Opinion formation models on a gradient
Statistical physicists have become interested in models of collective social behavior such as opinion formation, where individuals change their inherently preferred opinion if their friends disagree. Real preferences often depend on regional cultural differences, which we model here as a spatial gra...
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Published in | PloS one Vol. 9; no. 12; p. e114088 |
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Main Authors | , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
United States
Public Library of Science
04.12.2014
Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Statistical physicists have become interested in models of collective social behavior such as opinion formation, where individuals change their inherently preferred opinion if their friends disagree. Real preferences often depend on regional cultural differences, which we model here as a spatial gradient g in the initial opinion. The gradient does not only add reality to the model. It can also reveal that opinion clusters in two dimensions are typically in the standard (i.e., independent) percolation universality class, thus settling a recent controversy about a non-consensus model. However, using analytical and numerical tools, we also present a model where the width of the transition between opinions scales proportional g(-1/4), not proportional g(-4/7) as in independent percolation, and the cluster size distribution is consistent with first-order percolation. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. Conceived and designed the experiments: MTG NM GP MD. Performed the experiments: MTG NM. Analyzed the data: MTG NM GP. Wrote the paper: MTG NM GP MD. |
ISSN: | 1932-6203 1932-6203 |
DOI: | 10.1371/journal.pone.0114088 |