aug 200931 Aug 2009

Publication series

NameProceedings - 12th IEEE International Conference on Computational Science and Engineering, CSE 2009
Volume4

Conference

Conference2009 IEEE International Conference on Social Computing, SocialCom 2009
Country/TerritoryCanada
CityVancouver, BC
Period29/08/0931/08/09

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Computational Theory and Mathematics
  • Computer Science Applications
  • Software

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