Soldiers, Robots And Local Population - Modeling Cross-Cultural Values In A Peacekeeping Scenario

We consider a near-future peacekeeping scenario, where a group of soldiers of various ranks and a robot interact with the local population. The goal is to quantify, analyze and predict the public perception of the soldiers and the robot. Instead of integrative statistical approaches, we develop a model which traces individual interactions. Our model assumes that human beings are considering collections of concrete and intangible values which are not, in general, directly and linearly convertible into each other. We argue that satisfactory modeling accuracy can be achieved by restricting the considered intangibles to a small set of culture sanctioned social values. For these values, the culture provides a name, calculation methods, as well as associated rules of conduct. We validate our model by comparing the predicted values with the judgment of a large group of human observers cognizant of the modeled culture. We use the model to evaluate the tradeoffs between various long term strategies to maintain security as well as to increase the trust and goodwill of the local population