Emotional Consensus in Group Decision Making : A Computer Model Paul Thagard University of Waterloo Department of Philosophy Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1 pthagard@uwaterloo.ca http://cogsci.uwaterloo.ca Abstract: This talk presents a theory and computational model of the role of emotions in group decision making. After reviewing the role of emotions in individual decision making, it describes social and psychological mechanisms by which emotional and other information is transmitted between individuals. The processes by which these mechanisms can contribute to group consensus are modeled computationally using a program, HOTCO 3, which has been used to simulate simple cases of emotion-based group decision making. Bio: Paul Thagard is Professor of Philosophy, with cross appointment to Psychology and Computer Science, and Director of the Cognitive Science Program, at the University of Waterloo. He is a graduate of the Universities of Saskatchewan, Cambridge, Toronto (Ph. D. in philosophy, 1977) and Michigan (M.S. in computer science, 1985). He is the author of Hot Thought: Mechanisms and Applications of Emotional Cognition (MIT Press, August, 2006), Coherence in Thought and Action (MIT Press, 2000), How Scientists Explain Disease (Princeton University Press, 1999), Mind: Introduction to Cognitive Science (MIT Press, 1996; second edition, 2005), Conceptual Revolutions (Princeton University Press, 1992), and Computational Philosophy of Science (MIT Press, 1988); and co-author of Mental Leaps: Analogy in Creative Thought (MIT Press, 1995) and Induction: Processes of Inference, Learning, and Discovery (MIT Press, 1986).  He is also editor of Handbook of Philosophy of Psychology and Cognitive Science (Elsevier, forthcoming). He was Chair of the Governing Board of the Cognitive Science Society, 1998-1999, and President of the Society for Machines and Mentality, 1997-1998. He has held a Canada Council Killam fellowship, and in 1999 was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. In 2003, he received a University of Waterloo Award for Excellence in Research, and in 2005 he was named a University Research Chair.