The Recruitment Game: An Agent-Based Simulation

Siavash Farahbakhsh, Mario Paolucci

Abstract: While the studies on terrorism and radicalization are foregoing, the socialization aspect of recruitment for terrorist organizations has stayed under-explored. In this paper, we develop an agent-based model simulating the socialization process of recruitment for terrorist organizations. In conceptualizing the socialization process, we implement an asymmetric game-theoretical model, with the two players of recruiter and target. The players have predominant strategies in which they differ based on their kinds. Our results show that initial ratios of different kinds in the population such as denouncer and vulnerable, in the simulation environment, have significant effects on the population of recruiters.