From Blueprint to Reality: Modeling and Applying Putnam's Social Capital Theory with LLM-based Multi-agent Simulations
arXiv:2607.06080v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Putnam's Social Capital Theory is a foundational framework for collective action and community prosperity. However, traditional empirical methods face practical limits on control and replication. Meanwhile, LLM-based social simulations are typically behavior-driven and lack theory-aligned environments for modeling Putnam's core propositions. To address these gaps, we introduce SocaSim, an LLM-based multi-agent simulation framework to study Putnam's Social Capital Theory from theoretical blueprint to simulated reality. Specifically, we build an
The rapid advancement of LLMs is enabling increasingly sophisticated multi-agent simulations, allowing researchers to model complex social theories with greater fidelity than traditional methods.
LLM-based simulations offer a novel, scalable approach to test and refine social capital theories, potentially enhancing our understanding of collective action and community dynamics.
This development moves beyond simple behavioral simulations to theory-aligned environments, providing a new tool for social science research previously limited by empirical constraints.
- · AI researchers
- · Social scientists
- · Computational social science
- · Policy makers
- · Traditional empirical social science methods (relatively)
Greater ability to test and validate social theories in a controlled, replicable environment.
Improved predictive models for community resilience, social cohesion, and the impact of policy interventions.
Potential for designing optimal social structures or interventions based on simulated outcomes, leading to new forms of societal engineering.
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Read at arXiv cs.AI