Consensus formation times in anisotropic societies

Abstract

We developed a statistical mechanics model to study the emergence of a consensus in societies of adapting, interacting agents constrained by a social rule B. In the mean-field approximation, we find that if the agents' interaction H0 is weak, all agents adapt to the social rule B, with which they form a consensus; however, if the interaction is sufficiently strong, a consensus is built against the established status quo. We observed that, after a transient time αt, agents asymptotically approach complete consensus by following a path whereby they neglect their neighbors' opinions on socially neutral issues (i.e., issues for which the society as a whole has no opinion). αt is found to be finite for most values of the interagent interaction H0 and temperature T, with the exception of the values H0=1, T→, and the region determined by the inequalities β<2 and 2βH0<1+β-1+2β-β2, for which consensus, with respect to B, is never reached.

Publication DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.95.062305
Divisions: College of Engineering & Physical Sciences > Systems analytics research institute (SARI)
Additional Information: © 2017 American Physical Society.
Uncontrolled Keywords: Statistical and Nonlinear Physics,Statistics and Probability,Condensed Matter Physics
Publication ISSN: 1550-2376
Last Modified: 04 Mar 2024 08:21
Date Deposited: 27 Jul 2017 12:30
Full Text Link:
Related URLs: http://www.scop ... tnerID=8YFLogxK (Scopus URL)
PURE Output Type: Article
Published Date: 2017-06-19
Accepted Date: 2017-06-19
Submitted Date: 2016-12-21
Authors: Neirotti, Juan (ORCID Profile 0000-0002-2409-8917)

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