Emergence of Social Reality of Emotion through a Social Allostasis Model with Dynamic Interpretants

2026-05-08

AI Summary

This study investigates how the social reality of emotion emerges through collective consensus on interoceptive signals via shared emotional concepts. To this end, we propose the first computational model that integrates dynamic interpretants with social homeostatic mechanisms, combining active inference, semiotic emergence theory, and multi-agent cooperative learning to simulate two agents negotiating symbolic exchanges while jointly regulating bodily control targets and symbol interpretations. Experimental results demonstrate that the agents’ interoceptive prior preferences and symbolic probability distributions successfully converge, thereby validating that socially constructed emotional reality—grounded in consensus—can be computationally modeled and realized. This work offers a formal, computationally tractable theoretical framework for the social construction of emotion.

Abstract

The theory of constructed emotion defines social reality as the community-level consensus on emotion concepts assigned to interoceptive sensations arising from bodily allostasis and social interaction. In this study, we simulate this emergence process using a computational model that integrates symbol emergence with degrees of freedom in symbol interpretation and active inference. Two agents receive interoceptive signals, exchange inferred symbols, and simultaneously adapt their bodily control goals and symbol interpretations to each other. Experimental results show that the interoceptive prior preferences and symbol probability distributions of the two agents converge, confirming the emergence of social reality grounded in social consensus.

Problem

• social reality
• emotion
• interoception
• social consensus
• allostasis

Innovation

• social allostasis
• constructed emotion
• symbol emergence
• active inference
• interoceptive signals