# Crowd: A Social Network Simulation Framework

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.10781 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.10781/

## Key facts

- Cited by 2 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 14 Dec 2024.

## Built on by (most cited first, 2 of 2)

- [Negotiating Comfort: Simulating Personality-Driven LLM Agents in Shared Residential Social Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.09657/) (2025)
- [When Cognitive Graphs Meet LLMs: BDEI Cognitive Pathways for Panic Emotional Arousal Prediction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.15121/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

To observe how individual behavior shapes a larger community's actions, agent-based modeling and simulation (ABMS) has been widely adopted by researchers in social sciences, economics, and epidemiology. While simulations can be run on general-purpose ABMS frameworks, these tools are not specifically designed for social networks and, therefore, provide limited features, increasing the effort required for complex simulations. In this paper, we introduce Crowd, a social network simulator that adopts the agent-based modeling methodology to model real-world phenomena within a network environment. Designed to facilitate easy and quick modeling, Crowd supports simulation setup through YAML configuration and enables further customization with user-defined methods. Other features include no-code simulations for diffusion tasks, interactive visualizations, data aggregation, and chart drawing facilities. Designed in Python, Crowd also supports generative agents and connects easily with Python's libraries for data analysis and machine learning. Finally, we include three case studies to illustrate the use of the framework, including generative agents in epidemics, influence maximization, and networked trust games.