Groups as agents with mental attitudes

We discuss a model of cooperation among autonomous agents, based on the attribution of mental attitudes to groups: these attitudes represent the shared beliefs and objectives and the wish to reduce the costs for the members. When agents take a decision they have to recursively model what their partners are expected to do under the assumption that they are cooperative, and they have to adopt the goals and desires attributed to the group: otherwise, they are considered by the other members uncooperative and thus liable. 1