The importance of being systematically surprisable: Comparative social simulation as experimental technique

We argue that computer simulation can serve as a functional equivalent for the experimental method in sociology, with respect to theory development. T o this end Eve present accounts of experimentation and simulation by experi menting/simulating scientists and sociologists of science. From these analy ses we conclude desirable features of a simulation method: generality, surp risability and power to separate. That means that it should be widely appli cable, capable of surprising the researcher, and capable of separating surp rising results that originate from sociological features of the model from those that stem from technical features. We demonstrate three methods that may provide these Features: emergence, fixing points of reference, and comp arative response testing. We develop the latter method in greater depth by discussing an exemplary simulation study.