The Ground Truth Program: Simulations as Test Beds for Social Science Research Methods.
- Sandia National Laboratory (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
Social systems are uniquely complex and difficult to study, but understanding them is vital to solving the world’s problems. The Ground Truth program developed a new way of testing the research methods that attempt to understand and leverage the Human Domain and its associated complexities. The program developed simulations of social systems as virtual world test beds. Not only were these simulations able to produce data on future states of the system under various circumstances and scenarios, but their causal ground truth was also explicitly known. Research teams studied these virtual worlds, facilitating deep validation of causal inference, prediction, and prescription methods. The Ground Truth program model provides a way to test and validate research methods to an extent previously impossible, and to study the intricacies and interactions of different components of research.
- Research Organization:
- Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
- Grant/Contract Number:
- NA0003525
- OSTI ID:
- 1894598
- Report Number(s):
- SAND2022-4400J; 704940
- Journal Information:
- Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, Vol. 29, Issue 1; ISSN 1381-298X
- Publisher:
- SpringerCopyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Explaining and predicting human behavior and social dynamics in simulated virtual worlds: reproducibility, generalizability, and robustness of causal discovery methods
Taxonomy of USA east coast fishing communities in terms of social vulnerability and resilience