Modelling the role of trust in social relationships

A social trust model is presented for investigating social relationships and social networks in the real world and in social media. The results demonstrate that multilevel social structures, with a few strong relationships, more medium ties, and large numbers of weak ties, emerge in an evolutionary simulation when well-being and alliances are rewarded with high levels of social interaction. 'Favour-the-few' trust strategies were more competitive than others under a wide range of fitness conditions, suggesting that the development of complex, multilevel social structures depends on capacity for high investment in social time and preferential social interaction strategies.