Understanding the functions of norms in social groups through simulation

In the Artificial Intelligence (AI) literature a norm is treated as a behavioural constraint; that is, a reduction of the action repertoire and therefore of the actions physically available to the system. According to this view, norms allow co-ordination within social systems, the latter being defined as groups of jointly acting agents (Shoham & Tenneholtz 1992a, b, Moses &Tenneholtz 1992).